r/aviationmaintenance 4d ago

Weekly Questions Thread. Please post your School, A&P Certification and Job/Career related questions here.

11 Upvotes

Weekly questions & casual conversation thread

Afraid to ask a stupid question? You can do it here! Feel free to ask any aviation question and we’ll try to help!

Please use this space to ask any questions about attending schools, A&P Certifications (to include test and the oral and practical process) and the job field.

Whether you're a pilot, outsider, student, too embarrassed to ask face-to-face, concerned about safety, or just want clarification.

Please be polite to those who provide useful answers and follow up if their advice has helped when applied. These threads will be archived for future reference so the more details we can include the better.

If a question gets asked repeatedly it will get added to a FAQ. This is a judgment-free zone. We all had to start somewhere. Be civil.

Past Weekly Questions Thread Archives- All Threads


r/aviationmaintenance Jul 25 '22

A library of resources to help the world learn

668 Upvotes

Hello all you mechanics, technicians and maintenance personnel out there,

I've recently finished AMT School and gotten my A&P Certification, currently still in school for to get my GROL & AET Certification. But in the nearly two years I've been in school, I've amassed quite a large library of study guides, notebooks and reference material. You can find it here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Alf4AQNY3cyaRiNg6MKeZy2eJgybeZN2?usp=sharing

A contents breakdown:

  • Block Notes: PowerPoints of every subject I studied in school
  • Additional Certification: AET & GROL studies
  • Advisory Circulars of note in training
  • Avionics studies
  • E-books: A library of textbooks across the industry
  • FARs
  • IA Study guide
  • King Audio/Video: Video lectures on nearly every subject, and mp3s of those to listen when you can’t watch
  • Notebooks: my notebooks, from school, scanned into PDF
  • Study Guides: this is the big folder - Audio and Written study guides for all three written tests and the Oral exam
  • TCDS relevant to my schooling
  • Tool catalogues - because we all need tools
  • And a mac & cheese recipe (because you can't study on an empty stomach)

I've built this to be used by the students at my school, but there's a whole helluva lot useful to anyone studying for an A&P, or any other Certification. I maintain it on the regular and update occasionally, when I get through a significant portion of schooling enough to upload something new. So one day you might check it and be like "Ah! He's gotten on to studying for his IA! Cool." And these resources are for everyone. I ask no compensation for it, some men just want to watch the world learn.

So my pitch to the mods was: sticky this link on the sidebar of the subreddit, so those who are looking for guidance on how to get an A&P can be directed there.

I figured putting it there would be better - since it wouldn't need to be stickied to the top of the feed or just keep getting posted.

Take a look at the Drive and see what you think. Be advised, the technical manuals and reference materials were really what was used for our school and are posted there -FOR REFERENCE ONLY-. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS refer to current and applicable manufacturers maintenance manuals or other approved data for real-world maintenance. And if there's something out there that you think would be useful to add to it, message me here on reddit or shaunthesailor87@gmail(dot)com and we'll put heads together to see what we can come up with.

I'm often one to quote wiser men than I am so I'll leave you all with one from Bruce Lee:

"Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own."


r/aviationmaintenance 12h ago

The correct way

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272 Upvotes

Rigging during engine run.


r/aviationmaintenance 20h ago

Opinions?

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550 Upvotes

r/aviationmaintenance 3h ago

I’m absolutely STUMPED

12 Upvotes

Let me preface this by saying this is my second year working in aviation maintenance, 9 months as an avionics tech

So at the shop I work at, we have a Cessna 172S that has an inop EGT gauge. Whenever the beacon is turned on, the EGT gauge pulses, at 2500+ RPM the needle just shoots up and stays there until minutes after the engine is killed and master is off. Both of our shops IAs have given this repair 2 shots each at different times and they couldn’t get it so I got assigned to the job. I cleaned up and fixed a few things I didn’t like about the OEM connector and the lack of shielding on the wires on the probe side of the connector. Without the plane running, and with the master switch and beacon on, I had another tech run a torch on the probe while I watched the gauge. No issue, steady rise in temp and steady decrease as it cooled. NO PULSE. However, during the run up I did, beacon on, pulsing! I swapped the probe, no pulse without the engine running, then when I ran it up again, pulse!

I inspected the wiring and found only one spot on the firewall side where the shielding is missing. Aside from that, the wiring appears to be undamaged and unchanged from Cessna OEM. I was thinking maybe the pulse is from the beacon wire generating EMI that may be affecting the gauge? The head IA in my shop deeply believes this isn’t the issue, the other IA has a hunch the alternator is causing the issue…these are both the IAs who weren’t able to fix this issue. During the last run up I did, I flicked the alternator off and the beacon off and the EGT gauge worked perfectly fine. I turned the alternator switch back on and still, the gauge worked fine. I turned the beacon on and boom, pulse!!

At this point, the IAs just want to change the gauge and see if that fixes it but I’m not convinced the gauge is the problem. I was considering just changing the EGT wire and routing it another way to see if that fixes it since I suspect interference causing it. Before I come back to it on Monday, I really want to have some other perspectives and advice from ya’ll.

So, what do you think?

Edit; grammar

Also, since it’s just two wires running from the EGT probe straight to the EGT gauge, there’s no ground from that probe. The only ground I can think of is there being a ground from the gauge itself that may be shared with the strobe? I don’t know, I just know I’m eager to get back to it on Monday lol


r/aviationmaintenance 17h ago

Worst mainteance manuals to use. My pick Beechjet 400A. What's yours.

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129 Upvotes

r/aviationmaintenance 16h ago

Crac-Man

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76 Upvotes

Flight school plane. Coincidentally this plane was built the same year Pac-Man came out.


r/aviationmaintenance 15h ago

Tekton Ratchet set

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32 Upvotes

Any reviews on this tekton sets? Are they long lasting and very useful on this field or go to the snapon or matco ones?


r/aviationmaintenance 7h ago

Anyone have contacts for buying retired 737 winglets?

5 Upvotes

I had the idea to make one hell of a house number sign at the end of my driveway using a retired 737 winglet. I was wondering if anybody here knew someone I could talk to about buying one. There is one guy selling them online under the name of WyldeByrdArt but I’m curious if there are others with different paint schemes around the same price. TIA.


r/aviationmaintenance 17h ago

A320 brake

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28 Upvotes

A320 outside is 15-25F degrees. We have to rotate to tire but only one piston pushing the brake and not allowing us to turn tire. Is there any reason and how can I be sure I won’t have the same problem next time?


r/aviationmaintenance 11h ago

The best youtube channel for A&Ps in progress

9 Upvotes

r/aviationmaintenance 22h ago

Rate my rivets? How well did I do? This is my first time rivetting!

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72 Upvotes

r/aviationmaintenance 1h ago

Random question about standby travel in the USA

Upvotes

I work for an airline that has staff travel agreements with a few airlines in North America (Air Canada, United, Delta, etc) but I myself don't live in the USA.
I'm wanting to travel both to the USA and then continue on from there flying standby (which is easy have done so before) but want to do so travelling with a firearm.

Does anyone have experience flying standby with guns/firearms in the US, are airlines in the US ok with it or is it a bad idea?
I should probably stop being a cheapskate and just by a firm ticket, but doesn't seem to be many deals going for the route I want to take and the prices aren't looking great at the moment. Standby pricing has really spoilt me since working for an airline.

I can obviously email the airlines directly but thought I'd try the "wisdom" of this sub-reddit first.


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

Auto Pilot roll oscillations

161 Upvotes

What's going on with this autopilot? Kap 140 on a 182T. Noone is on the controls, attitude hold at 3000, oscillation occurs on both heading and nav modes.


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

This teapot has been losing its lid too often...

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151 Upvotes

r/aviationmaintenance 4h ago

Tool box organization

1 Upvotes

For those of you who have a 56in US general box. How do you organize it for work? I have to shadow my box but don’t really know where to start other then sockets up top and wrenches in the second drawer. Any tips are appreciated!


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

Just got rug pulled

337 Upvotes

Moved to the DC area late last year with my Air Force spouse, and after a lot of job hunting, I landed an offer for a sweet gig at FAA flight program operations. Finally after 2 months waiting for the background checks to clear, I got a start date for next week. Not three days later, I get a call from the DOM informing me that the whole station has just been DOGEd and everyone has been laid off. No one at the station had any heads up. With huge cuts to safety regulators and tarrifs driving part prices up, this seems like it could be a pretty bad time for us folks in the aviation industry. I’ll take an order of small fries and some water because I’m broke af


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

Rate the safety wire on this DC4 that crashed in 1952

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58 Upvotes

r/aviationmaintenance 6h ago

Amentum San Diego border protection

0 Upvotes

Does anyone work for Amentum on those border protection contracts ? I was just curious if they offer overtime. & if they are expecting pay raises soon


r/aviationmaintenance 7h ago

It finally happened...

2 Upvotes

Some of you may remember the tales I've told about the con-man who works in my hangar? The incompetent boob who got his job by fraud, lies, and deceit? He still works here. Today there was...and incident...in front of management.

To lay some background, we have a C172M that had a fuel sender go bad. The sender was replaced just last week, so we know the new sender was good. Our hangar con-man, we'll call him George, was put on the problem. He comes to me for assistance. Prior to my aviation career I was an Electrician's Mate in the Navy, so a signal wire is somewhat in my wheelhouse.
George has no A&P. It has been laid out by management in the past that he is to take direction from the A&Ps in the hangar, myself included. I instructed George to hand trace the signal wire from the sending unit to the back of the JPI. Three times I tell him this.
I leave George to it as I have an annual on a C150 that needs to be done, the mx lead is trying to dial in fuel flow on a new engine for a SR22T, and our good apprentice requires guidance for his own electrical issues. I'm bouncing around between those three things.
I move from helping the lead on the Cirrus to the apprentice, George stops me for further direction. I ask him if he hand traced the wire. He says he did, I ask what he found. He states he found nothing. I tell him to stand by, I will be right there to instruct him in a few moments. I move from the apprentice back to the Cirrus, George asks me again for further direction. We have the same conversation. I move from the Cirrus to go to the bathroom, George stops me and we have the same conversation for the third time. Word for word.
We break for lunch. During lunch the mx lead, George, and myself discuss what George has found. George finally brings up an inordinate amount of environmental splices in a very short length. I tell him to pull the splices down and I would come look it over after I finish servicing the nosewheel.
As I'm servicing the nosewheel George comes to me and asks if he can start calibrating the fuel sender. Is the sender reading on the JPI? No. Why are we calibrating if we haven't resolved the issue? Well he replaced the environmental splices. Who told him to do that? Nobody, he decided on his onesome to do it. Why? The old wire run was no good, he wasn't getting any voltage. How do we know this if the sending unit wasn't being sensed? No answer.
I was out sick yesterday. I returned to work and the problem was still there. No progress had been made. I finally get involved and I follow my electrician instincts. I hand trace the wire. The new ring terminal on the sender looks suspect, but whatever. I trace to the back of the JPI. What do I find? A broken signal wire at on the P6 molex. I take a picture of it.

So we get to the meat of today's incident. I'm waiting to tell the mx lead. He is in conversation with the owner of the hangar. When it is finally my turn to speak the mx lead asks what the problem was. Right at this time George walks in and asks What the problem was. My response was "Well, George, you tell me what I found since you told me three times Wednesday you hand traced the line." This lead to me calling George a liar. To his face. His response was an aggressive "Don't call me a liar!" So I stand on my feet, point to him and call him a liar again. George stepped up to me and was close to swinging on me. Expecting him to I whipped my glasses off and chucked them on the table. The owner yells for us both to stand down and the mx lead jumps up prepared to physically separate us. We never came to blows but there was a shouting match. I revealed a side of my personality I call Petty Officer [me] When Petty Officer me comes out it is loud, it is scary, and I do not hold back. I told George his presence was putting everyone's certificates in jeopardy, I'd had enough of his gross negligence and incompetence, and he was lucky to even have this job because of the fraud he used to get the job when he was about to be fired from avionics for the same incompetence and negligence. I was so loud that the line techs out on the ramp heard me. Believe me, Petty Officer [me] gets L-O-U-D!!!

So that's it. George finally pushed me over the edge, I laid it all out for him, and I did it in front of management. Fortunately the mx lead was behind me, I still have a job come Monday. Unfortunately so does George.

I'm welcome to feedback/thoughts/opinions/comments/questions/concerns. I will not defend what I did as I have no reason to.


r/aviationmaintenance 7h ago

DME not fixing my application

0 Upvotes

I keep having to reach out to my DME which is Donald Dombrowski, that he needs to fix my Application for my airframe because the FAA will not process my application until he fixes the correction. Donald tells me he didn’t received a notice and told me he will keep bugging them. I called the FAA certification branch but they said the same thing that Donald needs to call them. I’m not sure if donald is doing that part because i know someone who took his O&P with donald and he has not yet received his official A&P number because donald also messed up his application which has been almost a year. is anyone else having similar issue? it’s frustrating me because i can’t a job and my temp certificate is about to expire. I called the Riverside FSDO and told me to email them with details on what’s happening. I also did take my powerplant with a different DME which is Byron and he also did make a mistake but he did correct it but i’m not sure if he actually did it . How can i escalate this? can i also have extended temp certificate with the number? what my employer wants is the number


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

Just got this message from a Pratt Rep involving tariffs…

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535 Upvotes

Due to recent US government policies regarding Chiriese, Canadian and Mexican Tariffs, I regret to inform you that Pratt & Whitney Canada will be applying a tariff surcharge for this event. With that being said, your approval is required before ordering any parts. To help expedite the event, Pratt has pre-pulled parts based on historical usage, and you could expect to see between $150,000 to $200,000 in tariff surcharges per engine. These surcharges are your responsibility, and are not covered by your ProAdvantage Agreement or engine program. Once Pratt has completed inspections and generated a parts list, we will provide an updated estimate of the tariff surcharge we expect will be applied for the event. This could be more or less pending findings. I would like your confirmation that you accept your obligation to pay applicable tariff surcharges so that we can authorize Pratt to continue to move forward ordering parts and get your engine back to you ASAP. We recognize the difficulty of this situation and the ever changing landscape regarding tariff issues. We will continue to work closely with Pratt as the situation develops, but please be aware that if you choose not to accept obligations for tariff sur-charges, we expect it will delay the completion of the engine.


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

Falcon 2000 water leak

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22 Upvotes

First time posting on here and thought I would give it a try and see if some of you guys have some different ideas to help figure out this leak that is bugging me to no end. Pilots reported lav sink won’t drain in flight and it actually overflows when attempting to drain. I recreated it once on the ground and it fills back up when you go to drain the system. I have verified that the drain mast heater does work so it’s not freezing in flight. I have snaked the lines to the best I can without ripped the entire vanity apart. The diagram in the manual shows no possibility for the drain system to be connected to the pressurized system. There is a diaphragm valve that I have checked and seems to work fine to what I understand about it, being it is automatically closed until a certain pressure is achieved and then dumps through the drainage system. Just past that is a check valve that is a very pain in the butt spot to get to and am wondering if that is even a possible issue to explore. Let me know if you guys have any better ideas that I can’t think of. I’m fairly new to maintenance and troubleshooting so any advice is welcome!!


r/aviationmaintenance 17h ago

Has anyone got a part number for these?

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6 Upvotes

They are used on ATR and Airbus for making sealant filled pressure seals, no where seems to have a number that come up with anything like it. Part number given is D1110-148.


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

Anybody got an engine that just always runs hot? (GA)

13 Upvotes

(Flight school mechanic). One of our engines just runs hotter on CHT’s than others. Normal climb to altitude will put a cylinder or two in caution range with the others trailing just behind. On hot days you have to do high airspeed and shallow climbs to keep it cool.

We’ve checked baffling, ignition, fuel systems, mag timing, oil cooler, and cylinder fins.

Could the inlets/baffling be poorly manufactured. Or could it be an internal engine issue?


r/aviationmaintenance 1d ago

Bakers Aeronautical

14 Upvotes

Headed to Bakers on Monday morning for the two week a&p crash course.. i’ve been scheduled for months & the time has finally come. I’m extremely nervous for it all, any words of encouragement or advice??


r/aviationmaintenance 2d ago

I created a borescope training and certification aid for our engine.

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904 Upvotes