Warbird Information Exchange

We had one of our KC-10s No. 2 engine opened up for maintenance a few years back, and the guys opening it discovered a pre-installed multimeter... Kinda-sorta meted over the top of the engine... That got the brass to shake a few cages, to find who had lost a tool and not reported it, and to find who had never noticed the terminal sign out of said tool... And of course the rest of us Crew Chief types heard about it...

Found a nice Cross pen which had been jamming a Boomer seat in a '10 last month(still writes fine)

Brought a Lycoming opposed 4cyl engine into the shop hangar at school a few months back to pull apart, and discovered that was easier said than done... Removed the rear accessory cover to discover the engine completely stuffed with mouse-house, including the oil pan. And did it reek of mouse... They'd stuffed every conceivable spot, and the pistons had corroded, freezing into the cylinders. Can anybody say "boat anchor"?

Had a couple students the other week try to sneak a problem past me- seems most of the screws holding the fuel transmitter in one tank on a T-337 Skymaster were cocked- and they blamed it on the a/c being old and beat up! I lit them up about correcting such things, don't think they get it yet.. Seems some previous crew had switched the transmitters side to side- and the holes were mirror to each other. We found out by flipping it over, and putting it in place- all the screws fit! And found the opposite wing had the same issue. Go Fig. These kids think they pay us to give them a cert- I give them an EDUCATION- and get annoyed when they play slacker. One of these days, I hope they learn Integrity...

Robbie

LMFAO!!


Here's one from about 10-12 years back:
Working on a T6 that had been signed off for an Annual just two weeks previous in Texas by a very well known CAF Colonel.
There was an odd looking white hose behind the engine, close inspection revealed it to be a 1942 vintage oil line....



And how many stainless steel birds nests have you found? Found a matching pair once in an old twin, one each side.

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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.

Just finished an annual on a T-6 that supposedly still has it's engine from when it was an active military bird. Never been changed or overhauled. Way over TBO, but it runs great and has good compression #s.

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Curtis Block

I've seen too many airplanes destroyed by the term "Static Restoration."

OK, promise to keep this short. Had a machinist working for me on a Bridgeport milling machine. (sorry Indy car racing here but same stuff) I was tired of guys drilling through parts into the table of the Bridgeport. This was a brandyassnew one. I told him that if I found a drill hole, he'd be fired on the spot.

Months later during a chat. I see a set screw and a stamping "OIL" in the middle of the table. I asked, "WTF?" He admitted to drilling into the table but due to his fear of losing his job, tapped the hole and stamped it "OIL" to make it look legit.

Well, the creativity overwhelmed my policy and I let him stay. Still a good guy.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Curtis, I knew of an SNJ like that. Under TBO, but something like 900 hrs, IIRC.




LOL!

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Experimental Aircraft Association
Warbirds of America

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Years ago at the flight school where I learned to fly the lead mechanic was helping try to find the electrical problem on the C210 I flew for a law firm. The owner of the flight school called the mechanic into the hangar where they had a very animated conversation to say the least.
The mechanic was spitting fire when he returned to help me. When I asked what was wrong, he told me the school owner had sold one of the old trainers to a guy the previous week. The new owner had rolled the plane up into a little ball and the school owner wanted the mechanic to make a few entries into the logbooks before he turned them over to the feds.

Les

I was working on a PT-6 that was bolted on to a 1900. When I took the top cowl off I found a mess on top of the engine. It looked like burnt plastic. When I continued my insp, I found 2 D-cell batterys in the bottom of the cowling.

More later.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

just recently i was taking off the bottom panels on a Navion and a old package of Wrigleys gum fell out along with an old wheat penny. Im guessing the gum had to be from the 60's or 70's.

Sooooo, how was it?

Gary

[quote="The Inspector"]If your tire in that dirt filled cover was chewed on then you've discovered what lots of folks around here find when they park their cars at trail heads and go backpacking for a week or so in the mountains, rodents, around here porcupines are attracted to something in the compound of tires and chew them to wear down their always growing teeth, thats why squirrels will gnaw through the propane hoses on your gas barbque- :shock: :o :lol:[/quote]

and rats eat wiring harnesses and nutria eat truck mud grips.

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

When doing a 100 hour inspection on one of our Piper PA-28-161 Warrior II's, I was inspecting the latch pins that hold the engine cowling latches in place. It wasn't long when I found that some bozo mechanic in the past had used cotter pins instead of the proper Piper clevis pins to secure the latches in place and these cotter pins were nearly worn clear through. Its a wonder those engine cowling doors didn't pop open in flight, rip off the piano hinges, go through the windshield and proceed to decapitate the pilot. I showed this to my boss and his face turned white as a sheet. It wasn't long when my boss had me check the entire fleet and sure enough I found two more planes that had the same cotter pins being used as clevis pins to secure the latches that secure the top engine cowling doors, so I corrected these. Its amazing how much force is being exerted on those latch clevis pins in flight. Even had one snap in two during another 100 hour inspection where part of the latch fell on the floor.

Also found that someone had forgotten to safety wire the electric fuel pump on another Warrior II when I was doing a 50 hour inspection. Its a wonder that bottom cover on that electric fuel pump that holds the fuel strainer inside didn't pop off in flight and dump all the fuel going to the engine overboard, thus starving the engine for fuel.

I'm currently restoring another Piper PA-28-161 Warrior II where last year we found intergranular corrosion on the lower main box spar assembly that runs clear through the fuselage section. The scariest thing about this is that this was found in the newest plane in our fleet. Luckily we were able to locate a brand new Piper replacement lower spar piece and were able to change it out, which involved removing both wings, gear struts, fuel tanks, etc. We had to send out the old spar part and the new spar part to a machine shop so they could match the bolt holes exactly on the new part with the old part. Last week, I installed both wings and the new holes in the new lower spar matched the existing bolt holes in the wings perfectly. The hardest part of the wing install was getting the nuts on those top bolts and torquing them to specs. Piper did not leave much room in those lightning holes on that box spar assembly to get your fingers in there to reach those top outboard wing bolts, which has a shim on the rear side that has to be matched up with the bolts as well before the nuts can go on. What a pain. Right now the wings are installed, torqued to specs, torqued sealed, the landing gear is all installed, the aircraft is now sitting on its tires and the engine is installed. I'm just waiting on a new v-belt for the alternator. Once this is on and secured then I can install the new Sensenich fixed blade propeller and secure it. We should have this hanger queen back in the air by mid-December if I don't get pulled off the project to do 50 and 100 hour inspections on the rest of our fleet, which is likely to happen.

this a plane I am currently inspecting, a Aronca Chief, this plane was signed off as airworthy, guy the DOM of the last shop I worked at, he fired me because I refused to do shoddy or illegal work
all spark plugs were so worn that the center electrodes were below the grounding lugs,
1 mag has a cracked houseing
the main fuel line broke in 3 pieces when I attempted to check it for flexiability,
the oil pressure line was so old it could not be flexed,
it had a illegal tailwheel, it was for a experimental.
the instruments had no range markings
the aileron cable tensions wre so low there was no reading on the gauge
and the best for last, atleast for now, I am not finished inspecting yet.

When I moved the ailerons thru thier travel, they would bind up after about 5 degrees so badly that I had to really twist the wheel hard to break them free, both ailerons are binding up on the ribs the form the ends of the aileron bays


this is one plane I should walk away from, but I want to make sure this guy does not end up getting killed because of the crap the other shop let out the door.

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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 ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

We were doing an annual on a Bellanca Turbo Viking a couple of years ago. It was obvious once we had started, the aircraft hadn't received a good annual for quite a few years. The thing had lots of issues.

One of the more interesting things we found was that the elevator didn't seem to be getting full up deflection. After looking around for a while we found the problem. Tape had been applied as a gap seal (poor mans speed mod) between the horizontal stab. and the elevator, restricting the movement. Tape residue was noted on the top side of the stab. and elevator, the tape had been removed, tape was still on the underside however. Once this was removed as well, full deflection was restored.

Like I said the aircraft had many issues due to years of poor annuals. After we were done rectifying all of those issues, the owner was left with a sizable bill. He hasn't brought the aircraft back since.


Another example of an aircraft with a history of of shoddy annuals (if that even) is a Cherokee we had in about nine months ago.

I tried to avoid working on it because I knew it was a piece when I towed it down from the other end of the airport. I did however get stuck doing the brakes and wheel bearings.

I knew that the guy didn't want to spend much money so I felt bad when I pulled off one wheel and and found the brakes were shot, as well as the bearing and race. I swear the bearing had more dirt and rust than grease. I already knew the thing needed new tires all around. I also noticed that the wheel itself was looking rather corroded.

Around this time the owner stopped by. I showed him the brakes and wheel bearing and informed him they would need to be replaced. The shocking part was when he told me that he wasn't surprised as they hadn't been changed in the 10 years he had been flying it.

After hearing this and then having an IA confirm the wheel was shot I said F- it, especially when I found the other side was just as bad. He bought all new main wheels, tires, bearings and brakes. We did try to find cheaper used wheels, but couldn't within his time constraints.

Once again, the owner wasn't too happy with the bill for correcting all of the issues (a large part being those new wheels) but honestly I didn't feel bad at all anymore. In my opinion he shouldn't have been allowed to own or fly any airplane.

Oh yeah. We also found some dents protruding from the aft fuselage. When we looked into the cause of them, we found that the ELT had no mounting bracket and had been flopping around back there for some time, causing the outward dents. IIRC the ELT was found in the off position.

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Curtis Block

I've seen too many airplanes destroyed by the term "Static Restoration."

We were looking for the trim tab mechanism in TEXAS RAIDERS' freshly recovered rudder when he heard a KLANG!
AHA... says us... we have found it.
Only to be disappointed to find a steel bucking tool instead.

Not long afterwards I ws in a friends A&P shop and they were working on a C172 with a freshly rebuilt engine (from a reputable rebuilder that was installed by a reprobate shop) that just wasn't making power on take-off.
Turns out that somebody decided the "NO NYLOKS in front of the firewall" rule didn't apply to them. They put THE EXHAUST manifolds on with nyloks and various other lesser crimes against aviation.
It ran a whole bunch better after that was fixed.

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Support Your Local Warbirds! KBO!
The only reasons the airplanes matter is what the veterans did with them... and why.

Removed new ( rebuilt) left rudder for F-14a from box and as we turned it over to set it on the bench we heard a solid thump, x-ray revealed a bucking bar courtesy of NADEP. Pilot walking around aircraft before flight asked what was that sticking out from bottom of intake ( #2 stubby phillips) and was told to turn around, when he turned back it was gone neatly pushed back up through the drain hole. He relaxed when told that to retrieve it would mean deskinning the intake and it had been there for at least 8 years, as far as I know it was recovered at Davis-Monthan when they scrapped the cat along with god knows how many tools and other FOD from the hell hole.