How to keep an airplane "young" because airplanes are constantly being refurbished.Every 2000 hours or so, the engine and all its supporting components undergo major repairs or replacements.As time passed, the paint and interior were updated, the avionics were replaced, and each component was inspected during the annual inspection and replaced as necessary.For well maintained aircraft, this is an eternal topic.In fact, most of them initially agreed on this theory until the emergence of gremlins in electrical systems.Firstly, there is the issue of repairing the autopilot, and then there is the angle of attack indicator, when it wants to take effect.After a thorough investigation, maintenance personnel found that the aviation circuit breakers were failing one by one.In one case, the connector on the back experienced mechanical failure.In another scenario, internal resistance causes current loss in the fine-tuning system.Finally, when the annoying ON/OFF indicator was found to provide power to the switch and not function properly, this hazard was not highlighted.

What is the expected service life of the aircraft circuit breaker?This raises a question: if maintenance personnel are very satisfied with the condition and gradual replacement of the engine, instruments, cables, and all mechanical components, why do we ignore the electrical system?The fact is that electrical systems will corrode over time, leading to a loss of efficiency and reliability.The terminal is fatigued due to vibration, and the connector loses tension.The result is a long-term Whac-a-Mole game, where we wait for failure, track the source, repair a single faulty connection at the end of a 41 year old wire, and continue moving forward.Therefore, maintenance personnel will propose the basic idea of gradually carrying out electrical system maintenance.The maintenance personnel did not wait for the next aging circuit breaker to prove that it had passed away, but decided to replace them all with this year's active maintenance project.Moreover, the maintenance personnel's project will also include replacing the connections to these new circuit breakers.After all, these terminals are damaged every time they are bent, and the maintenance department allows for contact with other components or on-site repairs. Repair personnelIt is very clear that phasing out and replacing the entire electrical system is not realistic.However, part of good maintenance practices is to seek convenient opportunities to improve each system.If the wires are removed, please consider replacing them.If maintenance takes you under the panel and near the wiring terminals or grounding blocks, consider disassembling and cleaning it.Each grounding terminal can be regularly treated with thin layer chromatography (TLC) to remove corrosion.