Vent: walked into a shop in Denver and the crimp connections were a mess

Stopped by a random avionics shop near the airport last month to grab a connector and I swear half their bench work had loose crimps. The guy tried to sell me on some off-brand terminals that were clearly not spec. I saw three ground wires just twisted together with tape like it was a car stereo install. How do these places stay open when they can't even follow basic pin crimp standards? Anyone else run into shops like this or am I just unlucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicew6810d ago

...and that's exactly why I started carrying a pin gauge in my flight bag. A shop near PDX tried to pass off some cheap Molex knockoffs as MIL-spec D-sub pins last year. Checked the crimp height with my gauge and it was way off. You can't go wrong with Daniels tools or even the cheap Chinese crimpers as long as you verify the tension. Most of these places cut corners because the inspectors left during the pandemic. Have you checked if they're even ISA certified or just calling themselves an avionics shop?

the_jason10d ago

Did you happen to see if they had one of those old paper FAA certificates on the wall, or was it just a guy named "Dave" who watched a YouTube video last weekend? I learned my lesson about trusting shop work when I found a crimped connection that pulled apart with less force than a toddler opening a fruit snack pouch. Now I just bring my own terminals and do the crimps at the rental car before I even walk through their door.