Flashlights

When I got my first aircraft maintenance job I was fresh out of school. I was working heavy checks at Delta Airlines. One of the senior guys took me to the tool truck in the morning and told me "you need this, this, this, etc." One of the things he pointed out was a three D cell Mag-Light.

My Light was just like any typical Mag-Lite, black, heavy, and worked great. Like most aircraft mechanics I have owned several different Mag-Lites over the years and they are all pretty much the same. After a while the light is not as bright as before and the focus is not quite as sharp, but it always will work.

Fast forward a few years and I get this job. My first week here one of the senior guys who transferred in from another station tells me to look at him, as I turn he shines a really bright light into my eyes and blinds me. Haha! He says I need to get one of these new lights called Streamlight. I checked it out and his light was really, really bright-a lot brighter than my Mag-Lite. His light was really, really, light-a lot lighter than my Mag-Lite. His light was even rechargeable, no more changing batteries! So I bought one.

I liked my Streamlight when I first bought it. Bright, light weight and just generally a lot sexier than my Mag-Lite. Needless to say my Mag-Lite was relegated to the bottom of the tool box.

So I'm working and I drop my Streamlight. Thinking nothing of it I click it on and it no longer focused correctly. No big deal really. A little while later I'm working and I'm holding something that I need to whack to get it loose. I could have, stopped what I was doing went downstairs got my hammer and come back, but who is going to do that! Instead I do what I normally do I reach for my flashlight and whack it. Of course now the beam is even more fuzzy and not as bright as before.

I gave the Streamlight two or three good years then I decided to retire it. I was on my second battery pack and in need of another when I decided I had had enough. I missed my old bulky Mag-Lite. With a Mag-Lite I have pried seats loose, beat easy-outs into drilled out screws, pushed, beat and abused it. I have dropped it on the tarmac from my pocket, from the top of a main tire, from the wheel well, I have even dropped it from the aft galley door and it still worked.

My Mag-Lite is not pretty or flashy but it does a lot more than flash-a-light. Recently I went out and bought a new three cell LED Mag-Lite which is just as bright as those sleeker Streamlights or Stingers. I even dropped it and it still works. I think I will be a Mag-Lite guy from now on. Tough, reliable, and practically indestructible. Oh and by the way that Mag-Lite that I put in the bottom of the tool box, I took it out and hit the switch, it worked! Two years in the box old crappy batteries and it came on. With new batteries it lasted two more years until I retired it for the LED Mag-Lite.

I know a guy who has had the same Mag-Lite since the mid-80s (G2). Most of the paint is gone and it has some dents, etc. Bottom line is when he hits the switch it turns on and he does his thing. As a matter of fact I know two guys who has such 20 year old lights and I would trust their walk-arounds a lot more than some guys who have the $60-120 Streamlights and Stingers.