Was wiring a King Air panel last month and realized how much I miss the old analog stuff

Three years ago I could trace a short in a steam gauge setup in 20 minutes flat, but last week I spent two hours chasing a ghost signal through a digital autopilot controller because nobody labels busses the same anymore, anyone else feel like the troubleshooting logic got lost when screens took over?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan85118d ago

Honestly, the part about tracing a short in 20 minutes on a steam gauge setup is kinda generous. Those old mechanical gauges had their own problems, like vacuum leaks and sticky needles that'd make you chase your tail just as bad. Tbh, the real issue with digital stuff isn't the screens themselves, it's that nobody follows a standard for labeling data busses or even the pinouts on the back of the controller. I had a situation last month where two different King Airs, same model year, had totally different wiring for the same autopilot computer because one got a field mod that wasn't documented right. So the troubleshooting logic is still there, it's just buried under bad documentation and parts that got swapped around without anyone writing it down.

the_jennifer17d ago

Heard a similar thing about 737s having three different wiring standards for the same year.

camerona7911d ago

@the_jennifer hit it right with that field mod thing. I was working on a 2000 model King Air last fall and found a Garmin G600 install where the previous shop had just taped over the old terminal strip instead of pulling it. Three hours gone because of one undocumented splice. On the same panel, the vacuum gauge was fine, but the digital AHRS kept flagging because nobody labeled the ground bus. Tbh, my rule now is to always bring a label maker and a camera on the first visit. It sounds slow, but it saves chasing ghosts later.