Can we talk about hitting 10,000 flight hours without a single major avionics failure? Luck or skill?

I just rolled over 10,000 hours on my personal log last month working on everything from old King Airs to newer Garmin panels. For a while I thought I was just careful, but then I got to thinking about near misses. Like last spring, I had a G1000 backup battery that tested fine but I replaced it anyway because the date code was old. Three weeks later the owner sent me a photo of that battery bulging in his hangar. On the other hand, I have a buddy who swears he's made it to 12,000 hours by never touching a part unless it's actually broken. Says preventative swaps just introduce new failure points. Both of us have zero major in-flight failures. So which is it? Are we lucky or doing something right? Have you guys hit a milestone like this and what's your take on the luck versus skill debate?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam_baker3h ago

Ha man, your buddy is basically playing Russian roulette with a toolbox and I respect the chaos. Ngl, preventative maintenance bites you sometimes but that battery photo is the kind of evidence that keeps me swapping parts early. I think both of you are lucky, but you're also stacking the deck by making smart bets. Honestly, if you hit 10k hours with zero failures, you're either blessed by the avionics gods or you've got a hex on your plane that scares the parts into behaving.

robert_ross952h ago

You really think swapping parts early is pure skill and not just good luck?

emma961h ago

Wait doesn't @adam_baker basically prove your point though? He's saying you can stack the odds by being smart about it, which is kind of the definition of skill over just blind luck.