Desert Rat
Well Known Member
I was rigging the ailerons today, laying under the wing, and while attaching the pushrods I managed to drop the bolt that attaches the short steel pushrod to the bell crank.
Instead of the "thunk" of a dropped bolt finding its forever home, I heard more of a looney tunes sound of a bolt bouncing who knows where.
I reached up in there and couldn't feel it anywhere in that bay so I brought out the flashlight and mirror, no joy. Stuck my phone up in there and took pictures from every conceivable angle, no joy. Expanded the search perimeter to the adjoining bays, still no luck. Where the heck did that thing go???
Rolled out from under the wing, drank a cup of coffee, got down on my hands and knees with a flashlight and looked all over the hangar floor. I even checked my shirt pockets, and I still couldn't find the freaking thing.
Turns out that in defiance of all logical flight paths, it had ricocheted off of something, gone through a lightening hole into the adjacent bay and had fallen down into the inside of the pitot mast.
Go figure.
Instead of the "thunk" of a dropped bolt finding its forever home, I heard more of a looney tunes sound of a bolt bouncing who knows where.
I reached up in there and couldn't feel it anywhere in that bay so I brought out the flashlight and mirror, no joy. Stuck my phone up in there and took pictures from every conceivable angle, no joy. Expanded the search perimeter to the adjoining bays, still no luck. Where the heck did that thing go???
Rolled out from under the wing, drank a cup of coffee, got down on my hands and knees with a flashlight and looked all over the hangar floor. I even checked my shirt pockets, and I still couldn't find the freaking thing.
Turns out that in defiance of all logical flight paths, it had ricocheted off of something, gone through a lightening hole into the adjacent bay and had fallen down into the inside of the pitot mast.
Go figure.