Had a senior mechanic tell me my wire routing looked like spaghetti

He said I was chasing neatness instead of thinking about vibration and chafing, so I completely re-did a harness on a Cessna 172 after he showed me a melted wire from someone else's sloppy install. Has anyone else had a piece of feedback that totally changed how you approach a job?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaeld481mo ago

Hold your ground, neatness stops chafing if you use proper loom and clamps everywhere.

jade5171mo ago

Yeah the "neatness stops chafing" part really hit me. I used to think as long as everything was tied down it was fine, but seeing it all loomed and clamped properly makes a huge difference. Definitely changed how I look at my own setup now.

jason_lewis31mo ago

Had a buddy who used to be an A&P on helicopters down in Texas. He told me about this one time he routed a harness on a Bell 206 and thought it was cleaner than anything he'd ever done. Senior guy walks by and just says "gonna be a fire waiting to happen" and walked off. My buddy was pissed at first but then the senior guy came back and showed him how a couple lines were sitting right against a hot oil line. He hadn't even thought about vibration because it looked so tidy. Redid the whole thing with proper standoffs and split loom and later found out that exact spot was a known problem area that had caused two in-flight fires on that model. Changed how he looks at every bundle now.