Pro tip: a 737's old hydraulic line taught me to trust the manual, not the shortcut

We had a plane at our Denver hangar with a slow leak on a line that had been 'fixed' with a quick-seal patch about 18 months ago. The patch finally failed completely last Tuesday, and the full replacement the manual called for took three hours. It made me realize how many times we skip the full procedure to save an hour, only to lose a whole day later. Anyone else have a story where the book procedure actually saved you more time in the end?

2 comments

2 Comments

palmer.laura2mo ago

Oh man, that's so true. We had a similar thing with a worn bushing on a cargo door track. The 'temporary' fix with a shim lasted a few weeks before it jammed. Following the manual for the full bushing replacement took half a day, but we wasted two full days before that messing with the quick fix.

emery182mo ago

Yeah @palmer.laura, that's the whole lesson right there. The quick fix always seems faster until it isn't. You end up doing the real job twice, once the wrong way and once the right way. It just eats up more time and money. I've learned the hard way to just do the full repair from the start.