How Does This Happen?

[cbarry]

How did this happen?  IMO, it appears someone (some moron) thought they needed to seat a Phillips head screwdriver in the screw head by hammering on the screwdriver’s handle. OR at the very least they thought excessive upward pressure on their cordless driver would keep from stripping out the heads.    I think we need an aircraft abuse hotline!

[RoundTwo]

26 minutes ago, cbarry said:

How did this happen?  IMO, it appears someone (some moron) thought they needed to seat a Phillips head screwdriver in the screw head by hammering on the screwdriver’s handle.  I think we need an aircraft abuse hotline!

My guess is along the same line of thinking and contains thoughts of a 20v screw gun and a worn out bit. “Just push harder until it stops slipping”.

[Guest]

The moron was the engineer at Mooney who spec’d out too thin and too soft a material for these covers. The other morons are those who cheap out on their annuals by choosing the lowest price over the highest quality.  Your Mooney was lovingly hand crafted by careful assemblers, it requires the same loving care from maintainers who use hand tools not power tools.

[Pinecone]

Hmm, would owner produced replacements have to be the same soft alloy or could you use something less like to bend and dent?

If so, it might be a worthwhile thing to set up a water jet or CNC cutting of replacement ones, with the owners ordering the sheet metal for them

 

[Steve0715]

7 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, would owner produced replacements have to be the same soft alloy or could you use something less like to bend and dent?

If so, it might be a worthwhile thing to set up a water jet or CNC cutting of replacement ones, with the owners ordering the sheet metal for them

 

That was my thoughts.

 

14 hours ago, M20Doc said:

The moron was the engineer at Mooney who spec’d out too thin and too soft a material for these covers. The other morons are those who cheap out on their annuals by choosing the lowest price over the highest quality.  Your Mooney was lovingly hand crafted by careful assemblers, it requires the same loving care from maintainers who use hand tools not power tools.

Doc, if you ever wanted to move south, you could outfit that Cherokee with a mobile workshop and fly to MSers airports providing annuals.  We actually have a balloon repair shop that does exactly that here in Texas.

[RoundTwo]

15 minutes ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, would owner produced replacements have to be the same soft alloy or could you use something less like to bend and dent?

If so, it might be a worthwhile thing to set up a water jet or CNC cutting of replacement ones, with the owners ordering the sheet metal for them

 

 

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, would owner produced replacements have to be the same soft alloy or could you use something less like to bend and dent?

An Owner Produced Part can differ from the original as long as it "will be at least equal to its original or properly altered condition with respect to the qualities affecting airworthiness."

So improvements are allowed.

 

 

[JayMatt]

I heard it comes from bad lands...

[Pinecone]

So who has access to a water jet or CNC cutter?

I would be in the market for better ones.  

Probably a few knots from making the flush again.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Steve0715 said:

That was my thoughts.

 

Doc, if you ever wanted to move south, you could outfit that Cherokee with a mobile workshop and fly to MSers airports providing annuals.  We actually have a balloon repair shop that does exactly that here in Texas.

Thanks for the kind offer!  I restrict my travel to going on vacation not work.

[Fly Boomer]

On 2/12/2023 at 7:50 AM, skykrawler said:

Who knows the torque for AN509-8R6 screw?

5-10 in lb?

[Guest]

On 2/12/2023 at 8:50 AM, skykrawler said:

I think the inspection port covers near the wing root are a structural type.

The others held in with pop-rivets less so.  The problem is these screws are often over-tightened and then removing them requires excessive amounts for down pressure on the screw to break it loose which deforms the backing plate.  This is partly because of the aluminum/steel interface of the screw.    My first annual I had to drill out a half dozen of the screws because the heads were wrecked and they were over tight.     

The advantage of this type of installation is a flush fitting cover - until the've been buggered up.   The tabs on the backup ring can be reformed to return the cover to a flush position.   I keep spares of these screws and replace the screw at the first sign of head is getting wrecked.

Who knows the torque for AN509-8R6 screw?

 

This might help,

[Aerodon]

On 2/11/2023 at 10:11 PM, Austintatious said:

 have several the same way... they drive me nuts if I look at them too long.  Mine (84 M20K)  are held in by "pop" rivets.... I had an avionics shop give me a heart attack when they suggested this wasn't even legal and That I may have to have them all re done with screws and backings.

Avionics shops should not be allowed near any sheetmetal.  I have seen fuel tank panels taken off, holes drilled in wing skins & wing spars, spar carry throughs etc.  Crappy antenna locations, pathetic doublers, no doublers etc.  And nothing is ever straight.

Aerodon

 

 

[Aerodon]

11 hours ago, Pinecone said:

So who has access to a water jet or CNC cutter?

I would be in the market for better ones.  

Probably a few knots from making the flush again.

I have already measured and drawn all the inspection covers to cut on my CNC router.  And purchased a bead roller to create the overlap.     Busy learning how to create a proper overlap.

My wing is protected by ACF50, and I prefer using CAD plated machine screws instead of stainless.  I dip each one in ACF50 and they go in and out nicely.  I find the stainless screws tend to bind with the nut plates and its the pressure required to unscrew that causes the deformation.

 

 

Aerodon

 

 

 

 

[RoundTwo]

Just now, Aerodon said:

I have already measured and drawn all the inspection covers to cut on my CNC router.  And purchased a bead roller to create the overlap.     Busy learning how to create a proper overlap.

Aerodon

 

 

 

 

Practice, practice, practice. You may become even more popular very quickly.

[skykrawler]

On 2/13/2023 at 8:48 PM, M20Doc said:

This might help,

Rhetorical question.

It ain't much.