My torque wrench was off by 8 ft-lbs on a critical bolt and I only caught it because the feel felt wrong

Pulled a main landing gear bolt on a Cessna 172 last Thursday and the snug just felt too easy so I grabbed the calibrated snap-on from the toolbox next to mine and sure enough my own wrench was clicking way early, has anyone else had their favorite tool drift like that or is it just me being paranoid about it?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tessa7d ago

Eight ft-lbs is a pretty big jump for a torque wrench to be off, but are we sure it wasn't just a fluke or the wrench getting dropped? People act like a slightly lazy wrench is the end of the world but landing gear bolts have a decent safety margin built in. Unless you were right at the minimum spec that bolt was probably fine either way.

the_joel7d ago

Tessa, that's exactly what I've been saying (and I've seen a wrench be off by way more than that and nothing bad happened).