Shoutout to the guy at DFW who saved my panel wire

Was rewiring a Garmin G3X at Love Field last month. Snapped a pin on the D-sub connector and figured I was toast. The FBO avionics guy just handed me his personal pin extractor kit and walked away. Anyone else ever get saved by a random tech in a random hangar?

2 comments

2 Comments

milessmith9d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, did he just hand it over and walk off without even saying anything? That's the kind of guy who probably keeps a spare latch on his toolbox just in case... I had something similar happen at a small strip in Oklahoma when my starter solenoid fried. Some old timer in a stained polo shirt came out of nowhere, pulled a spare off his shelf, and said "try this one, keep the change". I still think about that guy every time I fire up the engine. The avionics guys are a different breed though... they'll give you their last pin extractor but won't tell you the secret handshake to get into their club.

diana_black9d ago

Is it just me or did that kind of thing used to make me suspicious? Honest to god, I'd be side-eyeing the part thinking it was stolen or something. But after a couple of those random acts of hangar kindness, you realize some folks just live to keep aircraft flying and don't need a thank you.