Apprentice asked why we torque bolts twice, then argued the spec

He watched me torque a wheel hub to 65 ft-lbs, then run it again to 95, and said I was wasting time because the first pass 'already got it.' I showed him the maintenance manual and he still tried to tell me the bolt was fine, right there on the hangar floor in Denver. Has anyone else dealt with a new guy who thinks he knows better than the book on your first week?

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blair_taylor3227d ago

Ask him straight up if he's ever seen a bolt stretch fail mid-flight, because that's what you're preventing. Torque-to-yield stuff is real, not a suggestion, and the manual exists because someone already figured this out the hard way. Did he actually read the section on fastener elongation, or did he just skim the torque chart and decide it was a typo? I'd make him explain the difference between a first pass seating the joint and a second pass actually clamping it, because that's the whole point. He can argue all he wants, but the book wins every time when it's your license on the line.