Twenty year veteran showed me a trick last week I'd never seen

I've been turning wrenches on planes for almost 12 years now. Last Tuesday we had a 737 in the hangar with a stubborn flap track issue. Old guy named Ray, been at it since the 80s, walked over and used a feeler gauge to check something I would have just thrown a new actuator at. He had the problem isolated in under ten minutes. Made me think about how much we lean on swapping parts instead of actually diagnosing stuff. The newer guys in the shop don't even carry feeler gauges anymore. Has anyone else noticed the old school diagnostic skills fading out?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_young19d ago

Makes me think about how we fix things around the house too. My neighbor's kid will just replace a whole dishwasher because the pump is making noise, but my old grandpa could have that thing open and running again with a paperclip and some grease. We've traded the art of listening to a machine for the convenience of swapping out a module. Kinda makes you wonder what other basic skills we're losing just because we've got the money to throw parts at everything.

jake_martin1618d ago

Kinda makes you wonder" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I get the sentiment but let's be real, most of those old dishwashers were built way simpler with fewer parts that could actually break. My grandpa could probably fix a 1970s Maytag with a coat hanger too, but try that on a modern machine packed with circuit boards and sensors. Plus, finding the right pump and waiting for it to ship costs almost as much as a new unit these days. I'm not convinced we're losing some sacred skill, I think appliances just aren't made to be fixed anymore.