Spent 3 hours troubleshooting a faulty ground on a Garmin G5 install that ended up being a bad crimp I made myself

Had a heading drift that would only show up after 20 minutes in the air, and it took two test flights and a whole afternoon of chasing shielding before I found the pin was barely hanging on in the D-sub connector, anyone else ever chase a ghost like that for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

adamthompson5d ago

Three hours on a ground issue? I've seen guys spend a whole weekend chasing a similar problem on an old King radio and it turned out to be a wire that looked fine but was broken inside the insulation. I guess it depends on how much your time is worth and if the plane is grounded waiting on it. But honestly, a bad crimp is a pretty common rookie mistake in my book, and three hours sounds like a learning experience more than a real tragedy. I've pulled a hair out over a short that only showed up with vibration, so I get the frustration, but sometimes we make these things bigger than they are.

torres.grant5d ago

Oh come on, do we really need to make excuses for three hours on a simple ground fault? I mean, a bad crimp is about as basic as it gets, it's the first thing you should check on any electrical issue. I've seen guys miss a ground problem for days because they start pulling apart avionics and chasing ghosts instead of just checking the simple stuff first. You say it's a learning experience, but in my book that's three hours of billable time that could've been spent on something useful, especially if the plane is sitting on the ramp costing the owner money. Rookie mistakes don't get a pass just because you've been doing this a while, they just mean you should know better.