Rant: The time I fixed a stubborn autopilot trim runaway with a zip tie and a prayer

We had a King Air 200 in the shop last week with an intermittent pitch trim runaway that would only happen after about 30 minutes of flight, and the usual checks came up clean. Out of pure frustration, I put a small zip tie around the suspect servo motor's connector to add a little extra seating pressure, just to see, and the problem vanished for the test flight. Has anyone else ever had a weird 'mechanical' fix work on an avionics gremlin like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

daniel_gonzalez1mo ago

That reminds me of a buddy who had a flickering landing light on his old Cessna. He chased wiring diagrams for weeks, then finally just smacked the housing with his palm out of pure anger. Light came on solid and never flickered again. Sometimes the fix is just... physical, I guess.

river9521mo ago

Remember the old TV we had growing up? You had to hit the side just right to get the color to stop being green. My dad called it "technical percussion." I guess I'm still using that method on the card reader at work when it acts up.

phoenix_bailey1mo ago

Yeah, the "fix is just... physical" thing is so real. I read a story once where a guy fixed a radio static issue just by wiggling a wire bundle behind the panel.