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Pro tip: I spent 3 hours chasing a ghost on a King Air 200 because I never checked the connector pin tension first
About two months ago I was working a squawk on a King Air 200 out at a hangar in Wichita, intermittent altitude hold dropout on the autopilot. I did the whole song and dance, swapped the pitch trim servo, reseated the FCC, checked the static lines, even ran a full pitot static check. Nothing. I finally pulled the connector off the altitude preselect panel and saw that three of the pins had spread open just enough to lose contact when the fuselage flexed in flight. That was it. Three hours of my life gone because I went straight to the expensive parts instead of starting with the cheapest check. My lead came over and just said 'pins first, parts last' and walked off. I've been doing this for 8 years and nobody ever drilled that into me. Now I keep a pin tension gauge in my chest pocket and it's saved me at least twice since. Curious if anyone else has a go-to first check they do before touching any LRU.
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ray_webb69d ago
Pins first is just basic troubleshooting, not rocket science.
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