Introduction

My name is Jim Karpowitz and I have been a full time avionics bench service technician for nearly 23 years in the southeast Wisconsin area. Though I wear more than one hat around the shop, my official capacity is component level bench service and repair. I try to stay away from doing installations and aircraft work in general because I'm not a contortionist  and airplanes can really twist you up. I prefer to work right side up with a little room around me. However, the job is the job and occasionally I have to jump in the bird and make like a gymnast. At 250+, putting me in an airplane is somewhat like trying to drive a Zamboni machine down a Wal-Mart aisle.

Awhile back I was interviewed by Avionics News as the last full time bench tech in the state. It's becoming clear that component-level bench service is an art that is dying. This holds true for all facets of electronic service work, I'm afraid. Avionics tend to be very long-lived, so there are still quite a few units around that were built with component-level repair in mind. Still, these old staple radios that have graced thousands of panels for the last 30 years are slowly but surely being replaced by a breed of units that are increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to repair economically in the field. Component-level service requires manufacturer data, component support, the correct tooling and the knowledge of how to utilize everything in the repair process. I've been noticing price increases on components, fewer service manual updates and technical bulletins, repair manuals that are abysmally lacking in specific technical data and components that require special tools and techniques to change. As the great philosopher Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations". You have to know what to tackle and what not to. Unfortunately, my "don't do that" list is growing.

The other problem I often encounter is that circuit boards are becoming much more dense and vulnerable. The old two sided boards were pretty easy to repair if you had a fried circuit trace. Shoot, a little epoxy and some well placed mag wire would get you back up and running in no time. Not so with a board that has a half dozen layers. If one of those boards fries, it's toast. Boards are almost always prohibitively expensive so what we're seeing is an increase in "throwaway" avionics. With what this stuff costs, you hate to hear the words "throw" and "away" in the same sentence but it's where we are with the current state of the art. What used to be a relatively minor problem may now mean a red tag and a new unit.

Anyway, I'll address these kinds of issues and experiences in more detail as time goes on. I want to keep things fairly general and hopefully you'll find something of interest here.

See you next time,

Jim K.