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Look what I found inside the wing!

PaulvS

PaulvS

Well Known Member
I'm still building my -6A but the wings are complete and they have already been installed for rigging and then removed for painting, before final installation.

At the moment the wings are sitting vertically on supports and I just went to secure the AOA tube inside and accidentally dropped a small part that fell inside and landed on the rear spar. Retrieved it easily enough with a mirror, but also unexpectedly found an old towel that was in there. It was used during rigging to protect the aileron control tube from scratching while it was being slid out. I guess that when we removed and stored the wings the towel slipped down out of sight and it wasn't missed. It was bunched down in the same bay as the aileron bellcrank, so I'm glad I caught it now, kind of by accident, rather than later.
 

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Good catch, but these things happen. You'd be surprised at what we find inside military and commercial aircraft that have just come out of maintenance.
 
Surgeons used to leave towels inside people too. :eek: That changed drastically (but sadly not 100%) once they assigned a nurse to count everything used before closing up.
 
ArlingtonRV said:
Good catch, but these things happen. You'd be surprised at what we find inside military and commercial aircraft that have just come out of maintenance.
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There was a SB issued by Bombardier years ago for rolls of masking tape left inside fuel tanks - apparently they last a few hundred hours then start dissolving and blocking motive flow pumps.

The other story I remember being told was an engineer climbed into the fuel tank of a 747 for maintenance and found a vacuum cleaner. :)
 
Something similar happened to me while building my RV6. Wings were done, fuel tanks finished, sealed, leak tested and attached to the wings for storage. SB 06-2-23 came out so I decided to do the safety wire mod on the fuel pick-ups.
I carefully removed the inspection panels on the inboard ends of the fuel tanks and followed the SB instructions. Took a while but I was really careful to remove all of the original sealant and clean the mating surfaces, going to a lot of trouble using a flashlight, brushes, vacuum cleaner etc to make sure I had removed all sign of any debris that had fallen inside the tanks.
Wiring job done I then reassembled both panels using fresh sealant and new screws while making sure I did a thorough job of sealing the tanks. I had managed to seal both tanks on the first attempt when building so I wanted to make sure it was going to seal properly this time too.
Job done and I was patting myself on the back for a job well done while collecting my tools and finishing up for the day. OK… where did I put my flashlight?? OH FFS…..SURELY NOT!! Yep, I had left it inside one of the tanks, the rattling sound was a dead giveaway! The light was still on and shining bright when I pulled the plate off…
 
FOD

Those are some crazy stories!
I'm a bit OCD about it. I set aside the parts and keep track of tools. If I drop so much as one of those tiny bellcrank washers inside the airplane, it makes me crazy till it's found. On the floor, no big deal. I sweep and run a magnet. Part always pops out. My tools are always back on the bench after a job and I get nuts if any are missing.
Guess I'm very OCD about it! :D
 
You'd probably never want to get on an airliner again if I told you some of the stuff we would pull out of the tanks, especially the on the bigger jets. On DC10 heavy checks we spent a lot of time fixing leaks in their cavernous tanks. Even with a double 'clearance to close' lots of 'stuff' got left behind because nobody wanted to crawl all the way back inside to really inspect.
Time to go home, anybody seen Joe? :eek:
 
wirejock said:
Guess I'm very OCD about it! :D
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I once found a D-sub socket pin laying on the floor of my hangar under the (flying) airplane and I panicked. What's not working now? Thankfully I looked again and it was not crimped :D
 
Probably the saddest was the fuel tank crew that found a missing airman in a wing tank of a KC-135 a number of years back. Very poor personnel and tool tracking caused the airman to be left alone in the tank where he passed out and the tank was closed up without accounting for him or all the tools. Everyone thought he'd gone AWOL.
 
Found tools.....

wirejock said:
Those are some crazy stories!
I'm a bit OCD about it. I set aside the parts and keep track of tools. If I drop so much as one of those tiny bellcrank washers inside the airplane, it makes me crazy till it's found. On the floor, no big deal. I sweep and run a magnet. Part always pops out. My tools are always back on the bench after a job and I get nuts if any are missing.
Guess I'm very OCD about it! :D
Click to expand...

One of my favorite and most useful tools is a pair of duckbill pliers I found in the fuselage of the Cub when I first bought it....... Yeah: tool count after doing a job is pretty important....especially if it is in the fuselage or other closed place.....
 
Things inside wings

A lady I met 50 some years ago was a "Rosie the Riveter" in WWII. She accidently got riveted inside a wing of some big airplane.
 
During my USN days, we had an A-4E that we received from the USMC. Couldn't stop the fuel leaks, so we decided to replace the main fuel cell.

Found a Gov't issue office chair inside, and it kept punching holes in the fuel cell.
 
Friend has an RV8 built by a well known Van's builder. He recently found a bucking bar inside the wing that had been there since it was built, most likely got stuck to some proseal for awhile, finally let loose leaving several outward dents on the bottom skin of the wing.
 
I think I am perfect ;). . . . . . but

I lost a 5/8" Craftsman combination wrench. Could not find it anywhere finally bought a new one. I found it right where I left it, inside the left wing root to hold the aft bolt. Fortunately it had done no damage, my aerobatics demonstration pilot had to be super smooth. Thanks Chad!

All was inspected before 1st flight and wrench was found 9 mo later in a total/complete deep inspection before Phase I sign-off. ;)
 
I find a few things during inspections. Like clecos riveted into RV-12 stabilator!
 
While doing a preflight on his high performance aerobatic Zlin a friend found the aileron was catching on the wingtip. After removing the wingtip a bucking bar was found that had been used on a repair at the wing root some months before. During his high G manoeuvres it has banged its way out to the tip and it passage could be traced from the dents. A major repair had to be carried out on the wing.
 
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