Wiped out a whole avionics bus because I didn't ground myself properly

Honestly thought I was being careful enough in a dry hangar in Arizona last summer. Touched a pin on a Garmin G1000 harness and saw a tiny spark, then nothing on the display. Learned the hard way that a basic wrist strap isn't optional, ended up spending 3 days tracing shorts and replacing a $1200 LRU. Anyone else have a static shock story that cost real money?

2 comments

2 Comments

robin77720d ago

Gasped reading that. Three days of tracing shorts and a $1200 LRU? That's brutal. I fried a $400 encoder on a Cessna 172 once just by reaching across the panel without grounding. The spark was so tiny I almost didn't see it but the display went blank instantly. Made me feel sick to my stomach honestly. Now I keep a grounding strap on my wrist and another clipped to the bench any time I'm near avionics.

barbararamirez19d ago

Oof, that stings just reading it. Honestly, nothing ruins your week faster than a spark you barely see turning a perfectly good avionics bay into a paperweight. Tbh, I'd rather accidentally step on a rake and hit myself in the face than watch a $1200 LRU go belly up because I was too lazy to snap on a $10 strap. Ngl, it's almost insulting how easy it is to turn expensive glass into a brick with just one tiny zap. At least you got a good story out of it, even if your wallet is still crying.