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That time a simple coax connector nearly grounded a Citation in Boise
We were doing a quick turnaround on a Citation XLS in Boise, just swapping a nav radio. Simple job, right? I torqued the new unit in, hooked up the antenna feed line, and did a quick power-on test. Everything lit up fine. But when we ran the full systems check, the VOR was dead. No signal at all. I spent an hour tracing cables, checking the new radio, thinking I got a bad unit. My lead came over, looked at the BNC connector I'd just put on the new cable run, and just shook his head. 'You see that?' he said. The center pin was maybe a millimeter too short. It looked seated, felt tight, but it wasn't making contact. A $2 part because I rushed the crimp. We had to pull the headliner again to run a whole new cable, pushing us two hours over. It's the tiny, dumb stuff that gets you. How do you guys test your antenna connections on the bench before you install? I'm thinking of building a simple continuity rig.
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murray.robert7d ago
Ever notice how the smallest part always fails hardest?
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samrodriguez7d ago
Had a King Air in Tulsa where a slightly bent BNC pin gave us the same headache for three hours... it's always that millimeter that costs you the whole afternoon.
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