A ramp rat at Van Nuys pointed at my torque wrench and I've never rigged a panel the same way since

Phoenix Mason · 2026-10-11T10:05:04.617387+00:00

Three weeks ago I was doing a flap track lube on a King Air 200 at Van Nuys and this old ramp guy named Sal wandered over while I was buttoning up. He watched me run the screws down with a speed handle and just said 'you're feeling for it, not checking it.' I had no clue what he meant until he grabbed my torque wrench and showed me the pointer was sitting 4 inch-pounds off, which on these little 10-32 panel screws is enough to strip a nutplate before you even notice. Turns out I'd been trusting the click and not the breakaway, and I'd already smoked two nutplates that week on a 206 without connecting the dots. Sal said he'd seen three panels depart airplanes in his career and every one traced back to a guy who 'knew' his wrench was good. Now I break-check every torque wrench at the start of shift with a beam bar and log it in the book, takes me 90 seconds. My lead thinks I'm wasting time but I've gone four weeks with zero stripped fasteners. How do you guys handle torque tool checks in your shop, do you log it or just eyeball the click?

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A ramp rat at Van Nuys pointed at my torque wrench and I've never rigged a panel the same way since | Aircraft Mechanics - Free To Speak