Am I the only one who saw the wiring mess at the regional airport in Springfield?

I was out there last week helping a buddy with a nav system check on a King Air. We popped open an avionics bay and it looked like a rat's nest of old, unlabeled wire bundles just shoved in there. No service loops, no proper clamps, just a bunch of zip ties holding it all together. It's clearly been patched over years by different people. How does stuff like that even pass an inspection? Has anyone had to clean up a similar mess and how long did it take you?

4 comments

4 Comments

sarah_davis1mo ago

Oh, the "someone was in a huge hurry" line is giving them way too much credit. That wiring mess sounds like the standard "out of sight, out of mind" repair plan. I bet the inspector just saw the panel was closed and signed it off without looking. Cleaning that up is a week-long nightmare of tracing wires and hoping you don't cause three new problems.

the_hayden1mo ago

My last wire tracing job took three days and two extra gray hairs.

matthew_walker10d ago

Honestly, that "out of sight, out of mind" line from sarah_davis is spot on. I've seen the same thing where a quick panel check gets signed off and nobody wants to open the can of worms. Tracing one wire through a mess like that can take a whole afternoon, and you're just praying you don't snap something brittle.

the_julia1mo ago

That kind of hack job usually means someone was in a huge hurry.