On pre-flight inspections

On Jul 27, 11:04*am, Ron Garret wrote:
In article
,
*D Ramapriya wrote:

Depends on what counts as "significant deferrment" and what counts as
"pre-flight".

By pre-flight, I meant that bit which you do ere stepping into the
flight deck - I thought there's not much ambiguity on what constitutes
pre-flight?

Something like a 2-hour delay, purely as an upshot of what you
discovered during the pre-flight inspection, was what I had in mind by
significant deferrment.


*I've been delayed by an hour or so a couple of times, and
had to cancel once because of a rough engine during the run-up


Correct me if I'm wrong but engine runups are part of the mechanics'
pre-handover (of the aircraft) routine, right? It's after that that
the aircraft is towed on to the ramp and delivered to the pilots. I've
only ever seen runups being performed near uninhabited areas outside
hangars.

Ramapriya

On Jul 27, 12:41*am, D Ramapriya wrote:
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.

Thanks,

Ramapriya

Well, I found a flat tire, lots of water in the fuel tanks (early M20J
fuel tank caps were hard to put on correctly), bird's nest in the
engine campartment that took a while to remove, pitot tube not hot,
bad nick in the prop. . . That's all that comes to mind with about
2000 hours TT.


Prior to take off I found a broken carb heat cable in an M20C, one mag
not working, Nav radio not working,

I did watch a PA28 do turns around a tiedown once because the PIC
didn't untie the left wing before trying to taxi out.

D Ramapriya wrote:
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.

Just last month; found two broken clips on a Goodyear brake disk.
Goodyear wheels have a tendency to lock up when that happens. Found a
crack in the wheel at the rivet for one of the clips.

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/newbrake3.jpg

Swapped to a set of Grove wheels/brakes, working well so far.

Ron Wanttaja

http://www.powerglidertaifun.de/Dive...rprise_eng.htm

D Ramapriya wrote:
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.

yes.

In-op transponder, within the Mode C veil

Wildly fluctuating ammeter - bad master switch

Leaking quickdrain

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:26:02 -0700 (PDT), D Ramapriya
wrote:

On Jul 27, 11:04*am, Ron Garret wrote:
In article
,
*D Ramapriya wrote:

Depends on what counts as "significant deferrment" and what counts as
"pre-flight".

By pre-flight, I meant that bit which you do ere stepping into the
flight deck - I thought there's not much ambiguity on what constitutes
pre-flight?

Something like a 2-hour delay, purely as an upshot of what you
discovered during the pre-flight inspection, was what I had in mind by
significant deferrment.


*I've been delayed by an hour or so a couple of times, and
had to cancel once because of a rough engine during the run-up


Correct me if I'm wrong but engine runups are part of the mechanics'
pre-handover (of the aircraft) routine, right? It's after that that
the aircraft is towed on to the ramp and delivered to the pilots. I've
only ever seen runups being performed near uninhabited areas outside
hangars.

Ramapriya

this is recreational.aviation.piloting.
just about all of us do our own runnups because we dont employ
mechanics. they are done just before takeoff.

do you do things differently where you live????

Stealth Pilot

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:51:14 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

D Ramapriya wrote:
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.

Just last month; found two broken clips on a Goodyear brake disk.
Goodyear wheels have a tendency to lock up when that happens. Found a
crack in the wheel at the rivet for one of the clips.

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/newbrake3.jpg

Swapped to a set of Grove wheels/brakes, working well so far.

Ron Wanttaja

those JATO bottles are hell on brakes :-)

Stealth Pilot

found cracks in prop and decided a no-go.

2 days ago our club suffered a propstrike due to a lost frontwheel during
departure (DV-20). question is: was preflight-check carried out properly?

H.T.

"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.

Thanks,

Ramapriya
Well this is probably a bit OT since I was a student at the time, but it's a funny story...

On the 172 I flew most of the time, I think some rocket scientist A&P had replaced the door hinge
pins with nails. So one day we were doing our preflight, me on the left side of the airplane and my
instructor on the right side. I happened to look at the door hinge, noticed the pins were almost
worn through, and mentioned it to him (I was concerned the door could come off in flight). Just as
he was about to start berating me for being paranoid (slight exaggeration), he opened the door on
his side and... it fell off!

Flight canceled. :^)

Eric Law

In article
,
D Ramapriya wrote:

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.

Unlike so many of these other posters I've yet to have something like
this happen to me, but with only 120 hours and about 180 flights under
my belt, it's probably just a matter of time.

The worst things I've ever found during a pre-flight of a plane I
intended to fly have been minor things like spider web spun in a total
energy probe port, low tire pressure, etc.

The worst thing I ever found, pre-flight, not on my aircraft, was
disconnected ailerons. I noticed that both ailerons were down, and went
over to ask if that was how they were supposed to be. The owner said no,
connected them, and thanked me profusely. We're now good friends.

The worst equipment problem I've ever had, which came about on the
ground but which I really could not have reasonably found during a
pre-flight inspection, was a pitot tube probe that was not fully
inserted (my fault) which resulted in the ASI not working, which in turn
nearly resulted in landing short. Since the difference between fully
inserted and partially inserted is only about one inch, it's not
something I can really verify. I could try to push it in further, I
suppose, but I can push it in correctly at the beginning of the day in
the first place, which is what I make absolutely sure that I do now.

Wonder what items I'll be listing off when I hit 1000 hours....

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon