The senior avionics guy who told me to trust my gut on a wire bundle

I was troubleshooting a radio issue on a King Air in a hangar near Wichita about 5 years ago. This older tech, maybe 30 years in the game, walked over and saw me staring at the schematics for 20 minutes. He just said "put the paper down and go touch the wires." I was confused but I actually reached into the bundle and found a chafed wire hidden behind a clamp that wasn't even on the diagram. He didn't give me a lecture, he just nodded and walked off. That moment stuck with me more than any training class I ever took. Has anyone else had a veteran tech give you advice that seemed simple but turned out to be gold?

2 comments

2 Comments

harris.aaron20d ago

And that kind of mentoring just sticks because it's real. Classroom stuff teaches you theory but out in the field you learn the messy details that make or break a repair. That tech knew you needed a confidence push more than another diagram.

uma_mitchell8320d ago

Gotta admit that whole 'confidence push' thing is something textbooks never even mention. They skip over how much of this job is just getting over that fear of messing up and learning to trust your hands.