What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Blocked elevator

Flashlight

Herman
I too found a flashlight (a square LED type) in a wing bay while
doing an annual. It got left there when doing an upgrade to the servo
on the aileron, so the flashlight was in a dangerous place. I discovered
it because I was using my handy-dandy Harbor frieght borescope to inspect
the tight places as part of the annual.
There was no flight incident, but it could have easily jammed the ailerons...and not necessisarily in level flight!
I try hard to take my Annual Inspections very seriously, knowing that what I
find may have been there for a long time waiting to bite me.

Jim Frisbie
RV-9A 350 hrs.
 
Ram mount parts

My wife and I were about to depart Denver mid afternoon. It was close to 100F outside. I was loosening a ram mount for my 696 and the knob and spring and all came apart and fell down through the opening for the stick. I tried to fish it out with a magnet, tape on a stick, etc for an hour. Finally pulled the floor pan and got it out. It was just a small washer but I could not take off thinking it could do something to the flight controls. I had owned the plane a week at that point and I did not really know the full extent of how the controls worked under there. I found a few other screws and washers as well. I was drenched with sweat after that ordeal. Better safe than sorry.
 
Thanks to the OP for the post

From the operating room...the old joke is that things are only left in the patient when the "count" (of objects, sponges, retractors, etc) is correct. The only thing worse than being wrong is being wrong when you were certain that you were right.

The shadowing concept seems to me to be the best single step to keeping things tidy. Admittedly, unfortunately, the ratio of flathead to phillips screwdrivers always seems in flux in my workspace.
 
lots of lessons to learn

RVG8tor said:
....... firewall side hinge pins.
Oddly my cowl never lifted up at the firewall even with no pins installed. Since then I have started checklists drafts for things routinely done like oil changes.
Click to expand...

....what's that saying, 'Mistakes........you won't live to make them all yourself!" ???

I identified about 172 things on my preflight ( meaning every bolt you view to ensure it's there, and secure). Due to my 'mature' age, it always seems like I could use more and more 'aids' to do simple, but important!, tasks like this!!!

Under the cowl, I like to question myself...."can i see, or feel, all 8 hinge pins?"
After pulling all my gust locks and vent covers etc., I think I should be numbering and labeling them, as they now total 13.
I think. :confused:
wait.......14, 15!

the toolbox count is a great iidea....unless you have multiple toolboxes, borrow from one or the other, aren't the only one using them ( home projects), have to load your truck from your shop, then haul across a long grassed area ( impossible to know what you might lose) or a myriad of other issues. I'd love to see how you guys do it!
 
Last edited:
rv7boy said:
This thread reminds me of a local crash over 30 years ago that killed Grady Nutt who was a regular on the Hee Haw TV show. He had spoken to a church group and was on a charter flight in a Beechcraft twin departing the Cullman Alabama airport going back to Louisville, Ky. Although the NTSB report lists the cause as "undetermined" the locals indicated the 16,000 hour charter pilot took off without removing the control yoke locking pin. Evidence pointed to the pilot trying to maintain pitch control with the elevator trim tab (Down trim would be UP and Up trim would be DOWN...and very slow).

Whether or not this was the cause, it appears to some that even a professional pilot with lots of hours can fail to make an adequate preflight inspection. If this were true, I never could figure out how someone could begin the takeoff roll without knowing the control yoke wouldn't move. I've often thought about this accident as I do my preflight inspection. I knew one of the local pilots who was drafted that night to help the NTSB with securing the accident site. I found it hard to believe that you could get very much pitch control authority from just the trim tab.
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised how being in front of a group of people will throw you off your habit patterns. Constant talk and questions, saying good byes, airshow jitters etc. I left my sunglasses sitting on top of a centerline drop tank, just forward of the intakes. Put them here so when I dove the duct for a FOD inspection they wouldn't fall off. It was a flyin and I typically never preflighted the jet with sunglasses on, or dove my own ducts. 20 seconds later when I slid out I forgot them. After I had strapped in, I had just started the APU and was about to start the first motor when a friend slyly came up, grabbed them, and handed them up to me. Embarrassing moment for sure, to those that actually knew what I had just done.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top