Had a bolt escape today. Though I'd seen everything.

[Desert Rat]

I was rigging the ailerons today, laying under the wing, and while attaching the pushrods I managed to drop the bolt that attaches the short steel pushrod to the bell crank.

Instead of the "thunk" of a dropped bolt finding its forever home, I heard more of a looney tunes sound of a bolt bouncing who knows where.

I reached up in there and couldn't feel it anywhere in that bay so I brought out the flashlight and mirror, no joy. Stuck my phone up in there and took pictures from every conceivable angle, no joy. Expanded the search perimeter to the adjoining bays, still no luck. Where the heck did that thing go???

Rolled out from under the wing, drank a cup of coffee, got down on my hands and knees with a flashlight and looked all over the hangar floor. I even checked my shirt pockets, and I still couldn't find the freaking thing.

Turns out that in defiance of all logical flight paths, it had ricocheted off of something, gone through a lightening hole into the adjacent bay and had fallen down into the inside of the pitot mast.

Go figure.

 

[Dbro172]

Good find!

 

[Bavafa]

Good find!

At least you found it. During my first build, I dropped a nut plate inside and on the floor of my RV7. It was where you feet go so not many bays or ribs or much inconspicuous spaces available there. My wife and I looked for it for many many hours with flash light, magnet and mirror with no joy. We moved the fuselage to its sides with the hopes it would show its face and still no luck. The nut plate is somewhere in that plane that was finished some 15 years ago and still flying happily.

 

[MED]

I had/have a gremlin living in my shop. He was particularly present and devious during my build. I swear, if I dropped a nut or especially a washer, I could hear his little tennis shoes as he ran out and rolled it to the far corner of the shop, only to be found later or after an extended search. Fortunately, I found his hiding places in the plane.

 

[Ron B.]

I had/have a gremlin living in my shop. He was particularly present and devious during my build. I swear, if I dropped a nut or especially a washer, I could here his little tennis shoes as he ran out and rolled it to the far corner of the shop, only to be found later or after an extended search. Fortunately, I found his hiding places in the plane.

Not very often when you drop something is it found by your feet. You would think the odds would work out once and a while but it’s more like a lottery.

 

[rmartingt]

I had/have a gremlin living in my shop.

That gremlin must have a relative in my shop. I set something down and he steals it, then sits watching me until I give up and order a replacement. He waits till it arrives, then puts the original one back...

 

[Desert Rat]

that particular gremlin covers a lot of ground. He's in every shop, garage, hangar and barn that I've ever been in.

 

[SPB W10]

that particular gremlin covers a lot of ground. He's in every shop, garage, hangar and barn that I've ever been in.

In a quiet environment you can take a rubber tipped hammer or a piece of rubber hose and tap on the bottom of the wing skins & fuselage skins and listen for answering back noises of hardware. Even some loose medium-sized tyraps will answer back with a sound.
This should be the practice of everyone who is reinstalling panels after repairs and inspections. Flashlights with dead batteries and bucking bars will even answer back.

 

[bjdecker]

Turns out that in defiance of all logical flight paths, it had ricocheted off of something, gone through a lightening hole into the adjacent bay and had fallen down into the inside of the pitot mast.

Go figure.

I am not going to play against you in beer pong

 

[Desert Rat]

In a quiet environment you can take a rubber tipped hammer or a piece of rubber hose and tap on the bottom of the wing skins & fuselage skins and listen for answering back noises of hardware. Even some loose medium-sized tyraps will answer back with a sound.
This should be the practice of everyone who is reinstalling panels after repairs and inspections. Flashlights with dead batteries and bucking bars will even answer back.

This is common practice in new airplane manufacturing as well.

 

[Canadian_JOY]

When building our Glasair Sportsman I was often working in a frigid hangar, thus I was often dressed very heavily (longjohns, insulated bib overalls, turtle neck shirt, sweater, heavy coat, toque, gloves). I recall one instance where I was doing much the same thing, installing the ailerons where we use washers as shims. Of course I dropped a washer. I looked high and low for that thing and couldn't find it. It wasn't until later in the day that it made its presence known, or rather, felt.

You see, it had managed to fall inside the neck opening of my coat, after which it had worked its' way downward in my clothing until it started to cause uncomfortable chafing in a place... where an AN washer should never go!

 

[cvairwerks]

It looks funny when you see 4 or 5 guys all laid out on the hangar floor with flashlights in sweeping arcs looking for that dropped washer or screw, especially when it's made from non magnetic materials and the coating on it is very close to the same color as the hangar floor.....It's often the discontinuity between the floor and the hardware that lets you spot it when laid out.

 

[[email protected]]

It looks funny when you see 4 or 5 guys all laid out on the hangar floor with flashlights in sweeping arcs looking for that dropped washer or screw, especially when it's made from non magnetic materials and the coating on it is very close to the same color as the hangar floor.....It's often the discontinuity between the floor and the hardware that lets you spot it when laid out.

How about weeks after working on your plane and thought you'd found every lost what ever. To be flying upside down and it land on the underside of your chin.
Where is was is still a mystery But I know where it is now . ha ha
My luck varies Fixit

 

[Roadjunkie1]

Anyone who has flown a T-6 will tell you that if you drop something while flying....... it is gone forever....

It always amazes me how something that I drop in the hangar can end up so FAR AWAY from where I dropped it! And not just rolley washers. Yeah: the hangar gremlin with those little tennis shoes makes perfect sense.....!

 

[squeakersc063]

I was rigging the ailerons today, laying under the wing, and while attaching the pushrods I managed to drop the bolt that attaches the short steel pushrod to the bell crank.

Instead of the "thunk" of a dropped bolt finding its forever home, I heard more of a looney tunes sound of a bolt bouncing who knows where.

I reached up in there and couldn't feel it anywhere in that bay so I brought out the flashlight and mirror, no joy. Stuck my phone up in there and took pictures from every conceivable angle, no joy. Expanded the search perimeter to the adjoining bays, still no luck. Where the heck did that thing go???

Rolled out from under the wing, drank a cup of coffee, got down on my hands and knees with a flashlight and looked all over the hangar floor. I even checked my shirt pockets, and I still couldn't find the freaking thing.

Turns out that in defiance of all logical flight paths, it had ricocheted off of something, gone through a lightening hole into the adjacent bay and had fallen down into the inside of the pitot mast.

Go figure.

When I worked F-16s I'd drop something and find it in the spot of the aircraft in the next parking spot. FOD does not obey physics.

 

[Chukill]

In Maui, they are called Menehune.

 

[mke039]

Sometimes I believe they find a tear in the space/time fabric and go to another dimension.
10mm sockets are particularly prone to this

 

[Bill Boyd]

If you have a teenage son who is into dirt bikes, it won't be long before every 10mm in every socket set you own will be somewhere besides your side of the workshop. Ditto for 8's.

Fortunately there aren't many metric fasteners on an RV.

I recently had to borrow-back a 10mm socket from the young lad to do some RF bonding on my truck and in the process of placing a bonding braid lug under one of the bolt heads that secure the hood to its hinge, dropped said bolt down into the front fender well where I found it with my boroscope (autocorrect wants to make that into "horoscope" every time) resting behind the mud flap. Five fasteners of various types later (thanks, Chevrolet) I had the flap off and the bolt retrieved. Put that all back together (see where this is going?) and then, as if in a hypnotic trance or out-of-body experience, I watched my dumb self proceed to fumble the bolt insertion in the same way a second time and down the black hole it went. Not about to be fooled a third time, I disassembled the wheel well again and left it that way while I placed the bolt where it needed to be. Of course this precaution made it go in effortlessly...

So far I have failed to tame the RF gremlins, which continue to hammer my TFT remote display into a seizure every time I key-down on 40, 60 or 75 meters, but I'm getting closer. I'm hopeful that a few more fistfuls of bonding straps and ferrites on every cable in sight will eventually get the rolling ham shack squared away.

 

[Rv6mike]

If you have a teenage son who is into dirt bikes, it won't be long before every 10mm in every socket set you own will be somewhere besides your side of the workshop. Ditto for 8's.

Fortunately there aren't many metric fasteners on an RV.

I recently had to borrow-back a 10mm socket from the young lad to do some RF bonding on my truck and in the process of placing a bonding braid lug under one of the bolt heads that secure the hood to its hinge, dropped said bolt down into the front fender well where I found it with my boroscope (autocorrect wants to make that into "horoscope" every time) resting behind the mud flap. Five fasteners of various types later (thanks, Chevrolet) I had the flap off and the bolt retrieved. Put that all back together (see where this is going?) and then, as if in a hypnotic trance or out-of-body experience, I watched my dumb self proceed to fumble the bolt insertion in the same way a second time and down the black hole it went. Not about to be fooled a third time, I disassembled the wheel well again and left it that way while I placed the bolt where it needed to be. Of course this precaution made it go in effortlessly...

So far I have failed to tame the RF gremlins, which continue to hammer my TFT remote display into a seizure every time I key-down on 40, 60 or 75 meters, but I'm getting closer. I'm hopeful that a few more fistfuls of bonding straps and ferrites on every cable in sight will eventually get the rolling ham shack squared away.

I finished my 6a in 97 and was flying for 8 years when the wife adopted a fluffy white dog. I hose my garage out every 6 months to help it clean. When the dog showed up we let him roam the house to get used to his new home. After being in the garage for some time he came back in with a 426 rivet was stuck in his chin. Yes we named him Rivet.