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The pilot who questioned my solder joint taught me more than my A&P course
Back in 2019 I was working a line maintenance gig at KSDL, doing a pitot static swap on a Piper Archer. This old crop duster pilot who hung around the hangar wandered over and watched me tin a wire for about 30 seconds. He pointed at my joint and said, 'that's a cold one, you rushed the heat.' I got defensive, said I've done a hundred of these. He just shrugged and said 'then you've done a hundred wrong.' I re-did it with a slower iron and watched the solder flow proper, and sure enough the first one had that dull finish. That moment stuck because he wasn't a tech or an inspector, just a guy who'd seen enough bad splices over 40 years of flying. Ever have a non-avionics person spot something you missed on a harness that made you rethink your whole process?
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