Have you ever caught a problem during preflight?

[tejasflyer]

I was the second flight of the day in a schweizer 233, a strut braced high wing glider, and as the instructor was talking with the first ride, I preflighted and found that the nut holding the outboard strut bolt was gone, and the bolt could be rotated by hand. After smirking over to the instructor to show him I'd found his "test" item, he went to double check that I was not lying. No one had noticed and the airplane was airborn for an hour or more.

KB

[airtractor8]

Originally Posted by az_gila

...and notice how many of the incidents mentioned were the first flight after a mechanic had done work on the plane...

Here's another one of those tales.

One of our company pilots picked up an AT802 from the shop after it had had major maintenance. He completed the usual "modified" preflight which consisted of a quick look around,check the fuel and oil and jump in.
Shortly after lift off he reduced power abruptly and was seen to complete a very low level circuit and landing. He got out shaking at the nee's and in need of a caffeine hit or something much stronger.
The mechanics had changed the elevator trim cable and wound the new one around the actuator drum the wrong way making the trim tab work in the wrong sense.
The application of trim after lift off made flight loads on the stick increase alarmingly rather than decrease to which he had no answer for other than to reduce power and land as soon as he could. He had no idea that the trim cable had just been changed.
He and all of us learnt a very valuable lesson that day...

[pierre smith]

Guys, just Google Waddington. Many issues arise after maintenance, that weren't issues BEFORE maintenance!

I've had a Cessna 310 lose the right engine as the gear came up on the "post annual" acceptance flight. The fuel supply line came off the spider and sprayed avgas all over the engine...never was torqued! It was just fine before annual!

My -10 sputtered and backfired during the runup/mag check, after condition inspection...yep, spark plug wires crossed...it was fine before that!

That's why you should never have a passenger aboard on the first flight after maintenance!

Best,

[jsharkey]

I found loose tail pipes on my RV-6 once. Traced it to missing vertical hanger to oil pan flange attach bolts. Replaced with new bolts and star washers. Now I always the check security of tail pipes on walk around.

Once during an annual on a club aircraf the A/P found a bucking bar and coffee can in the tail cone. Goodness knows how long they had been there. He was also a CFI and suggested that during preflight we grab a wing tip, gently shake the plane and listen for unusual rattles in unexpected places.

[newt]

Originally Posted by tejasflyer

I was the second flight of the day in a schweizer 233, a strut braced high wing glider, and as the instructor was talking with the first ride, I preflighted and found that the nut holding the outboard strut bolt was gone, and the bolt could be rotated by hand. After smirking over to the instructor to show him I'd found his "test" item, he went to double check that I was not lying. No one had noticed and the airplane was airborn for an hour or more.

I preflighted a Pik-20D glider and found that the mainpin was only inserted about half way. Wouldn't go any further into its bushing. The mainpin is supposed to go all the way through the spar extensions of both wings to prevent them from coming apart, but because it'd only engaged with one wing the result was functionally equivalent to having no mainpin at all.

I disassembled the glider and found that a 1 inch long piece of garden hose used to protect the brass bushing in the starboard wing from scoring from steel pins in the trailer hadn't been removed last time it was rigged.

On the previous day the aircraft had flown a 200km cross country. When I revealed my discovery to the previous pilot he went white as a sheet, considering the implications of the fact that nothing was preventing the wings from coming off. To this day I have no idea why it didn't kill him in a launch accident. I can only guess that flight loads caused the wings to bind up on their mountings on the fuselage. Might have been amusing if they'd fallen off as soon as he stopped rolling after landing

- mark

[noelf]

One of the elements on my cat-whisker VOR antenna, mounted on the top of the vertical fin was loose. RV-6A. Took about 30 min to get stuff disassembled so that it could be tightened and all put back together.

[kevinh]

My other form of flying (besides my RV) is flying paragliders (unpowered - other than thermals). They typically look kinda like this:



I few months ago I was talking with a fellow pilot that had just landed and I noticed his left carabiner had cracked and was bent nearly completely open. This carabiner is required to hold the pilot to the wing and he had been flying for an hour without noticing this problem.

I pointed at this carabiner. He looked down at it. Silence for a long time. Then he bends over and vomits.

He was very lucky.

[mike newall]

Went to the aeroplane and removed the covers, thought I spotted a stone chip on the prop........



A week previously, the communal hangar was full to the brim with visiting aerobatic aeroplanes for a contest.........

Prop is back at MT for a $2000 repair and of course, no one did it

Oh, by the way, the marks from abrasives were done by the perpetrator, not us - the other blades are pristine and the prop has done 50 hours from new.

My partner had flown the aeroplane the day before and it had gone unnoticed when he flew, probably because blade was down etc etc, we all miss things sometimes. I think that is where the leading edge crack came from. We will find out more when MT report next week hopefully.

[odlee]

I found an 8 to 10 inch gash/hole in the bottom wing skin of my Bonanza (pre-RV aircraft). The FBO had been doing work on the plane and someone pulled the plane across one of their stands used to hole ropes for aircraft work areas. No one owned up to it! The yellow paint stains were enough evidence for the FBO. They replaced the skin at NC and never found the culprit. I'm not sure what the plane would have done during flight. Glad the preflight caught it. Maybe the guy who did the deed should have to fly it.

As that guy from Nebraska states: "Let's be careful out there."

David

[flyboy1963]

The vertical fin of my -9a seems to be a favourite perch for something; the cr@p runs down the fin, and often large 'plops' are right on the elevator to stabilizer junction.
My normal walkaround includes wiping up the poop, and full movement of all the surfaces by hand.
THis time, the elevator stayed FULL UP! ....there was enough hardened junk in the out-of-sight space between the elevator LE and the stab....to jam it. Lots of water softened it enough to work a rag in and 10 minutes of flushing cleaned it out...mostly.
New builders out there would be wise to ensure there is a good 1/8" clearance to allow dirt 'n 'stuff' to work it's way thru the gap.