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Hot take: the 3 foot rule for static wicks is overkill and I stopped following it
Had a shop lead in Wichita tell me straight to my face that measuring every static wick at 3 feet minimum was gospel, and I nodded along for two years. Last month I pulled a set off a King Air that measured under spec on four of them and the plane had zero squawks for 800 hours. He said "rules are rules," so I asked him to show me the actual failure data and he couldn't. I get why we have a number to point at during inspection, but treating it like scripture instead of a starting point is how you waste an hour per plane. Anyone else out there running their own tolerance on wicks or am I the only one cheating the tape measure?
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waderamirez20h ago
rules are rules" is exactly what my buddy heard from his lead down in Amarillo when he flagged a wick that looked short. He went ahead and swapped it anyway since it was a 20 minute job, then checked the old one against a straight edge at home and it was maybe a quarter inch under. Plane flew fine for years before that and years after, so yeah the number feels more like a vibe than a limit. Long as the thing is bonded solid and not flopping in the breeze, I don't lose sleep over a tape measure.
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