Traced a intermittent comm failure in a Cessna 172 for 6 hours before finding a loose ground strap buried behind the panel

I spent 4 hours chasing it with a multimeter and DMM across every connector, then 2 more just staring at the wiring diagram before I literally bumped the strap with my elbow and the radio flickered back on, so has anybody else ever spent a full day hunting a gremlin that ended up being something stupid simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda_murphy28d ago

Funny how that works. The most frustrating stuff is usually the simplest thing hiding in plain sight, like when I spent an hour looking for my phone while holding it in my hand one time. It's almost like our brains refuse to believe the answer could be that easy, so we dig deeper and miss the obvious every single time.

patp7928d ago

Oh man, that strap behind the panel is always the worst. Pro tip for next time: grab a cheapo Amazon borescope camera. Saved my butt on a similar gremlin in a 182 where the ground was tucked behind the avionics stack. Costs like 30 bucks and beats disassembling the whole panel blind.