Have you been saved by a PreFlight?

[A check]

How obvious was the fault, engineers, weather damage, vandals etc?

[Arm out the window]

This is already off the thread track, but does have some relevance!
For obvious faults I don't think you can go past the supposedly true story of a student at RAAF 2FTS in Pearce WA in the days of the Macchi who was particularly slack at doing his walkaround.
His instructor one day teed up the maintenance crew to nominate an obviously unserviceable aircraft for their flight, and sent Bloggsie off to preflight it.
A little while later the instructor strolled out to the aircraft, requested our hero to unstrap, and took him round the aircraft once more to spot any little things that could possibly have stopped them getting airborne.
After some prompting, this aviating Sherlock Holmes finally noticed that the lack of an engine might perhaps have led to a few problems getting out of the carport.

[ShyTorque]

In my experience it's often the obvious things that get missed. Found quite a few instances of helicopter cowlings etc left closed but unsecured by hassled engineers after their daily check "A". I once lifted an RAF Puma to the hover and the entire instrument panel fell down across the cyclic. The securing clips were fastened but not engaged, allowing it to pivot backwards. Fortunately we were two pilot ops that day and the other pilot lifted it up very quickly....

On the other hand, I once left the oil cap off a helicopter engine oil reservoir and rustproofed the entire engine bay, fortunately without losing all the oil. Silly me!

Spotted a disconnected static pipe at the water trap in the lefthand footwell of a C152. They decided it had probably flown 100 hrs plus since it had come out of maintenance like that.

Once fitted an extra nosewheel (from a pram, very nice with shiny chrome spokes) on the towing arm attachment lug of a Puma to see if the Squadron "Ace" would find it on his walkround. He didn't and because he kicked the tyres and lit the fires so quickly we got taken by surprise and had a bit of difficulty stopping him getting airborne with it still attached. Won't do that again! :rolleyes:

[GLSNightPilot]

Several years ago after having shut down at a base for lunch & a break (that didn't happen often!) I went out to my AS350D & noticed a couple of grackles perched on the engine intake screen. These birds will eat anything, & aren't my favorite species. The LTS101 Lycoming engine installed in the Death Star has the air intake on top of the engine, & a screen covers most of it, but a couple of inches at the rear is open. On a hunch, I climbed up & looked down in there. The grackles had found someone's discarded Kentucky Fried Chicken, & dropped the bones down inside the engine intake. It took some doing to get them all out, & if I hadn't checked, those bones would have soon been through the engine & out the exhaust, along with some compressor blades, I expect. During the summer, 206's sometimes have tree frogs go through the engine - usually they're small enough that there's just a hiccup, but sometimes it causes a forced landing. We install intake covers during the summer to try to keep them out.

I've also had a mockingbird build a nest in my intakes, & it wouldn't give up. Twigs, bits of wire, whatever it could find, it kept putting in there until I installed the intake plugs. It then built a nest in a BO105 on the next pad, inside the engine cowling.

[MBJ]

Found an empty coke can in the exhaust of an L-1 once that some idiot vandals had left. That made the rest of the walkaround pretty detailed!

Big thing to watch for is dirty/discoloured oil sight glasses. Always nice to check closely that there is oil behind the glass. I've had a tail rotor drive failure as a direct result of that and I know there was a Lynx fatal for a similar reason.

[[email protected]]

A mate of mine ended up in ground resonance in a Wessex because he didn't spot that one of the blade damper locks had been left in - he didn't spot the 2 foot long red tag attached to it because the engineer had helpfully wrapped it tightly around the lock so it was almost impossible to see at 4 am on a rainy Belfast morning.

I was taking the new Sqn EngO flying in a Wessex in Cyprus and he helped on the walkround by climbing up the port side to open the transmission decking as I did the same on the starboard side. As we faced each other acroos the decking I noticed an 8 inch long paintbrush wedged amongst the control runs from the mixing unit to the jacks. Needless to say we didn't go flying and the engineers quickly discovered it was not a good idea to embarrass their new boss!

[greenarrow]

About 6 weeks ago whilst carrying out an A check on a 206 with the owners son in law. I found the thomas coupling bolts on the tail rotor drive shaft loose. This is the shaft from the oil cooler fan to the tail rotor drive shaft. This aircraft had been flown several times in this state including a flight by the chief pilot of the maintenance organisation,after annual inspection. This item is subjet to an AD and this had not been completed. The CAA have been investigating this incident so therefore no more to be said. Beware the B**T**Ds will get you if you depend on trust.:eek:

[A check]

It is easy to get lax, stories like these keep the mind active, I am still hoping to find something wrong, oh well, if I keep checking maybe someday!

[Bladestrike]

My first was when my licence was still wet, frayed tail rotor control cables on a Bell 47, you're allowed three frayed cables, there were three left holding. Also found a cooling fan belt holding on by threads. Found an engine oil line untightened after an inspection on a 206, found rags and tools under a 206's cowling more than once, and there was a transmission cap left off. On twins there's engineers taking a good look at the birds prior to us crawling all over them every morning so not much gets missed, although I do know of a 76 thats had the engine cowling flap up into the rotor system while in flight for a missed latch, flashlights flying across the ramp when the heads engaged, and oxygen bottles left on the gear door that planted themselves firmly into someones driveway when the gear were put up through 500 feet.

Timely topic, as discussion has been going around our op of letting the engineers handle the walk-around and pilots just doing the control checks. It probally won't go, while our base engineers are first rate, some of our third world ops don't have the same level of confidence, and it would have to be a company wide SOP.

I rather enjoy climbing up onto the ole girl to have a look before lighting the fires.

[Irlandés]

Remember reading on a previous post (can't remember where or where or who) about someone who preflighted his jetranger, started her up, noticed some funny vibration, shut her down and on examination couldn't find a tail rotor. Apparently his friend had borrowed it for his machine. :rolleyes:

[Tail Bloater]

This one is for those of you that fly with Fenestrons.

Moons ago, in Norway, flew to a distant outpost in support of Infantry. It was a two day exercise. Weather lovely and sunny but this was only a benefit up on the mountain tops. Down in the valleys it was brass monkey cold. During the pre-flight the morning of day two I was busy clearing the snow off the fuselage and when at the Fenestron discovered that the fenestron blades were firmly stuck to the ducting by ice. Luckily I had by this stage not hand turned the main rotor blades nor of course started the rotors. So now, no matter what the weather, I always check that there is no debris in the fenestron - ice or otherwise before doing anything else.

This one was pure luck that I spotted it. Doing a walk round prior to flight one afternoon. This H300 had flown already that day and was still warm. As I scanned down the port skid something caught my eye. Something looked awkward/not quite as I was used to. Upon closer inspection I found that the skid was cracked radially just infront of the front upright and was at a slightly higher angle than normal. We were planned to do running take-off and landings as part of a limited power review. Didn't fly that machine. Another H300 on another day. Noticed that the locking wire was broken on the nut which hold the tail rotor drive shaft to the tail rotor drive and that the nut had backed off a good way.

I have a wonderful collection of mechanics tools as I believe that what I find hidden away after a Servicing is mine. Spanners under MRGB's are difficult to retrieve. The military have a stringent tool control system and I can say that none of my tools have come from that source.

Post engineering is perhaps the most critical time for all sorts of demons to lurk.

In most cases within the wording of the flight manuals is mention that on close down after flight one should listen for strange noises.
Had this been done by the previous pilot the fault I found during a pre-flight would have been discovered, snagged and the fault rectified. In the early 70ties I was doing my pre-flight on an Alouette 2 and swinging the rotor blade round found that I couldn't move the rotors round. Initially thinking that the rotor brake was locked in the 'ON' position, I returned to the cabin to release the brake. It was 'OFF'. The problem was that the MRGB was seized for some reason. I snagged the aircraft and signed out another for the flight.

I shudder when I see pilots walk up to their helicopter with nothing more than a cursory glance and fly away. I'm not that trusting.
Fuel caps left off by refuellers is a favourite.

[EESDL]

After a night stop 'in the field' (back of a Hotel!!) found dor of 206 open! Yep drunks had decided to play airwolf and nicked the firstaid kit and emptied the fire bottle. Very detailed walk round followed.
Just goes to sho that no matter how secure you think some place is, some c@nt will spoil it for you.

[CyclicRick]

MBJ

Yes that lynx story is true, I knew the crew very well, in fact the pilot was the last chap I flew with when I left the AAC and it happend about 3-4 months after I'd left. Funnily enough that's one of the things I really do check on my BF, things like that stick when they are closer to home.

One engineer asked me to do a ground run on a 205 once, I walked back in after ten seconds and asked him to put the main rotor back on first!
Red faced or what?

[MASTER_CAUTION]

I always do a better postflight than preflight inspection,anyway, climbed up to the rotorhead on a B206 after spraying powerline right of ways for 6.5 hours to find a cracked main rotor grip through the blade bolt hole. It was big enough to put the blade of my pocketknife in.....

[Steve76]

So Bladestrike.....

Do you know something about that cowl latch we should know? Perhaps you have chatted to those pilots involved?....No?
Interesting accusation considering you were not there and don't know all of the facts.

[Bladestrike]

So Steve....

Interesting accusation indeed! I didn't get this moniker for being perfect, just adding to the theme of the thread. Though I did take credit for all the many scew-ups I've made.

No, I'm sure the latch failed and no-one was to blame, my heart-felt apologies to the crew involved.

[Lu Zuckerman]

I had one case where my inattention could have caused a crash. I tanked up an HO3-S 1G for an early morning flight to look for a lost girl. The pilot ran out of gas about ten miles out and made a successful autorotation. It seems that someone siphoned the gas during the night.

However I had several face saving incidents where I prevented a crash. At an air show in Everett, Washington I was strolling about looking at rotorheads with my camera that had a 35-105 lens with a 2X multiplier. I looked very closely at the rotorhead of an UH-60 Blackhawk. I noticed a piece that seemed to be missing and I told the pilot about it. He told me that I was mistaken and what I thought was a missing part was really an accumulation of Mastinox which is a water sealant. I told him what I thought and left. About an hour later I returned to find the pilot standing on the roof of the Blackhawk staring vacantly into the sunset. The helicopter stayed there for several days until a replacement rotorhead could be installed.

On another occasion in Germany I attended a small airshow and doing what I do I was looking at rotorheads and tail rotors. On a brand new B-206 EMS helicopter rotorhead I spotted what I thought was a crack. I found the pilot and I told him about it. He took a look from the ground and he told me it was a streak of grease. I looked again from several different points and told him it was a crack. He climbed on the roof and verified that it was indeed a crack. This helicopter came out of the factory with the crack. The helicopter was trucked back to the home base.

:cool:

[RobboRider]

Parked the machine on a hospital helipad once. About 8 hours later came and preflighted it. Nothing unusual.
Had my helmet under the seat dragged it out - just about to stick it on the old noggin and saw something in it - a fist size ball of ants with bits of grass, sticks and ant larvae. That would have felt good if I'd got it on before I notice the nest.:eek:

I wonder if this is more a reflection on the smell of the inside of my helmet

Now part of my preflight is ensure there's a thin circle of grease around the skid strut:D :D

[StevieTerrier]

Just got my FAA CPL and was time-building in Long Beach, so very "professional" with my pre-flights. (= actually did one before every flight)

One R22 had just had an NDB antenna plus associated co-ax cable replaced. Can we go off and test it? Opened the cowl to find that the avionics man had tie-wrapped the new cable to the tail-rotor control rod as well as the aircraft frame.

[handyandyuk]

A few months ago I was flying the same R22 every couple of weeks and so got quite familiar... to the extent of cutting my pre filght to a quick walk round, sightglass and con rod check, light up and drive off.
This rapidly changed when an older private driver, watching this young pup asked how confident I was with my checks? To keep this short he pointed out that despite the fuel guage showing about half in both tanks, actually dipping the tanks revealed that I was about to attempt an hours flight with roughly half an hours fuel.
Now, I physically dip the tanks EVERY preflight.

[KikoLobo]

I mean, today i saw something out of the ordinary, nothing serious, although alarming, it was difficult to get the mechanics to put seriousness into the matter, as if i was the stupid one!

Doing a pre-flight on my Jet-Ranger, i saw one of the shaft yellow templates or tele-temps, go black on me on on the side of the engine, so i stopped there and looked for a mechanic, and finally i got a hold of one, who's not a company mechanic... I pointed out the problem and what does this guy says to me :

NO PROBLEM! That happens a lot....

And i say.... AND THEN WHAT?

Well, you can complete the flight and we keep monitoring the RED ONE....

And i say... WELL I DON'T THINK THAT's THE ANSWER I WANT...

I saw another old timer pilot friend and asked him, and he said to me... Hmm That might be dirt....

And i say... AND IF IT ISN'T?

And he says.... Well if it isn't it might be that someone while cleaning poured a chemical there and made the template react...

And i say... Thanks, BUT NO THANKS!

I even thought for a second that i was the paranoid one, until i remember who's ass is going flying and who's ass is going to fall from the sky....

So i go and call one of my friends who happened to be a great mechanic while i got in touch with one of the company's mechanics, and he says :

Well.. did you saw some grease leaking from the shaft?
I say no....

He says... well that's the first symptom of a shaft getting hotter than it should.

What about the other side of the shaft...
I say No.....

He says, Ok...

That usually happens when the template gets old. I guess the best thing to do is put another template in that shaft and see what it says in the next 10 hours (offcours checking it every flight), if it goes black again, or the reds start to go black then you need to remove the shaft and re-pack it....

Well that sounded a bit more thoughtful..

The morale of this post, is that sometimes even we as pilots do our pre-flight and sometimes even get pushed to do by the expert "Mechanics" to do things that we don't feel are right.... So Are we paranoid or are we doing our job?

Even though i don't feel i got saved by pre-flight, some of you old timers might have a story to share where you actually got saved by pre-flight.

[jayteeto]

Great title to the thread. I thought it was something to do with beans at first. Lots of horror stories from walkrounds pre-flight. What about a big military helicopter that had the tail rotor blades fitted the wrong way around?? Or the Jet Provost pilot at Cranwell who didnt walk around and got airborne with the pitot cover still on at night. He couldnt figure why there was no airspeed and had to yank back when the red lights appeared in front of him.

[KikoLobo]

When the mechanics did a run up of a missed assembled rotor head on the 206B jesus bolt came off and the rotor when't flying without the helicopter and landed in a house backyard :)

True story...

[Gaseous]

After having work on the TR including dynamic balance up to full RPM.
Engineering inspection and duplicate inspection carried out.

I had done the walk around and it looked OK. Got in, started engine, did full and free checks before engaging clutch. While looking out at TR noticed there seemed to be reverse pitch on blades with right pedal and no pitch with left pedal. Shut down and phoned engineer. He said I was mistaken so I insisted he came to check. All looked OK but after close examination we found the pitch horns had been put on reversed.:eek:

[rotorboy]

Kiko,
I wouldnt worry too much about a single dot on a teletemp.. watch it, replace it, take your friends advice. Now if the whole tele temp discolored, that would be a different story.

Just a few things I have found over my career - not from my present employer
Torn hyd belt, about to break
Siezed t/r pitch links
Worn out P/C links
busted/cracked hoses
Damaged Starflex ( very scary)
oil filler caps left off
unsafteyed wired bolts, etc
major leaks
powdering rivits
sheet metal crack
Ding in a blade ( not my handy work)
Dual controls installed but not bolted in
Tools left where they shoudlnt be
rags in the eng compartment

I could continue, but I will leave some for the rest;)
Always double check after any maintence. I always want to know exactly what was done or removed. There are very few people I trust with my saftey, besides my self. Never allow your self to be pushed. I am lucky that I work for someone who will back me 110% if I feel flying something is unsafe. They may not pay the most but knowing hat there is never any pressure to fly something that is not right, is worth making less money.

rb

[KikoLobo]

You are right, in the robies is quite often normal to find a teletemp darked. In a jet ranger there are 6 or 8 dots per color of teletemp or template.
The yellow indicates a warning and the red teletemp indicates something is friting...
The only place where you find teletemps on older 206's are in the main shaft from the turbine engine to the main transmission (actually from the accesory gearbox to the engine)... It has 2 strips of teletemps, each strip of different color... One yellow and one red, each has different sensibilities, so a whole strip of teletemp dots going nuts, means more than one dot on a robie, which in a single sticker you have different temperature scales..... Here you have several dots sensitive to the same temp.
Thanks for the msg... And i sure wish to hear more stories where pre-flight had saved the day!

[TiPwEiGhT]

Away to do a track and balance flight on a R22, got to the aircraft and found the engineer sitting in it ready to go. Luckily I never trust anybody elses pre-flight and always insist I do my own. When I got up top to the head I found that the pitch link jam nuts on the blade horn had the bolts on about 2 threads and were rattling about. A very grateful engineer got out the aircraft and thanked me for doing a thourgh pre-flight.
As the thread starter said, it's our asses that will be up there...
TiP:ouch:

[Flingwing207]

-Loose (as in rattling loose) alternator - 300CB :bored:
-Buckled tailboom from hard landing (not mine) - R22 :ooh:
-Mis-assembled main rotor pitch links to pitch horns - 300CBi :hmm:
-Oil drain plug not safty wired AND on the way out - 300CBi :eek:
Most likely, only the last one would have caused trouble on that flight, the other three, well, sometime, somewhere, someone.

[Gomer Pylot]

On an AS350, maintenance had put a clear plastic bag on the pitot tube, held in place by a rubber band. The bag was just wide enough to fit over the tube. My preflight in the dark didn't catch it, and I discovered that I had no airspeed after flying about 10 miles. Oh well, we don't need no steenkin' airspeed indications. Landed on my destination platform, shut down, and removed the bag.

Most of the problems I've found on preflight have been b1rd debris. Starlings left chicken bones inside the intake of an AS350D, and a mockingbird kept trying to build a nest inside the intake of a B206, using pieces of safety wire and sticks. The occasional red rag has been found, but not lately. Other than that, over the past 30+ years I've found very little to worry about on preflights.

[The Rotordog]

All I can say about this thread is :eek: Holy crap!

Gomer Pylot:On an AS350, maintenance had put a clear plastic bag on the pitot tube, held in place by a rubber band. The bag was just wide enough to fit over the tube. My preflight in the dark didn't catch it, and I discovered that I had no airspeed after flying about 10 miles. Oh well, we don't need no steenkin' airspeed indications. Landed on my destination platform, shut down, and removed the bag. Well they say that confession is good for the soul, but umm, you finally figured out you had no ASI ten miles down the road?! So I guess you're not one of those OCD/anal-repressive pilots who likes to climb out at BROC, huh? Just pick an attitude and go? Man, I wish I were that good! I mean, I am "pretty" good at nailing the right climb attitude, but I do double-check the panel (torque, t's & p's) and other assorted cockpit stuff once levelled off and take-off power is reduced. Which usually happens before the 10-mile mark is reached... YMMV.

And rotorboy, if I were you I'd find another employer! Good God, man! Those helicopters are accidents looking for a place to happen, and I'd hate it to be you at the controls when one does.

Me, well in over 25 years of flying I must have been extremely lucky. My preflight "catches" have been thankfully few. Once I found a mallet lying on the trans deck of a 206L, just inside and forward of the access door. Maybe it would have caused problems, maybe not. Secondly, while preflighting on an offshore platform I found a ratchet wrench and an open-end wrench lying on the top of the left-hand (tailrotor side!) horizontal stab. Don't know how or why I caught that one, being that I'm short and the ship was up on pop-outs, but from then on my preflight included a peek at the tops of those little tool-rest platforms.

[SASless]

One simple event as an example...

Came on shift, Bell 212, write-up showing Tail Rotor change done, signed off, test flown and found satisfactory.

Grabs my Ass Jack (usually called a Step ladder)...climbed up to check the tail rotor. Immediately climbed down and fetched my camera....took a full roll of photos from every angle possible including witnesses and bystanders known by name.

One tail rotor pitch change link dangling loose at one end, no bolt, nut, split pin or anything. The other one was done up almost finger tight with no split pins.

Called the Chief Pilot and suggested some manpower realignment. Response was "What's the problem....you found it okay? No harm done." No one got fired, fined, or reprimanded or shifted to another operation.

I finished the season then went elsewhere without a second thought. The Salmon fishing on the other side of Cook Inlet was great.

[Thomas coupling]

Rotorboy - you've shot your foot big time with that confession.

How on earth does one takeoff (commercially) and AT NIGHT and NOT notice the airspeed (Vy Vtoss etc etc). Where was your scan mate????

God help the industry you're in:ugh:

[mikelimapapa]

I was preflighting a 300CBi that had just come back from a 100hr and found one of the mechanics had left a mirror used to check the timing stuck in between the fan scroll and firewall.

Another time I was checking the oleo dampers on a 300CBi and I thought the oleo dampers were too weak to fly. Normally, I would have waited till I could get another machine to fly, but it was for a commercial checkride and the examiner had to catch a flight home. So I got a mechanic to check them out for me and got the ok. Luckily nothing happened while I was flying it, but the poor bastard who flew it after me got ground resonance!:eek:

[HeliEng]

As a bit of twist to the thread, how many of you guys have made an error and either not said anything :oh: or embelished the truth slightly? As a couple of examples:

The S76 pilot who whilst taxi-ing clipped the side of a hangar. When confronted he point blank denied it despite 30+ engineers hearing it happen, and the evidence of 4 damaged main rotor blades and damage to the hangar at the perfect height!!! := := :=

OR:

The pilot who on returning to base found a panel missing from his aircraft, but swore blind that it was certainly there on his pre-flight. It was later discovered on a panel rack in the hangar, and had mistakenly not been re-fitted after an inspection!!!! :} :} :}

Just thought I'd ask.

[noooby]

HeliEng, well put. I'd also like to ask how many pilots would work 11 hour shifts 6 days per week performing maintenance on helicopters, and expect to get absolutely everything right the first time. Yes mechanics do make the occasional mistake, usually because they are tired from being overworked to the point of exhaustion. Pilots have a lovely thing called Duty Time. Mechanics have a lovely thing called Boot Up the Arse.
Not condoning sloppiness with work, but don't blame the Mechanic all the time, sometimes the problem is the people who run the company and see good maintenance and good mechanics as a cost that they don't need to be burdened with.
Tonight (I am at work now) is a classic example. 5 Helicopters. All offshore IFR. 3 Mechanics on duty. Last helicopter finishes just before midnight. When it gets back, it has enough inspections due for us to be working for 4 hours just on that machine. That would give me a 13 hour day, just so that it can be online again tomorrow. At 2am, as I am finishing off, at the end of a 13 hour shift, after pulling bits of engine off for inspections, could you guarantee that I will be alert enough to put it all back together properly, and that anybody else on the shift is alert enough to pick up any mistakes??
Food for thought. Must run, another machine has just landed and needs my attention. No smoko again tonight by the look of it.
Pay attention to your Pre-flights, they are there as a safety net.

noooby

[Aesir]

I had no airspeed after flying about 10 miles. Oh well, we don't need no steenkin' airspeed indications.

Hehe.. couldn´t help grinning. Who hasn´t been there. Or wondering why ATC doesn´t answer your calls and you forgot to turn it on :)

Anyway you guy´s know that any tools found in the wrong places on pre-flight become automatically the pilots property and should never be returned to the owner..

[Gomer Pylot]

Nooby, of course pilots have duty limits. It's 14 hours for us. Landing in the dark, 1/4 mile vis, 100 ft ceiling, after 10 hours of flying crew changes in 13.5 hours elapsed time, tired, back hurting from the sorry-assed seat they put in these things, needing to pee an hour ago, we have to get everything right every time. I've spent a lot of time helping mechanics, and respect them greatly, but whether they make a mistake or I do, it's my butt on the line, and their job is no harder than mine.

I have to confess that I never spent much time watching the airspeed or AI while flying small helicopters at 500'. What's the point? We just pulled max cruise power and took whatever airspeed we got. The attitude indicator, small and tired as it was, might or might not indicate the correct attitude, and wouldn't be replaced if it didn't, so it's worthless. Small ships are flown by outside attitude reference, and the only instruments of any importance are those for the engine and RPM. When I started flying IFR mediums, the other instruments started becoming more important, and now I use them all the time, and will see airspeed anomalies during the takeoff run, or else the copilot, calling DP and other airspeeds, will.

Aesir, I have a small collection to tools I acquired over the years, but I generally give them back. The mechanics have to pay a small fortune for them, and returning them, along with an explanation of where I found them, is good insurance against it happening again. Embarrassment is always very obvious, and an effective teacher. It's rare to find one nowadays, because they all have to do a complete tool inventory after every job.

[TwinHueyMan]

Leatherman in an intake, scrub brush in an intake compartment, disconnected antiflap cam springs (after a very frequent little 10 hour inspection that was checked by a tech insp), and best of all some contractors put a laser tag kit on and I found the detector in front of the intake was not bolted on, AND they had removed one of the pegs on my seat to put in their sensor rack which was improperly installed on its own.

"I'd also like to ask how many pilots would work 11 hour shifts 6 days per week performing maintenance on helicopters, and expect to get absolutely everything right the first time."

-- I agree 100%. We were doing 20 hour workdays at the beginning of our last deployment while I was ground-mechanicing, and our bitching and moaning was going nowhere (2 guys taking care of 4 aircraft flying 6-8 hours a day) until a 1AM torque check got some torques confused and broke a bolt head off. They still wondered why it happened... then came total exhaustion a week later and my co-worker and I refused to start a big inspection without proper rest. They finally relented after much resistance and spread the workload out a bit more.

Great thread.

-Mike

[KikoLobo]

So today i walked into the hangar to see the stats of the mechanic working on the 206, this guy removed the shaft and opened the ends of its to check the grease.. He showed it to me and it all looked fairly nice inside, no loquated grease due to temp, no leaks, nice and even on all sides, no signs of cracks or dirtiness in the grease or inside the tube.

He degrease it.. Regrease it with new grease and replaced the seals and offcourse ALL the templates.... Or tele temps.. Men i love this guy!

We'l keep a close eye on those temp-plates..... However the guy did mentioned that they looked very old and out of shape...

So... I;l be up and running tomorrow!!!

THis was nothing serious... Its good to catch things on pre-flight, and although i know this pre-flight probably did not saved me... I think i learned from the experience and work harder on my preflights form now on..

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

[inmate]

As I too suffer from "Sometimerz" I will relate the last fun time I had. Following a maintenance inspection on a 206 I was asked to complete a flight and power check. During my diligent use of the checklist (well most of the time) I carried out the flight controls full freedom of movement and was extreamly suprised to find that when the collective was raised it remained jammed in that position!
First check was for my coffee cup under the collective, any other rubbish followed by any serious tools. Nothing.
I decided at this point that help was in order and I requested maintence to follow through, after a short while it was found that during the inspection the Collective arm that is attached to the swash plate had been installed upside down even though it clearly is stamped with "TOP" on it. When I had put impute in the collective it in turn had placed the upside down arm over center and therefore locked the collective.
This happened because of a series of events, the mechanic was working under supervision (new to the company), the mechanic removed the offending arm by mistake as it was not part of the required inspection, replaced it upside down, the supervisor checked his work but failed to check this installation as he was not aware it had been removed.
No blame being levied here just pointing out the series of events.
The company the next day gave me a hefty cash bonus which for them was better that paying out my widow, I in turn have a very healthly respect for Checklists.
A Sidebar to this is: Had I not completed the control check and pulled 80% or better on takeoff thereby jamming the collect in the up position how would I have safely got the helicopter back on the ground. Discuss over tea or coffee.
Fly safe

[inmate]

Under events leading up to this: The last part was unintentionally ommitted: The pilot failed to notice the incorrect replacement of the collective arm during his "preflight".

[noooby]

Here is one for you inmate, on 412's, the original collective lever had top written on the bottom!! To install the collective lever correctly, the word top had to be facing down. Just like the debris monitor on the 412. It has to be installed so that the data plate is upside down. Makes things interesting when you look after a fleet of different types, with similar looking parts!! Would be nice if manufacturers would sort out this sort of stuff.

noooby

[discobeast]

I was just starting out learning to fly. Had about 5-6 hours under the belt. Did the pre-flight myself and waited for the instructor to join me for start-up. Started-up fine and on the final checks before lifting the pad, my instructor said "Oh S...!!". We shut the machine down quickly and when I opened the door to get out, the whole area around the 22 was just a pool of fuel!! Someone had loosened the fuel-line going into the carb and had just put it back without tightening it. :uhoh: I now check it everytime during my pre-flight.

Another one that did not happen to me but also had something to do with fuel. The South Africans here would love this one. A lawyer flew to a client on a farm somewhere in the veld (bush) with his 22. There was a big braai (BBQ) that evening with people coming from all surrounding farms. Next morning the lawyer wanted to start-up, but could not get it going. Turned-out some farmers thought the 22 looked thirsty too and proceeded to feed it "Klippies en Coke" (Brandy and Coke) the previous evening.

[IHL]

Yes several times:
1 - Fuel related , drained the fuel expecting clear and bright go brownish looking water instead, several letres worth. The conatiments entered the fuel cell during washing activities.
2- Several times on the S-76, wrags in the the engine intake.
3-Damaged compressor.
4-Fodded tail-rotor.