Overheard a guy at the parts counter say soldering is a dying art in avionics

Was picking up some connectors at the supply shop near DFW airport last Tuesday. This older tech, probably late 50s, was telling the counter guy how more and more shops are just swapping boards instead of fixing them at the component level. Said he's seen new guys who can't even tin a wire properly. Got me thinking - is that really where we're heading? I do a mix of both, but I feel like knowing how to solder well has saved my butt on AOG calls more than once. Anyone else seeing this shift in your shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

sageallen2d ago

Man my buddy works at a little repair shop in Kansas and he told me last month they got a used GPS navigator in from some corporate jet. The previous shop had tried to fix a bad power regulator but they left the iron on the board way too long and actually lifted half the pads off the PCB. My friend had to run jumper wires to like six different vias just to get it working again. That kind of sloppy work is exactly why some places are scared to let anyone touch a board.

kai_brown232d ago

Board swapping is way faster and more reliable in a lot of cases. Why spend an hour tracking down a bad cap on a board when you can just slap a new one in and have the plane back in the air? Modern avionics are so dense and layered anyway, you're probably doing more damage with a hot iron than you're fixing. I've seen those old timer soldering jobs where the joint looks like a cold blob of playdough. The real skill is knowing how to troubleshoot a system and which box to swap, not melting lead onto a board that costs more than your car. Component level repair is for the bench in a quiet shop, not for a busy line where the clock is ticking.