cowman
Final Approach
So this is a weird one. I'd been away from home for a few days, getting stuck places due to storms and making small hops to get home. I'd flown about 1.5 hrs the day before and tied my plane down for the night while the storms rolled by... so note the plane had been outside and in moderate-heavy rain overnight which may or may not be a factor. Also note that I essentially never unplug my headset. It's my plane, I'm the only one who flies it so I leave it there.
So last flight home as soon as I powered on my avionics stack my garmin audio panel is flashing at me and my garmin 530 is popping up a message indicating a "stuck mic". I verify that the PTT switch moves freely and it feels normal. I unplugged my headset- the message and flashing light went away. Plugged the mic back in and it indicated a stuck mic again. Tried a radio check- no reply. I then unplugged my headset from the pilot side jacks and plugged into the copilot side. No problems, I keyed the copilot PTT switch and got a radio check from the FBO. Everything working perfectly on the copilot side. After a minute or two of wiggling jacks in plugs, cycling power to the avionics off/on I gave up and flew home with my headset plugged into the copilot side and using that button to talk.
After landing at home I tried messing with it again....and it's fine. Can't reproduce the problem anymore. Pilot's side jacks work perfectly, transmit works perfectly. WTF. If it makes any difference my headset is a Bose A20, aircraft is a Piper Lance with a garmin audio panel. Anybody got any ideas what could have caused that? I'm betting something in the headset mic jack.... somewhat suspecting maybe moisture got in there and caused an issue but that's just speculation- there was no evidence of any water having leaked into the aircraft.
So last flight home as soon as I powered on my avionics stack my garmin audio panel is flashing at me and my garmin 530 is popping up a message indicating a "stuck mic". I verify that the PTT switch moves freely and it feels normal. I unplugged my headset- the message and flashing light went away. Plugged the mic back in and it indicated a stuck mic again. Tried a radio check- no reply. I then unplugged my headset from the pilot side jacks and plugged into the copilot side. No problems, I keyed the copilot PTT switch and got a radio check from the FBO. Everything working perfectly on the copilot side. After a minute or two of wiggling jacks in plugs, cycling power to the avionics off/on I gave up and flew home with my headset plugged into the copilot side and using that button to talk.
After landing at home I tried messing with it again....and it's fine. Can't reproduce the problem anymore. Pilot's side jacks work perfectly, transmit works perfectly. WTF. If it makes any difference my headset is a Bose A20, aircraft is a Piper Lance with a garmin audio panel. Anybody got any ideas what could have caused that? I'm betting something in the headset mic jack.... somewhat suspecting maybe moisture got in there and caused an issue but that's just speculation- there was no evidence of any water having leaked into the aircraft.
