Mx Miss

[201Steve]

A friend of mine took their C177 Cardinal to annual inspection last month. They went to pick it up yesterday at the shop. After a thorough pre-flight inspection, the pilot noticed a noise when manipulating the elevator (stabilator). Upon closer inspection, this is what was found. Right out of "inspection". Y'all stay vigilant out there!!!

 

 

[PT20J]

That’s why if I drop a piece of hardware in the airplane, I don’t give up until I find it. 

[RLCarter]

WOW

[Guest]

That’s pretty scary

Edited February 26, 2021 by M20Doc

[Kmac]

My dad had a 177rg that came out of annual.  When he took off he went to trim up but the nose went down.  He trimmed up more and the nose went down further.  He realized that the trim was installed backwards and landed safely.

Annuals can be scary...

[ArtVandelay]

I’d like to see annuals become biennials, cut the invasive maintenance by half.

[N201MKTurbo]

31 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

I’d like to see annuals become biennials, cut the invasive maintenance by half.

Write yourself a progressive maintenance plan (AIP). There is a little used legal path to what you want.

[PT20J]

I did a preflight on a Schweizer 300 once that had just come out of annual inspection. All the cotter pins on the pitch links were missing. 

Flew a Beaver just out of 100 hr in a Part 135 operation once that flew OK, but idled worse and worse as the day wore on. Carburetor had been replaced but nuts not torqued. Also found a spinner once after 100 hr.  with several screws that hadn’t been tightened. After an annual inspection on my Mooney, I found a spark plug gasket CHT probe installed on cyl 1 instead of cyl 3. After engine installation, I noticed a missing cotter pin on mixture control arm connection. All these incidents occurred at shops well known for doing excellent work. People make mistakes. A second set of eyes would be a good practice, but most shops don’t do that in my experience.

Skip

[MikeOH]

DAMN!  That's nasty.

So, how many hours does damage like that take to develop?  As in, has this been missed at MORE than one annual?

[carusoam]

That is such a good lesson...

Much easier to look at when it belongs to a different kind of plane...

Thanks for sharing the heads up, Steve!

Best regards,

-a-

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, PT20J said:

All these incidents occurred at shops well known for doing excellent work. People make mistakes. A second set of eyes would be a good practice, but most shops don’t do that in my experience.

Skip

This is why most airlines and major manufacturers have QC staff separate from maintenance/production.   That second observer makes a big difference.