Warbird Information Exchange

This post set me thinking
http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34145&view=unread&sid=5b7ecb2f9c15205f186893c6916a45e1#p481617

In every airplane I've taken apart, stripped to re-cover or otherwise open up, I've found at least one lost and abandoned tool. At least a wrench or screwdriver.
In my current glider project there was a pair of 18" Channelock water pump pliers under the floorboard. I have no clue as to why those would even be around the airplane, 'cause there's no fastener big enough on the whole airframe to need them.


What's the oddest / biggest / least appropriate tool you've found lost in the plane?

If this thread takes off, we can follow up with 'largest mummified animal found'

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

I found a pretty rusty bucking bar in the tail of my Yale project.

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Over the years things found inside airplanes that didn't belong that I've been involved with;
For a while Boeing was delivering 767's (at least freighters to a certain greenish brown outfit) that came with partial toolkits in the rudders that were found while doing initial 'C' checks @ BADWRENCH.
A CESSNA 172 that had the rudder tip bent over while being moved by the line guys @ Lake Front in N.O. for an R/STOL (where I worked)mod, when the FBO (who did the damage) guys opened it up, they found a 1/4 inch spring cleco holding the rudder post to the rudder bellcrank.
An older SWA 737 in for a 'D' check @ BADWRENCH where one of the wing shop guys found a really rusty #4 bucking bar in a wing tip because it had vibrated a crack in the skin.
No one wants to know what 'things' we found in the bilges of ex HAWAIIAN MD-80's, or the two Kilos of Bolivian Marching powder a guy found under a forward pit sidewall in an ex-EASTERN 757 out of the desert. We speculated that someone got whacked over the lost shipment (that might have happened as EAL was grounding airplanes and going out of business) or the fool who, after finding it, took it home then thought better of it and brought it back in the next day-he was last seen leaving in a Sheriffs Office Crown Vic followed by a nondescript DEA sedan.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Found a nice SnapOn flashlight buried so deep in a T28 that I suspect the aircraft may have been assembled around it...

Lost a screwdriver in a P38 QEC for a few weeks until I found a strong enough magnet to retrieve it...

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

A smell you will never foreget is a Snap On screwdriver melting on an exhaust pipe.

Remember to never put your name on your tools.

Not a tool, but a felloww I worked with found 2 kilos of cocaine behind the aft pit wall of one of our 757's during the open up of an A check. the plane had come from Columbia and was supposedd to go to New York, but was diverted to Seattle for the A check. Big investigation over that one.

One day I decided to tap along the bottom of an O-1 I had been flying, after another guy had to put one down with a jammed elevator.

The clunk-da-clunk I soon heard turned out to be a 5 lb hammer AND a cold chisel. Needless to say I wasn't happy.

Since then I've been a bit more religious about banging my hand in sensitive areas of airplanes...and have found quite a few tools over the years. Really pathetic actually, when you think about it.

Hmmm let's see,how about 10 lbs of steel blocks used to support the movable tail on a Lockheed Jetstar during a pitch-trim actuator replacement.
Or my favorite...our chief pilot allowed a friend of his and P-51D owner to reposition his plane inland avoiding an oncoming hurricane in our Corporate hangar.I retrieved a bagful of sockets,extensions and wrenches from the under seat area.Nothing ever said,not even thanks.
All my tools have my initials on them.

C-152 - screw driver under floor near rudder pedals

C-140 - 5 lb bucking bar in tailplane - old rusty been there sliding ariund for years

DH 82C Tigermoth - set of goggle down in the tail of the fuselage

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...it was a plane adrift beneath the moon moving serenely thru beams like an angel of the night .....fair as a song ........aloof from mortal dreams

After pulling the FG-1D off the pedestal, we found bucking bars, screwdrivers, etc... You name it, they left it when they buttoned her up in the late sixties.

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Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

Customer calls complaining about rattling sounds coming from his 1946 Globe GC-1B "Swift". After removing cowling, canopy, and the access panels found the culprit! Clecos in the very tail section, owner knew nothing about why they were there and searching through the logbooks could not find any record of any repairs being done. Hmmmmmmm!!!!!

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

C-170...1" x 8" x 4ft board laying on top of control cables in aft fuselage...

...pulling back on control wheel didn't feel right...owner had been flying that way...
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When I was a little kid I got my first flight--on the Sun Oil Float plane in Morgan City (I think it was MC) Louisiana. As we were taxing along the bayou to take off I looked out the window and saw a bunch of tools sitting on the float. I called the pilot (an old drunkard named Bob) and tried to tell him about the tools. He said "not now Clay" so I hunkered down and watched about two hundred and fifty dollars worth of tools slowly edge off the float as we took off. Looking back I think he was buzzed. Can't believe my ad let me fly with that old guy...Anyway, there is my tools and airplanes story.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Brand new 172, bucking bar in the wing
Aero Commander, 1/2 drive ratchet with extension and sparkplug socket on top of engine
172, 1lb bag of rivets in the wing
Piper Seneca, mag light flashlight in wing near fuel strainer
T-6, wingtip with a dufflebag full of sand (was told it was to correct wing heavyness
172rg, reading glasses under cabin floor

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
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