Extra bits I found on my aircraft today...

[DeeTee]

Whilst doing the walkround of our aircraft yesterday I found a refuellers anti-static connector pin still in the wing of our jet. This pin is about 15cm long, quite heavy and looks like a steel headphone jack, but much bigger. Approximately 5cm of it fits into the wing and the remaining 10 cm hangs out of the wing with the cable attached to the refueller(obviously in this case both the cable and the refueller were not there!!) :) Anyway I pulled it out (it wasn't attached to anything but the aircraft) and continued the walkround.

Anyway, long and short of it was the jet had come in from Copenhagen that morning and had not been refuelled prior to us getting to it. We reached the jet before our engineers that day, so they hadn't a hand in it. Therefore we surmise that the connector pin had been inserted in Copenhagen during refuelling and had become detached from its cable and subsequently left there. The aircraft had flown back to the UK with it still in. Given that we've normally completed our walkrounds prior to the re-fuellers getting there and refuelling is automatic, there would have been no way for our in-bound crew to have checked it. Additionally 'our' engineers at CPH are supposed to do a pre-departure walkround and confirm that everything is as it should be.

The pin was easy to see and also very easy to remove and could have dropped out at anytime from taxi to landing. Wouldn't fancy kicking that up at V1!.

Anyone else found 'interesting things' attached/stuck to their aircraft? Come on don't be shy.

[kabz]

After my 3rd and 4th glider solo flights, I was putting the aircraft away and getting it tied down, and both static ports were still taped. Obviously not untaped in the preflight.

This explained the crazy lag I had noticed on the altimeter. It had lagged about 10 secs behind where I actually was, and slightly upset my initial pattern entry, but I had disregarded it and flown base & final visually like I've been taught.

That was a bit embarrasing, and potentially dangerous for someone flying 'on the gauges'.

[alosaurus]

Our Non Destructive Test department had an X Ray black museum,mainly of tools left inside wing tanks.Included 2 Kg hammer,cutters etc.The best one was a shot of a 110 volt hand lamp which showed the bulb filament clear as day. :eek:

[BEagle]

They did a thorough check of an aeroplane I was due to air test one day and found:

1. The stall protetion isolation system had never been connected.

2. The lift rate modifier had never been connected - the input cables from the flap and slat position sensors were found to have been just tucked behind the black box without being connected to anything, so alpha modification for configuration had never been applied to the stall protection system.

3. A BOAC silver first-class teaspoon was found lodged in the structure below the flight deck.

But this was in 1998 - the aircraft had been sold by BOAC to Gulf Air years earlier, had then been bought back by the RAF after Gulf had finished with it and had then been rebuilt by BWoS at Filton. Yet none of these faults had been detected in over 30 years of service...........

[Skycop]

Mate of mine came back with 10 yards of coax cable wrapped around his aircraft's pitot head and the 200 yards of DOM 10 steel comms cable attached to it trailing behind the aircraft.

Just don't ask what happened to the army signaller wearing the headphones on the other end..... :eek:

[gaunty]

alosaurus
In the long ago as the distributor for a large airframe manufacturer our regulator required us to basically rebuild the aircraft as part of the rego process due to their insistence that the manufacturer and their regulator didn't have a clue. :rolleyes:

Notwithstanding that, over the years we built up quite a collection of factory tools and instruments even a crib box (complete with leftover lunch).

Mate flew a Navy Tracker that had been through two refits in it's life, found himself going around in circles with a jammed aileron. Was an interesting carrier arrival.
Anyway investigation found a Grumman "torch" in the wingtip that must have been there from new.

And I'm still looking for that CR3 whizwheelsI dropped down the side of the side and hasn't been seen since. :D

[BOAC]

Hey Beagle, you leave my teaspoons alone.

Old 'story' about the Lockheed Electra where a 3-legged stool was allegedly found in a wing tank after several years of service. It was said that the rivetters used to sit on such to do the upper surface of the tank.

No - I don't know what happened to.........

[Continuous Ignition]

Several years back when I was working as an A&P for a cargo outfit. We picked up a 727-200 with a fresh "C" check and cargo mod and ferried it over to Guam and start up an operation.

After being on the island for a month or so and this aircraft making several trips to the smaller islands to pick up cargo (fresh fish) the crew departed PTRO enroute back to PGUM.

Just after liftoff and upon gear retraction, the RT MLG wouldn't lock in the up position. After flying around a bit, trying to T/S the problem. The weather at PTRO went below min's (NBD APPR).

The crew elected to continue on to PGUM with the one leg down and after a while they found out that the fuel burn was too excessive to continue on and elected to try for PTYA which was hovering around mins too.

They landed safely at PTYA and had an A&P look the gear over and he signed it off "no fault found" and they gassed up continued on to PGUM.

After liftoff at PTYA, same thing happened again and the crew just left the gear in the UP pos and continued home.

When it arrived, I looked the gear over really well with special attention to the UPLOCK assy.

And sure enough, a piece of phenolic block was jammed up in the lock assy, between it and the spring bungee, keeping the uplock actuator from rotating the hook over and holding the gear up.

Needless to say, we wanted to kick some serious arse at that repair station.

[Track]

With instructions from our tech dept. we were trying to reset a software fault that had showed after parking. We tryed to find the reset switch in the avionics bay but all we found was a VERY large screwdriver. It went awfully quiet on the other side when we asked about this new piece of equipment...

Heard from a colleague: After landing a passenger stated that when the spoilers extended during landing he had seen a hammer between the wing panels. After investigating the wing it turned out to be true...

[Capt Claret]

Years ago as a gofer, I was taxiing a brand new PA31-350 that had just completed it's Aussie CofA (circa '78) when a multitude of warning lights came on, including fuel warnings.

Investigation revealed a plastic electrical connector of the male/female type with a multitude of cables running in to each terminal block.

The problem was that the male part was several sizes too small for the female part, and was held in place by a plastic zip-tie! :eek:

[Dan Winterland]

Did the last flight of a classic British Bomber a few years ago. It was then taken apart by BWoS to see how it was faring with regards to the projected fatigue life. When the leading edge was removed, a large and interesting tool was found. It appeared to be a 'long distance rivetter' fabricated from a standard rivetter with 6 foot long poles welded to the handles. It bore the aircraft manufacturer's logo and had been left in there for the whole of the aircraft's life, and weighed about 12 pounds!

[27driver]

Back in my instructor days, there was a 152 which consistently yawed to the right as you entered slow flight, and when you progressed even slower down the power curve, the right wing always dropped in the incipient stage of a spin. :mad: I had other instructors fly this bird to ensure it wasn't my students nervous legs pressing the rudder pedal. Sure enough, they found the same tendecy. Our maintenance looked it over, examined the angle of incidence on each wing, checked the rudder and the trim. All "normal". :mad: We all found this a little odd. This aircraft flew in such state until it reached it's airframe inspection again, when maintenance opened an inspection panel to view the rigging of the aileron. Sure enough there was a wrench wedged in the panel, which caused just enough deflection of the aileron to cause our problems. The controls moved freely, didn't snag during the "free and correct" portion of the checklist, and didn't make a sound when we did spin it. Next time let the maintenace engineers fly your machine immediately after it's out of the shop..... :D

[Dave Incognito]

This is slightly off topic, but good nonetheless. Originally posted by Sheep Guts in D&G:

A Citation is taxing behind a 727-200.

Cit. Pilot: Tower Citation (callsign) has a request.

Tower: Go ahead request.

Cit. Pilot: Could the 727 in front of me call me on a discreet frequency please.

Tower: Roger. 727 (callsign) did you read that request Sir?

72. Capt: Affirm TOWER and the answer is negative we have no time, we are about to line up.

Cit Pilot immediately: Well tell the 727 Capt if he has no time to talk, maybe he has time to pull out his Gear Pins! :D

[Capt Claret]

I know of a LAME who couldn't get the lower engine cowl of an old PA-28-180 to fit, as due to another problem, with the engine mounts, the hole for the nosewheel strut didn't match the position of the nosewheel.

So he got out a hacksaw and modified the lower cowl! :eek:

[Mango]

was doing a pre-flight inspection only to find the SAS system rigged the wrong way. To cut a long story short, the stick pusher did not push at the stall but pulled up! :eek:

[411A]

Sometimes it's not the bit that's there, it could be the bit that ain't.
Some years ago SV had a TriStar with the right landing gear fixed door missing, flying 'round for three days before anyone noticed. :eek:

[QAVION]

The most horrific story I've heard of late relating to "extra bits" is the one about the human body/remains found in one of the main fuel tanks of a large jetliner... Apparently, he was an engineer who had been sealed in by a workmate during maintenance on the fuel tanks, not realising he was still in there.

Can't remember the precise details of how he was discovered, but I believe there was some kind of problems with fuel feed/indication.

Very sobering.

Rgds.
Q.

[Dragonspet]

Unfortunately all professionals in this industry on occasion has the opportunity to deal with the blatant ignorance that exist. At my previous employer (no names mentioned) a KLM 747 was inducted for an “A” check and a few squawks off the logbook. One of the write-ups happened to be a leaking nose gear retract actuator. The maintenance package was signed off a maintenance release statement was bought off by the chief inspector, yet the aircraft is still on our ramp curious as to what the hold up was I went out to the line and was in total disbelief with what I witnessed taking place. The tug was still connected and a mechanic was up in the nose wheel well with a short handled 10 lb. Sledge hammer beating the crap out of the gear pin in an effort to dislodge the pin, this along with the tug driver jerking the plane back and forth. The pilots are on board mind you, as a member of the Quality assurance department I am somewhat concerned with this process. I call up to the pilots and recommend we depressurize the hydraulics system in an effort to release the binding of the gear pin he responds “ No worries mate this happens all the time” :eek:

[Lu Zuckerman]

When I was techrep at Sikorsky a French Army operated H-34 suffered fuel starvation over a mountainous area and in the process of autorotation they severely damaged the lower fuselage. When they opened the forward fuel tank they found a fuel soaked piece of cardboard about ten inches square draped over the fuel pickup blocking off all flow to the engine. One side of the cardboard was blank and the other was red with white lettering. The lettering said “ remove this lock before installing the valve”.

My boss gave me the piece of cardboard and I recognized it. I went down to the fuel tank installation area in the shop and borrowed a float valve. This valve operated much like the float in an SU carburetor or in a toilet. I brought the valve back to my boss and removed it from its container. In order to prevent damage to the metering valve the manufacturer placed a lock in the mechanism to prevent the movement of the float. I removed the lock and unrolled it and on it said remove this lock before installing the valve. Sikorsky ended up footing the repair bill.

Along with the floating cardboard the French Army also sent along several women’s hair pins, twenty or thirty human hairs and several chewing gum wrappers.

Needless to say, Sikorsky tightened up their quality control and the women had to wear hair nets and caps.

[Capt Claret]

A colleague (and former SBP) from the late 80's did a stint as a mercinary in Qatar after he left the employ of HM RAF.

Walking past an operational Comet/Nimrod he noticed that the machine only had 3 engines installed.

.......................

One day due to heavy rain I managed to perform the daily inspection on an Islander in record quick time.

Same colleague, wearing his Senior Pilot hat rang me after I'd arrived back at the airport and said that he'd had a call from BASI (The Australian Bureau of Air Safety Investigation) enquiring of an Islander exhaust that had detached from an aeroplane and thudded into a garden near the lady of the house who was gardening.

I checked the aircraft, it had stopped raining by now, and sure enough the exhaust stub was missing. It had detached the previous day when my colleague was flying.

Boy did I learn a good lesson about not rushing D.Is.