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An old timer in Tucson showed me his trick for tracing a bad coax line
I was helping him on a King Air panel upgrade, and we had a ghost signal in the comms. He didn't reach for the fancy tester. He just took a small flashlight, held it to one end of the cable in the dark avionics bay, and had me look at the other. 'If you see the light, the core's good,' he said. It was a simple check that saved us an hour. Anyone have other old school tricks like that?
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angela_grant6mo ago
That cigarette smoke trick @fox.matthew mentioned is brilliant for finding a draft in a house, too. A lit incense stick works the same way, just watch where the thin stream of smoke gets pulled. It's way faster than trying to feel for a breeze with your hand. Reminds me of using soapy water in a spray bottle to find a slow tire leak, watching for the bubbles to pop up.
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fox.matthew6mo ago
Ever think you need all the gear to do a job right? I used to be that guy, always reaching for the meter first. But watching an old mechanic find a vacuum leak with a piece of cigarette smoke (just holding it near the lines and seeing where it got sucked in) totally changed my mind. Sometimes the simplest way is just the fastest way to see what's really going on.
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