Short Final: Some More Light Humor

Mark Phelps

Tuesday, June 07, 2022 at 04:05 PM ET

Verified

Photo: Grumman Gang gallery

Key Takeaways:

The author experienced an intermittent flashing beacon on their 1973 Grumman Trainer, which ground controllers reported as not working during taxiing, but often functioned when the engine was off.
Despite the author's attempts to clean connections, the problem persisted and was difficult to diagnose from the cockpit.
An instructor helped by observing the beacon while the engine was running, confirming its intermittent functionality and validating the author's ongoing issue.

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While I was working in the admissions department for East Coast Aero Tech (now part of the National Aviation Academy) at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., I was having some trouble with the flashing beacon on the tail of my 1973 Grumman Trainer. At times, ground controllers would tell me the beacon wasn’t working as I taxied to or from the runway. But it was intermittent—one of the dirtiest words in a maintenance technician’s vocabulary. And it almost always worked fine when the engine wasn’t running.

I had taken it apart and scraped the connections, hoping to solve the problem, but I needed some help because, even with the sliding canopy wide open, I couldn’t really see the beacon from the cockpit seat. One of the more clever ECAT instructors was passing by and I asked him if he could have a look and tell me if the beacon was working. He said, sure.

I started up, flipped on the switch and looked over at him. Above the sound of the engine, he hollered, “It’s working! … it’s not working … It’s working! … it’s not working … It’s working!…”