"D Ramapriya" wrote in message
...
Has any of you has ever discovered something during the pre-flight
inspection that necessitated a significant deferrment of your flight
plan or a cancelation altogether? Just curious, that's all.


To me personally --

Low oil many times.

Birds nests in the engine compartment at least twice.

Nav lights out at least twice.

Panel lights out at least once.

Loose fuel cap on a high wing once.

Unacceptable propeller damage on a metal prop once.

Most outstanding, years ago during flight training, was all bolts on an
outboard flap hinge were backed off about half way. I though the instructor
was just setting me up until I saw his response.

Worst I have actually witnessed --

Badly frayed cable on the horizontal stabilizer. AI caught it while fueling
the aircraft. Showed it to the pilot who decided it would make back home,
about 30 miles. AI actually begged his pax to stay behind. At about 200' on
take off the cable failed. Aircraft did a complete loop impacting the ground
at about a 60 degree angle. Nothing left of the aircraft more than knee
high. Engine buried about 2'. Pilot died instantly, but the pax with all
broken bones, struggled for help for almost 5 minutes before expiring.


There was another story in flying magazine many years ago about someone
hired to return a repossessed aircraft from a near by airport. Very cold
morning, he just check the oil and sumps. Clearing the end of the runway at
about 200 ', he reached for the carb heat. Cabin filled once dormant wasps
warmed by the carb heat! Fortunately he had enough presence of mind to
quickly open both windows and flooding the cabin with extremely cold air.
Made it back to the runway without further incident, but it obviously could
have ended much differently.