Question about chasing a phantom static line fault on a G1000

An old head at the hangar in Dayton told me to always check the antenna ground plane first when you get random static on the com. I was dealing with a King Air last week where the pilot reported a faint, constant hiss that came and went. I spent a whole day checking connectors and running new coax, thinking it was a bad run. After about six hours, I remembered his advice and pulled the belly panel. Sure enough, one of the bonding straps for the VHF antenna was just loose enough to make a poor connection, but not totally off. Tightened it up, and the static was gone. It was one of those things that seems obvious after the fact, but you get stuck on the complex stuff. Has anyone else had a simple ground issue hide behind what felt like a big wiring problem?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_hall172d ago

Totally see that with old cars and weird electrical gremlins too.

masongonzalez2d ago

Yeah, those gremlins are the worst.

grantw322d ago

My 1998 Civic had a turn signal that only worked when the heater was on high. I spent two winters signaling left turns by blasting hot air at the windshield. Fixed it by hitting the dash and then it just stopped working completely. Classic ghost in the machine.