A pilot in Tucson asked me to fix his plane's 'loud radio' with a hammer

I was doing a pre-flight check on a Cessna 172 at Tucson Municipal last spring when the owner, a guy named Dave, walked up looking real serious. He pointed at the comm panel and said, 'The squelch on this thing is shot, I need you to give it a good whack right here to settle the static.' I just stared at him for a second before explaining that hitting a $15,000 Garmin unit is not in the manual. Has a client ever asked you to fix avionics with percussive maintenance?

3 comments

3 Comments

michael_green442mo ago

Tell them you'll check the connections before trying anything that could void the warranty.

nancyg142mo ago

Dave's lucky you didn't laugh right in his face. Always check the simple stuff first, like the antenna connection or the headset jack. A loose wire can sound exactly like a bad squelch. If that's all good, you gotta tell them straight it needs a real shop. Hitting it just guarantees you're buying a new radio.

nguyen.angela2mo ago

Wait, he wanted you to hit a Garmin unit? That's not some old tube radio from the 70s. You hit one of those glass screens and you're just making a very expensive problem. I'm surprised he even got the words out without realizing how bad an idea that was.