Warning: The new avionics bay layout at the Phoenix MRO felt like a step back

I was out at the big maintenance facility in Phoenix last month for a job. They had just redone the work area for a common regional jet's avionics rack. The new setup puts the main computer and the radio management unit on opposite sides of the bay, about eight feet apart. Everyone seems to love the 'clean look', but it adds a ton of extra wire runs for simple signal checks. It took me an extra 45 minutes just to trace a single ARINC 429 line that used to be right next to each other. Has anyone else had to work on a plane with this layout and found it slows things down?

3 comments

3 Comments

evan_campbell1mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, that "clean look" thing gets me. Read a piece in one of the trade mags about how some new hangar designs are all about making things pretty for tours, not easy for the techs. They showed a wiring diagram where the main power bus and the common test points were on opposite walls, just like you said. Makes a simple continuity check into a whole production.

knight.mason1mo ago

Totally feel that. I had a bay where they put the data port like ten feet from the workbench. I mean, you just need to plug a laptop in, right? Ended up buying a stupid long ethernet cable and just leaving it coiled on a hook. Not pretty, but now it takes two seconds. Sometimes you just have to work around the "good idea" people had.

hart.cora1mo ago

Remember the new parts room they built last year? All the bins are labeled, but the labels face the wall you can't walk behind. So you have to guess or pull every single bin out to read it. Pure form over function.