Airplanes are complex creatures assembled from various hardware, aluminum, rubber, steel, wiring, tubing, and more. Designers dream up the concept. Engineers draw up the plans. Manufacturers push them down the assembly line. Owners leverage financial positions to procure, and mechanics bless them so pilots can put them in the sky. How does all this work? Pure Fantastical Magic, or PFM.
Let’s start at the beginning. An older mechanic once told me that aircraft batteries are almost always an afterthought. Electric current, he said, is just like oxygen. You don’t think of it until you aren’t getting any.
