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Hot take: a retired AP told me to torque by feel on a Cessna cowl and I almost bought it
Last month I was doing a cowl reinstall on a 172 in Bend and a retired A&P I know from the field said the torque wrench was overkill on those fasteners and to just snug them by feel. I did it his way on four screws and two of them backed out on the runup, which I caught on the second check. Pulled the whole thing apart, cleaned the camlocs, and ran them back at 20 inch pounds per the manual and they held fine. His 30 years of experience didn't beat the spec sheet that day. I'm not saying experience is worthless, but loose is loose. What's the worst shortcut someone handed you that you actually trusted?
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finley_gonzalez4928d ago
So two screws backed out and you caught it on a second check, meaning nothing actually happened except you had to redo some work. Is that really the horror story worth swearing off field advice forever? I get that loose is loose, but camlocs on a cowl are about the least scary fasteners on the whole plane, and a guy with 30 years probably has a decent feel for them. The real lesson here seems like it should be "always do a second check," which you did, not "never trust the old guy." Seems like you got a cheap lesson out of it, not a near death experience.
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