Originally Posted by
nomorehelosforme
Thought it might be interesting to see what has been discovered during Pre Flight Inspections
The good, the bad, the ugly and anything highly unusual or amusing!
Bell 206 involved in locust spraying in Tanzania had not been off the ground long when the pilot thought he was having eyesight problems induced by anti malaria medication.
He appeared to have two cyclic sticks.
Then a forked tongue appeared from the second stick.
The aircraft was rapidly dumped on the ground and evacuated.
The chin windows had bungs in them so they could be cleaned out. One was missing and a snake had Crawled in and nested under the centre console.
It had become rather annoyed by being hit by the rudder pedal bellcrank in flight.
Turned out to be a harmless snake but by then it was dead!!!!
Westland Scout returned to Long Kesh 1975 and appeared to have been hit by ground fire with a large hole in the leading edge of the stabiliser.
As the high and mighty dispered one of the engineers had a jacking handle ready to raise the ground handling wheels.
He tried it in the hole and like Cinderellas glass slipper it was a perfect fit.
At the time the aircraft did not fly with wheels fitted due to weight considerations.
Standard practice was to fit wheels, jack the aircraft and then put a handle on each side the transmission deck.
On this occasion one guy had removed both wheels using the same handle and left the second on the deck..
Pilot missed it on the walkround and the I.R.A received the credit.
Engineering said nothing and indented for a new handle.
At Kesh again with a Scout.
For some reason one of the wheels had had the pins removed but the wheel assembly was still sat on the skid.
Pilot missed it on the walk round and attempted to bomb the Jacobs biscuit factory shortly after take off.
The wheel landed in the car park with no harm done except to the wheel.
Gazelle at Kesh 1976. On pre flight it was noticed that there was a massive diference between the two cyclic sticks viewed from the front.
Engineering had connected one of the underfloor control rods to a rigging pin hole in the bellcrank instead of the attachment hole.
Red faces and questions in the house on the subject of independent inspections.
365C at Strubby circa 1983. Nav light had failed and a new light was fitted with the cable connections crimped.
Shortly afterward the engineer who carried out he task had a light bulb moment and went to the avionics workshop to check that he had returned the crimping tool.
Missing!!!
A walk down the runway produced the tool a couple of hundred yards from the spots.
It had slid off the horizontal stabiliser having been missed on the walk round.
The engineer responsible said nothing to a living soul.
Until now!!!!