Serious question, has anyone used a grease pencil on stator vanes to catch cracks during borescope?

Parker Brown · 2026-10-08T05:35:03.762963+00:00

I was doing a borescope on a CFM56 last month and kept missing a hairline crack on the HPT vanes because of glare from the light. An old timer in the hangar at DFW told me to wipe the vane with a grease pencil first, and the wax fills the crack so it shows up dark against the light surface. Took me about 10 minutes extra per inspection but I caught two cracks the next week that I would have walked right past before. Curious if anyone else does this or if there's a better way to cut the glare without pulling the borescope out every five minutes.

💡Thought Shares

Loading…

Serious question, has anyone used a grease pencil on stator vanes to catch cracks during borescope? | Aircraft Mechanics - Thought Shares