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What's been your biggest preflight surprise?

OSH

Tried to get out right after the airshow at Oshkosh (small window of time) to notice my nosewheel was flat. Time to get the tent back out... I cant tell you how helpful the EAA volunteers are, Awesome
 
On my 14 ... zero brake fluid ... gone ... just gone ... all of it ... no hint of a leak or anything.

I refilled it, two years now, holding level.

Explain that. Weird.
 
On my 14 ... zero brake fluid ... gone ... just gone ... all of it ... no hint of a leak or anything.

I refilled it, two years now, holding level.

Explain that. Weird.

Only one explanation!

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Came to the aeroplane and found this.

Thanks to the visiting aerobatic crowd, someone had stabbed my prop with his ironmongery on his wing tip.

Cost me $2500

View attachment 12018

That is the most odd shaped crack I have ever seen. I can not fathom in my solid mechanics brain how a crack propagated that way. Did you treat the leading edge after the crack was found? It appears so.
 
Came to the aeroplane and found this.

Thanks to the visiting aerobatic crowd, someone had stabbed my prop with his ironmongery on his wing tip.

Cost me $2500

View attachment 12018

Hi Mike,
Your short comment is a little too cryptic for me. How does an aerobatic crowd and stabbing with ironmongery fit into the picture? What exactly happened?
 
SAR flight

Used to fly CAP many moons ago and had a nighttime callout for an ELT search. Was with 2 other experienced SAR pilots and the 3 of us ended up all doing a portion of the preflight but never really coordinated who was doing what. Sort of a glance at the parts your walking up to.

After takeoff we proceeded over some foothills east of town basically dark nasty terrain below following an ELT warble. To our shagrin we noticed the oil temp was rising higher than normal. Flying pilot asks "who pulled the cowl inlet plugs?" to which nobody responded. One was stuck on top of the engine and the other somewhere in the wild blue yonder.

Lesson learned don't ever fly with other experienced pilots :D
 
I always kinda wondered what would happen if I forgot the plugs. It's like a boat. I am always paranoid about the plug.
 
I always kinda wondered what would happen if I forgot the plugs. It's like a boat. I am always paranoid about the plug.

I did it once, but noticed during taxi that CHTs were rising much faster than normal. It pays to know how your engine typically behaves

Larry
 
Never blindly trust a plane coming out of mx. Not a knock on mechanics, **** happens...but it happens a lot more after post or neglected mx.
 
Where's my fuel cap?

Took my 172 to a nearby strip for cheap self-serve fuel. Connected ground cable, got ladder, removed fuel cap to dip tank before filling (just checking the gauges). Fueling system had a credit card glitch, couldn't get it to work. Put ladder back, disconnected ground cable, flew to another airport, asked to be topped off. Line guy says "Did you realize your fuel cap is missing?"
The line guy at the first airport found it for me, about 300 feet down the runway.
 
Towbars too

This kind of thing gets my attention. Not a good look there.
 

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Took my 172 to a nearby strip for cheap self-serve fuel. Connected ground cable, got ladder, removed fuel cap to dip tank before filling (just checking the gauges). Fueling system had a credit card glitch, couldn't get it to work. Put ladder back, disconnected ground cable, flew to another airport, asked to be topped off. Line guy says "Did you realize your fuel cap is missing?"
The line guy at the first airport found it for me, about 300 feet down the runway.

In the nearly 39 years I’ve been flying my 170, I would have had to replace 3 fuel caps had they not been chained to the neck.:eek:
 
Unusual chock

I live in Tucson AZ. Went out to fly my RV 7A and was doing my preflight. I always chock only the front tire. Inspecting the left wing and draining a fuel sample I noticed that it appeared there was a chock on the left gear. Tough to reach when you are plump without getting down on the ground and as I went to one knee the "chock" began moving! I backed away and a four foot diamond back rattlesnake slithered away.
 
It was pretty common in NAS Beevile (my spelling) to find a snake coiled next to the tire, or on one walkaround, on top!

Gotta love Texas! :D
 
It was pretty common in NAS Beevile (my spelling) to find a snake coiled next to the tire, or on one walkaround, on top!

Gotta love Texas! :D

Yikes! Better than finding it inside on climb out!

This happened to me, but with a roach. I just rotated and in my peripheral I detected something on the canopy, big roach.

I'm terrified of roaches, childhood thing. Would take any other bug, snake, or other over that **** roach.

I'm sure it was entertaining to watch as I tried to fly and get this roach on takeoff.
 
It was pretty common in NAS Beevile (my spelling) to find a snake coiled next to the tire, or on one walkaround, on top!

Gotta love Texas! :D

Working F-15Cs at Nellis AFB, NV in sunny Las Vegas. We found big angry snakes at least once a week on morning FOD walk. ...and the occasional coyote. Good times.
 
Things happen

I was planning to take a lady friend flying once and we drove from her place to the hanger... about an hours drive only to see a huge puddle of brake fluid by the right main. Impossible to miss. So no flying that day. Now take two: Finally did get her in the air. After the flight made a low pass down the runway and upon pulling up the last foot on top of the right wing root rubber seal came out to flop around. Surprisingly she was not scared. I've have left the master on not once but twice! Was flying my 152 once when there was loud banging on the right. Yep... passenger seat belt was outside the door.

And one more. I was flying and looked for my phone to take a picture. Nowhere to be found. Taxing back to my hanger there was my phone AND wallet laying on the ramp! I had left them on the wing!

My checklist has been in a constant state of evolution. It now includes checks for every dumb mistake I've ever made.
 
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One time we were selling a plane. Mooney m20k rocket (tsio520). It had just come out of the shop for work on the boost pump. I picked it up at the airport about 45 minutes south. We got down there and I forgot my iPad, I need that to fly 1000nm IFR. I devised a plan to fly to the airport next to my house for cheap fuel, borrow their car, get my IPAD and jump to our hangar field to clear out the plane.
Well, all went fine. I got my gas and on landing at our home field for some reason I had the speed brakes out, which is fine but unusual for me. I looked out to glance at the brakes and saw the outboard fuel cap missing (we had two on each wing, 108g usable total) I asked tower for a t&g and went back to the first field. Nothing on the ramp. They didn’t have one to buy. I found it on the runway.

Topped up again because I needed all the gas I could get (Colorado to NorCal nonstop) and headed out a couple hours late.

I had a black iPad case and several times left the iPad sitting on the wing walk compound and started the engine and blew it off.

I miss that plane though. The guy wanted a demo flight and wanted me to demonstrate a crosswind landing in something like 20+ direct. After the day I had, I declined.
 
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Found on preflight …

…loose prop. No flying that day. Yes, wood props DO shrink (slowly) when relocated to a dryer climate … Prop bolts get re-torqued every time the cowl is off now. Make sure the mags are grounded and give that thing a good wiggle (fore-aft, no need to rotate it) at each tip.

Also left the oil door open until discovered at the run up area once.

Remember: It’s what you DON’T find that might end up ruining your day …
 
Exhaust leak

Landed 200 miles from home and saw white exhaust stains on a cylinder. I called my mechanic and he said, it’s just a blown gasket, fly it home.

I was laying over for a few days and elected to have a local shop replace the exhaust gasket.

This is what they found.
 

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Loose part

Not on an RV.
Preflight before my first night flight for my Private.
I checked oil and reached in to check for loose stuff.
I grabbed a Mag and was able to shake it quite a bit.
My CFI was very impressed. We switched to another airplane. Since then I never abbreviate a Preflight no matter what. Even if I flew it earlier. It still gets a thorough Preflight.
 
Elevator trim tab

Elevator trim tab not connected to cable.

Cable had broken where it passed trough the elevator pivot tube.

Fixed it in place with some bolts and flew it the 120 miles home.

Replaced it with electric trim.

Finn
 
One February morning I had a certification inspection to do in East Texas. I heard a "boom" that sounded like someone had run into my house. Went outside and looked all around. Nothing! No smoke anywhere around!

Pulled the -6 out and preflighted. Everything looks good. Engine would not start. Checked everything I could without using up too much time. Gave up, pushed the airplane back into the hangar, and called applicant; "Airplane won't start. I'll have to drive. Arrival will be later."

On the drive to East Texas there was an announcement on the radio that the Space Shuttle had exploded over Texas and all aircraft in northeast Texas were to be grounded.

Starting problem turned out to be a bad mag.

Coincidence?
 
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Not on an RV.
Preflight before my first night flight for my Private.
I checked oil and reached in to check for loose stuff.
I grabbed a Mag and was able to shake it quite a bit.
My CFI was very impressed. We switched to another airplane. Since then I never abbreviate a Preflight no matter what. Even if I flew it earlier. It still gets a thorough Preflight.

Oh that's a nice one. None of the flight school preflight checklists I've seen have you really do a lot of poking around under the cowl. Most of them say check the oil level, and then close the oil door and that's it. What a missed opportunity to find problems! I've noticed that my preflight walkarounds of non-RVs are much more thorough and picky now that I've built an RV and done my first condition inspection. Some things I see on certifcated airplanes... well, let's say they make me a little more confident in my own build's quality.

None of mine were with RVs. These were found on Cessnas during some recent rusty-pilot / BFR training with instructors. 1. I found a jam nut totally backed out and loose on an aileron control rod and 2. Fuel pouring out of the skins on the passenger side. Apparently this one was a defect known to the flight school, where if you fill the tank to the top, fuel leaks from a large hole near the filler neck until it's about 0.5 to 1 gallon empty. Their solution was to always request the FBO doesn't fully fill that side. In neither case was I willing to fly that day.
 
Walking around a F16 and noticed the rudder was almost entirely missing. Immediately taught me the value of a post flight walkaround which I still do after every flight. I also tap on the airplane a lot, it’s odd, but sometimes things sound different and you find a loose nut/bolt/panel or find FOD. Also have a habit where I walk out in front of the airplane looking for FOD then turn and take a big picture look at the airplane. Have noticed a couple of things by doing that, once it was a missing AMRAAM….. That would have been a tough one to explain on landing.
 
This one was hard to beliefe

Years ago my friend and I purchased a Stinson 105.
The airplane looked good and had 8 annuals signed off after a major engine overhaul and new dacron cover. We were getting ready to go for a flight with the seller/broker and conducted an extensive preflight. We noticed the horizontal stabilizer a bit loose and found that the front attach bolts had never been inserted on either side, in fact there was not even a hole in the fabric....
From what we could tell, the slant in the vertical stab spar kept the horizontal from departing. The seller got a couple of bolts, drilled holes and properly attached the horizontal.
We were a couple of young overzealous airplane buyers who bought a one way ticket to Oklahoma and we were pretty much set on buying that plane. On the way home to California we discovered a host of other issues, the worst of which was stuck valves on that Franklin engine. The engine would shudder every so often and scare the heck out of us, especially crossing the Sierras. Many thousands of dollars later and a new engine overhaul finally made that Stinson reliable and a joy to fly.
 
Years ago my friend and I purchased a Stinson 105.
The airplane looked good and had 8 annuals signed off after a major engine overhaul and new dacron cover. We were getting ready to go for a flight with the seller/broker and conducted an extensive preflight. We noticed the horizontal stabilizer a bit loose and found that the front attach bolts had never been inserted on either side, in fact there was not even a hole in the fabric....
From what we could tell, the slant in the vertical stab spar kept the horizontal from departing. The seller got a couple of bolts, drilled holes and properly attached the horizontal.
We were a couple of young overzealous airplane buyers who bought a one way ticket to Oklahoma and we were pretty much set on buying that plane. On the way home to California we discovered a host of other issues, the worst of which was stuck valves on that Franklin engine. The engine would shudder every so often and scare the heck out of us, especially crossing the Sierras. Many thousands of dollars later and a new engine overhaul finally made that Stinson reliable and a joy to fly.

I think I would have bought another airline ticket home!
 
Had a Tomahawk parked outside and the remnants of a Hurricane came through the Atlanta area. Some wind, but mostly rain.

Went out to check on the Tommie a day or two later and noticed a slow drip from the rudder. Turned out the drain hole in the rudder bottom fairing was plugged and the rudder bottom was absolutely full of water. Maybe a half gallon or even a gallon of water waaaay back there.

Opened up the hole with something and it drained pretty quickly.
 
I had my C-172 in for annual at a very good Cessna dealer on the field. When I went to pick it up I had to pull it out and a little water ran out of the tail cone. As I kept pulling the water kept coming and the little water turned into buckets! It seems an over-zealous helper was tasked with cleaning up the plane after annual. His main weapon was a pressure washer and not knowing much about aircraft he filled my fuse with water.

I made them open all the inspection covers in the fuse to verify it was dry before I paid the bill.

Went to a fly-in at Mohave airport and as I was walking around checking out the RVs I noticed that one RV still had the keys in the switch - in the "Both" position. Quickly found the owner and told him about it.

-Marc
 
Left the 195 out for a few days. When I returned there was a starling bird trapped in my elevator. Had to loosen that elevator to make enough room for it to escape. We were both relieved when it flew away.
 

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1) During my private pilot training I found that the State aircraft registration on the school's airplane was expired, and had been for weeks. Not a big deal but of all the students that had pre-flighted it, I was apparently the only one who actually read the date. It was funny when I told the Chief pilot, he grabbed the folder and saw that the whole fleet was expired.

2) After getting my license I was renting 172's from another FBO. During the pre-flight before sumping the tanks, I was thinking is this really necessary? I'd been sumping tanks for over a year and never once saw any water. I was shocked when my sump (the large kind) almost completely filled with water. :eek:

3) Coming home from Airventure one year we spend the night in Dickinson, ND. During my run up the next morning my left mag was deader than a doornail. It was a miracle that the FBO had a left hand impulse coupled mag on the shelf.
 
I preflighted a 1953 C-170 a while back and not only did everything work, it wasn't even leaking anything. Now that was a surprise!
 
Flew the Rocket to breakfast and upon our return less than an hour later we saw a raven sitting on the cowl, seemingly interested in something near the spinner. Upon inspection, I found a half eaten rodent of some kind shoved into the propeller blade cutout.
 
Bullet hole in top skin of horizontal stabilizer just back of the leading edge. Found the round, it was a 7.62mm that came thru the metal hanger roof and creased the skin with a small cut, then bounced onto the floor. Repaired by opening up the cut to smooth edges than placed a doubler patch per standards.

Was likely shot into the air from adjacent neighborhoods. Bummer is, if it had landed 2" forward, would have missed the HS.
 
Preflight findings....

I fly around a lot of experienced pilots. It amazes me how many of them just jump in the airplane with a cursory oil and fuel check. I have actually been jokingly made fun of for doing a preflight..."What's he doing....?"

I have not found much on SuzieQ. I still do a comprehensive walk-around, as I do with all the airplanes I am about to fly. This airplane is about to take my butt up in the AIR and I would like it to stay together for at least another hour! On a more personal level, it gives me the opportunity to get in touch with my airplanes. We do have a bond that is difficult to describe. If you don't have that with your airplane, you might not understand.

That said, most of the things I have found on Cubs have been with the tail wheel area. They suffer a lot of grief getting banged around in the back country. One has to get down on their hands and knees to get a thorough inspection, which I do. No way around that. My most recent find: a broken center tail wheel spring (of three that make up the spring unit). It was JUST aft of the bracket that holds the spring on and easily missed. That spring had been on the airplane since 1946 so had served its time. All three got replaced!

On another Cub years ago, there was a AN-3 bolt (of two) that was missing from that same bracket. There is the occasional screw missing from the wing and other fairings and other screws that start to work their way out of where they are supposed to be. But old or new, they need to be looked over.

If you don't look, you aren't going to find it.....
 
Flew from Michigan to Wings Field just north Philadelphia for a weekend with my grandkids. Monday morning getting ready to leave before major weather moves into Michigan, discovered a flat main! Wings is a Cirrus service center and there is only one other RV on the field so not a lot of RV parts around. Fortunately the on field RV had just entered into a maintenance agreement with the repair shop and they ordered tubes of my size for stock. An hour later I was in the air. Fantastic folks at Wings!
 
My instructor and I couldn't get the engine on a 152 started one night and thought it was the battery due to the cold. Put the battery charger on for a bit and then tried starting it. We had the cowl off and I noticed when he primed it that fuel was getting sprayed all over the engine. The B-nut from the primer tube had backed off. We could have started an engine fire pretty easily.

Another one was when I went out to fly my club 172 and found the tail tie down ring smashed flat and bits of the aft part of the elevator ground away by the pavement. Someone in the club had hit it hard enough to smash the tie down ring flat and not told anybody.
 
I had a Cessna 150, and just after liftoff I heard the worst banging noise. Thought the engine was going to fall off of the aircraft. Pulled power, slipped down, landed uneventful. Found the seatbelt hanging out the door. It was banging on the side of the fuselage.

Seat belt check makes me think of that day every time.

My second or third lesson ever was in a 150 and we were climbing out when a awful banging noise startled me and the instructor. Thinking the engine was about to throw a rod the instructor took controls, announced an emergency and circled around to land opposite direction. The fire truck was on scene as we rolled to a stop. Imagine the embarrassment for the instructor when the fireman pointed out the dangling seat belt - the instructor's, not mine!

As far as preflight surprise it was a few years ago when a member of a very busy flying club that has a DA-40, three C172, an Archer and a C152 (that rarely gets flown). One beautiful flying day I checked the schedule to see what was available for flight. Only the C152 was available. I went to do my preflight and found a piece of dried grass at one of the cowling openings. I looked as well as I could through the openings and could see nothing abnormal. I finished my preflight and still had a nagging thought about that blade of glass. I decided to pull the top cowling as the plane had been tied down in the middle of the parking area; not near where wind could blow mowed grass. Once the top cowling was lifted sitting right between two cylinder heads was a bird nest with baby birds waiting on the mother to return.
 
Not exactly preflight, but before flight. I was renting C-182’s at a flight school. Completed my preflight and thought everything was good. My passenger came to the plane. I reached across the cockpit from the left side and opened the right door. The door promptly fell to the ground. Apparently maintenance had removed the door hinge pins due to wear, ordered the pins and put the door back in the hole with the latch holding it in place. Neglected to make any writeup about the work or otherwise ground the airplane. Had I not had a passenger leading me to discover the missing pins the door would have certainly left the aircraft at some inopportune point.
 
Not exactly preflight, but before flight. I was renting C-182’s at a flight school. Completed my preflight and thought everything was good. My passenger came to the plane. I reached across the cockpit from the left side and opened the right door. The door promptly fell to the ground. Apparently maintenance had removed the door hinge pins due to wear, ordered the pins and put the door back in the hole with the latch holding it in place. Neglected to make any writeup about the work or otherwise ground the airplane. Had I not had a passenger leading me to discover the missing pins the door would have certainly left the aircraft at some inopportune point.

I can see how this can happen - I don't think I have ever checked the passenger door as part of the preflight in any aircraft I've flown that had two doors. Definitely something to add to the list!
 
Our flight school had been known to have students preflight airplanes without props. The number that didn't catch it....

Hang glider pilots have been known to not "hook in" and attach to the wing. Launching off a cliff without attaching to the glider will ruin your day. The stuff of sweaty nightmares.

Cowling latches undone on a GE90 after the mechs had signed off the ETOPS.

Also, remember to remove cat from wing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J_8mdH20qTQ
 
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During my private pilot training I found a crack nearly an inch long in the trailing edge of one of the ailerons on the Warrior III I was about to fly. I went back in and told the dispatcher. He said something link, "oh, there are always little dings and scrapes, it's probably nothing, go fly it." I said I'd feel more comfortable if an instructor would look at it. The chief pilot came out and took one look and grounded the airplane. Who knows how many others had flown it with this crack growing and growing.
 
During my private pilot training I found a crack nearly an inch long in the trailing edge of one of the ailerons on the Warrior III I was about to fly. I went back in and told the dispatcher. He said something link, "oh, there are always little dings and scrapes, it's probably nothing, go fly it." I said I'd feel more comfortable if an instructor would look at it. The chief pilot came out and took one look and grounded the airplane. Who knows how many others had flown it with this crack growing and growing.

Or the time that I found the oil cooler on a similar Warrior completely unbolted from the baffling and simply hanging on its hoses ... right after it came out of Annual. I was already unhappy with this flying club's mx practices to this point (squawked a number of planes for pretty obvious stuff in the previous months), and this was the final bit of encouragement for me to join a different flying club and to start my own build!
 
I had a Tomahawk that I kept outside. When the wind blows from the rear Tomahawk flaps will drop down and latch there.
I also have sheep, that occasionally get out.
On one pre-flight I found both of my flaps completely mangled from the sheep scratching their backs on the trailing edges that were pointing down.
 
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