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Warning: a dry solder joint on a pitot heat wire almost cost me a sign off in Wichita
Everyone in this trade loves to brag about finding the big obvious fault, but the one that humbled me was a strand of wire I could barely see. Two winters back I was doing a pitot heat check on a King Air at a shop in Wichita, and the ammeter sat right where it should, so I signed it off and moved on. The owner called four days later saying the left pitot iced up on climbout and he diverted. I pulled the connector apart and one strand of the element wire was broken inside the crimp, still passing enough current to look fine on a meter but failing under load in cold air. My lead told me flat out, if you can tug it, it is not a connection, it is a guess. Since then I do a pull test on every termination I touch, even the ones that ohm out clean, and I write the reading on the work card so the next guy sees the number. It adds maybe ten minutes a job, and I have caught two more bad crimps since. Curious if any of you do a load test instead of a tug, and what you use to catch these before the plane leaves the ramp?
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nancyw9710d ago
Man, that strand almost biting you is rough.
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