The cargo door warning on a 737-800 that flipped my whole check process

Had a bird strike incident up in Anchorage last spring, nothing major, but the cargo door sensor gave a false warning after we swapped the switch. I always just cycled the power and moved on, but the lead who trained me at UAA showed me to actually wiggle the actuator linkage first. That little trick caught a cracked bracket that would've grounded us later. Anyone else got a weird inspection habit they picked up from a grumpy old-timer?

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ben_lopez2510d ago

Did you ever check the actual wiring harness for chafing after you swapped the switch? That's the thing nobody talks about, the sensor itself is rarely the real problem. I learned that the hard way on a cold morning when the warning came back and the new part was fine, but the bundle had rubbed against a bracket for years. Those little plastic ties can hide a lot of damage if you don't pull the whole harness out and look at it under good light. I now spend an extra twenty minutes tracing wires back from every sensor before I reset anything. It feels slow, but it's saved me from a lot of repeat squawks.