It wasn't really avionics, but in the bad old days when lots of us
smoked (and could, in the A-1), a pilot who forgot his lighter could
light up by using the light bulb in the gun sight (unscrew the fitting,
turn the sight on, hold against cigarette).

Jim Thomas

George R. Gonzalez wrote:
What's some of the unusual uses for avionics you've heard of?


I'll start off with a few:

Some airrline pilots turn on the weather radar during takeoff, their
superstition
is that it scares away birds.

During WWII, there was just enough space between some tubes in one radio set
to
hide a thin flask of hooch. A later model of the same radio was much
disliked,
as the design was perhaps changed intentionally to eliminate this
cubby-hole.

.