What's the biggest item found in "wrong spot"?

[scottfromiowa]

Just wondering if anyone else has ever found a tool or item in their plane that was NOT supposed to be there.  My two are:

1. Bird nest in the tail cone.  Saw poop on horizontal stab and one piece of grass...a week later took off access panel below stab and full nest WITH eggs!!!  I seal tail cone ever since while in hanger.

2.  Just went out to change oil (first time since annual end of Dec) took off lower cowl and a crescent wrench was wedged inside...!  I flew 20 hours with it in there.

Anybody else have any interesting items or stories to tell?

[Piloto]

Vacuum cleaner inside a B747 fuel wing tank found during a D Check. Aparently left by one of the Boeing employees. It is not unusual to find tools inside the airframe after maintenance or even manufacturing. I have seem wrenches, screw drivers and airframe parts left inside the airframe. If you think planes are bad it gets worse with building construction. I have seen diesel diggers left in the building basement on new buildings and crane hoist on the roof top.  

José

[Hank]

I found an electrical test probe in the engine of my Honda a couple of weeks after the dealer serviced it.

On the plane, all I have found out of place was a large bolt lying in the bottom of the cowling . . . No idea how long it had been there. It turned out to be one of the alternator mounting bolts.

[Larrynoel]

I'll tell you a story about a small thing the could have caused allot of trouble.  A pilot carrying the US Mail here at Billings Airport did his normal preflight as he dose every day.  He is flying a Beech 99 turbo prop.  Every thing checks out good and he heads out onto the runway for takeoff and notices the aileron control feels lighter than normal.  He has his copilot verify again that the right aileron was moving.  There was no movement at all. It was stuck in the up position.  He took the airplane straight to the shop were they found a paperclip that some how made it under the floor boards and lay ed across a large relay  battery post and the right down aileron cable.  It melted the cable in two.  I am happy for the pilot knowing to double check his flight controls even though his had just did it two minutes before.

[WardHolbrook]

Years ago, one of our hangar partners found a small bucking bar in the wing of his Turbo Commander. He kept hearing some bangs and couldn't figure out where they were coming from. One day he was in some "pretty good" turbulence and after the flight noticed a few new dents in the wing skin and started poking around. No idea how long it had been there, probably since manufacture.

I've found many tools after maintenance, but the most dangerous thing we ever ran into was a shop towel that was plugging a jetpump on a brand new Gulfstream G100 that we had just taken delivery of. We couldn't figure out why we would occassionally have fuel pressure issues. It was left in there when they were building the wing.

One of my friends was on the new aircraft delivery team of one of the majors. He told me that the most dangerous flying they ever did was the acceptance flights for their newly delivered airliners and the fist flight after maintenance. It wasn't a matter of if something would go wrong, but when. Personally, the vast majority of my "issues" have occurred during those times as well. Don't assume anything. Remember, one way to tell how good your mechanic is is by counting the number of parts left over when he is finished.  

[Geoff]

Recently after an annual I found a plastic handheld flashlight on top of the crankcase between the pistons.  It had been there for approximately 30 hrs of flying and not only had not melted, but still functioned.  I plan on "selling" it back to the shop that did the annual.

[scottfromiowa]

It was hiding in plane sight eh Geoff?  Is that supplemental lighting?  Do you have an STC for that...

[Magnum]

We had an accident here in Germany with a Yak52. A knob from the canopy handle (approx. 2" diameter) went loose, rolled from the cockpit into the fuselage and blocked elevator control. They were in a slow decent and not able to free the controls. Two dead. In the picture you see the opening where the elevator cables were jammed.

So you don't need a big item to get in trouble.

[jax88]

Me, kinda made me feel silly, but at least I was safe.

[1964-M20E]

It seems not a day goes by without a post on aircraft mechanics errors.

I have found my share of flashlights, wrenches and screw drivers in my time but what is ODD is that none of the tools EVER had a name or initials on them. REst assured NOT ONE of the items was ever claimed!

larry

this is odd  n9937c posted as this

[Alan Fox]

As far as the yak goes , There is a mod called a fod barrier, specifically designed to prevent items from getting into the tail,  Very unfortunate they died as this was preventible... My buddy runs a station for Delta, and sometimes they have to actually climb into the wings (tanks) for maintence ... and if they have to work on thier backs thay will take a small mattress in to lay on....He showed me pics of the techs removing a diesel (jet a) soaked mattress from a DC10 tank...  I forget what the problem was that alerted them to it...  As far as my mooney , I had about 12 baby starlings in my tail , took hours to get everything out last annual...  It was hilarious watching my IA throwing them out of the plane and watching them jump and hop around the shop....  At last annual we put a barrier in the tail so they couldnt make it past the Empenage.. This worked well and this year they were contained to the emp...