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Watched a guy torque a wing bolt at Oshkosh without a spec sheet and it bugged me for 3 days
Was at AirVenture in Oshkosh two summers back, hanging around a homebuilt on the south end. Guy next to me was buttoning up his wing attach bolts and just went by feel, no torque wrench, no AC 43.13 open anywhere. I said something casual and he shrugged it off, said he had been doing it 30 years. Now I keep a laminated torque card in my box for every common size, even the stuff I know cold. Anyone else pick up a habit from watching somebody else cut a corner?
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the_leo19d ago
Did you ever watch someone do something sketchy and then it sticks in your head forever? My buddy flew gliders for years and swore he could eyeball control cable tension by plucking them like guitar strings. One day his mechanic caught him doing it on a restored Schweizer and just handed him a tensiometer without a word. He said the look on the guy's face was worse than any lecture. After that he bought his own gauge and checks it every annual, even though he still claims his ear is "calibrated." The scary part is these guys aren't lazy, they just got lucky enough times that luck turned into confidence. I've got my own version of your torque card, a checklist taped inside my hangar door for stuff I've done a hundred times. It only takes one guy having a bad day to ruin a good airplane.
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