On 17-Apr-2006, Jonathan Goodish wrote:

The dental pick was about the only thing that I could get up in there to
pull the terminal away from
the airframe, because I really, really didn't want to take the jack out of
the panel.


I know what you mean. Our Arrow has a 4-place intercom system, and the
headphone jacks for all but the pilot went silent a couple of days ago.
Troubleshooting was actually pretty easy -- we could see that the two wires
normally soldered to a lug on the copilot headphone jack had broken off.
One comes from the intercom, the other carries the same audio signal to the
rear seat jacks. Looked like a simple repair, but in the tight confines
behind the panel it was a nightmare to get the wires stripped, twisted
together, and soldered back on.

If I was made czar of airplane panel design, I'd make it in modular sections
that could easily be removed. Wiring between sections would be through
connectors that would allow a "problem" section to be removed and repaired
on a bench.

-Elliott Drucker