Overheard a lead mechanic say torque wrenches are just 'suggestion tools'

After that guy joked about it at the hangar in Phoenix, I checked 3 bolts on an engine cowling and found two were 15 ft-lbs under spec, so who else has seen lazy torque practices ruin a good inspection?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_hugo7d ago

Pfft, reminds me of a guy who used a pipe for extra leverage and snapped a bolt clean off.

hill.andrew7d ago

Hold on, I gotta push back a little here. A torque wrench is a precision tool, not a suggestion box. If you're finding bolts 15 ft-lbs under, that's not a lazy torque practice problem, that's a broken wrench or a guy who never learned how to use one. I've seen guys who treat them like a guess and then blame the tool, but that's on the person, not the tool itself. Yeah, you can skip it on a drain plug or something, but not on a cowling where a failure could kill somebody. So respectfully, the real issue is training and accountability, not the tool being a joke.

laura_black317d ago

Did you catch that report from the FAA a few years back about a regional carrier that found 40% of their torque checks were off by more than 10%? That's what I keep thinking about with this discussion. It sounds like a training issue at that hangar for sure.