Lost & Found
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,681
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From: Just South of the last ice sheet
Lost & Found
Prompted by a comment in Pinksters thread about her new headset I thought I'd ask y'all out there what is the daftest thing you've ever found in an aeroplane when cleaning or maintaining it?
I found a ladies glove under the carpet behind the seats in my old Aerobat along with some cents from the US of A. This in an aircraft that had lived in the UK for a number of years by the time I got around to buying and cleaning it. Were they missed during the Annual Inspections or were they put there for a laugh??? When I removed the inner door panels to replace them with shiny new ones without ashtrays in, a cigarette butt fell onto the floor. Somebody had been luckier than they ever knew I think...
As mentioned in pinkster's thread, I once saw 5 pencils recovered from the rear fuselage of a Tiger Moth.
I found a ladies glove under the carpet behind the seats in my old Aerobat along with some cents from the US of A. This in an aircraft that had lived in the UK for a number of years by the time I got around to buying and cleaning it. Were they missed during the Annual Inspections or were they put there for a laugh??? When I removed the inner door panels to replace them with shiny new ones without ashtrays in, a cigarette butt fell onto the floor. Somebody had been luckier than they ever knew I think...
As mentioned in pinkster's thread, I once saw 5 pencils recovered from the rear fuselage of a Tiger Moth.
Why do it if it's not fun?
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4,782
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From: Bournemouth
I think a longer thread would be what other people have found in aircraft I've flown. A couple of people will have found stopwatches I've lost, several will have found pencils, and more than a few will have found clip-on sun-glasses.
As for what I've found... apart from the usual half-drunk bottles of water, half-eaten sun-softened packs of chewing gum and so on, nothing very interesting at all. Except for a pen which had fallen through the floor of a Super Cub and lodged itself quite nicely next to the control column, ready to jam up as soon as the aircraft was put into the correct unusual attitude
FFF
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As for what I've found... apart from the usual half-drunk bottles of water, half-eaten sun-softened packs of chewing gum and so on, nothing very interesting at all. Except for a pen which had fallen through the floor of a Super Cub and lodged itself quite nicely next to the control column, ready to jam up as soon as the aircraft was put into the correct unusual attitude
FFF
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or worse it could be your missus dropping heavy hints 
)
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,681
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From: Just South of the last ice sheet
stik finding part of the structure doesn't count 
still, it's nice to know what the ar*e end of a Pitts is made of 
Flap 40 did the flamingos reduce the take off run or were they sitting peacfully? The question I really want to ask is what the Hell did you have 21 real, live flamingos in a PA-28 for
Evo was that because someone said "I'd give my eye teeth for a go in that (add aircraft of choice here)__________".
still, it's nice to know what the ar*e end of a Pitts is made of Flap 40 did the flamingos reduce the take off run or were they sitting peacfully? The question I really want to ask is what the Hell did you have 21 real, live flamingos in a PA-28 for
Evo was that because someone said "I'd give my eye teeth for a go in that (add aircraft of choice here)__________".
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 480
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From: Livin de island life
A nest. complete with live baby birdies
Inside the vertical stabiliser of a Heliocourier. The nest was invisible at preflight and the birds were silent until after their flight!
I didn't fly it, but was the only one with hands small enough to extricate the babies from their hiding place. Five were still alive and protesting loudly.
I didn't fly it, but was the only one with hands small enough to extricate the babies from their hiding place. Five were still alive and protesting loudly.
Joined: Aug 2000
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From: Norfolk
The 3 legged milking stool was not in the Pitts (they don't have tailcones!).
It was in a Vulcan B2 0ver 20 years ago. It was suggested that the "bucker" had sat on it whilst his oppo drove the rivets probably during a major overhaul.
Stik
It was in a Vulcan B2 0ver 20 years ago. It was suggested that the "bucker" had sat on it whilst his oppo drove the rivets probably during a major overhaul.
Stik
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 605
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From: Midlands
Bolt in the static pipe
Following a 50 hour at a maintenance facility I don't use any more(!!!), my mate was plagued by low suction (oh well - it happens to us all........!).
For convenience he took the aircraft, a Cherokee, elsewhere to have the fault looked into . The fault was quickly found to be a bolt - presumably used temporarily blank one of the static pipes(not sure of the exact detail) - that had not been subsequently removed.
All the original facility would do was give his letters a stiff ignoring, refuse to return the bolt and spread it around that my mate (a professional honest as the day is long sort of a bloke) had put it in there in an endeavour to avoid paying the bill.
In reality, all he wanted them to do was deduct the bill for the investigation/ remedial work from their 50-hour invoice.
This is the same M3 facility that stiffed me for a new oil cooler - one that miraculously failed catastrophicaly (a 20ft oil slick) during the post 50-hour ground run - and decided to chuck the old one (200 hours from new) away before anybody (the CAA and the manufacturer for example?) could take a look.
Guess what response I have got to my letters?
Yep - a stiff ignoring.
HP
For convenience he took the aircraft, a Cherokee, elsewhere to have the fault looked into . The fault was quickly found to be a bolt - presumably used temporarily blank one of the static pipes(not sure of the exact detail) - that had not been subsequently removed.
All the original facility would do was give his letters a stiff ignoring, refuse to return the bolt and spread it around that my mate (a professional honest as the day is long sort of a bloke) had put it in there in an endeavour to avoid paying the bill.
In reality, all he wanted them to do was deduct the bill for the investigation/ remedial work from their 50-hour invoice.
This is the same M3 facility that stiffed me for a new oil cooler - one that miraculously failed catastrophicaly (a 20ft oil slick) during the post 50-hour ground run - and decided to chuck the old one (200 hours from new) away before anybody (the CAA and the manufacturer for example?) could take a look.
Guess what response I have got to my letters?
Yep - a stiff ignoring.
HP
