Chat with a retired A&P at the diner got me thinking about old wiring

I was having coffee at the Skyway Diner in Daytona and got talking to this old guy who used to work on DC-3s. He said, 'Kid, you all trust the new glass too much, but the ghosts are in the old copper.' He meant we forget to really check the original harnesses in these classic airframes getting modern panels. It hit me because I just signed off on an avionics upgrade for a '68 Cessna 182 without a full wire-by-wire check. How often do you guys do a full harness inspection on a retrofit?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy97416d ago

Honestly, that sounds like overkill to me. If the old wiring wasn't giving any trouble before, why go looking for problems now?

phoenixb3416d ago

See it everywhere. People patch new software onto old laptops until the whole thing just quits. Same basic idea.

clark.morgan16d ago

@phoenixb34 nailed it, reminds me of people fixing old cars the same way.