Annual Coronary

The junior A&P in the shop that is doing my annual (whom I've known for
years) was poking around in the under-wing inspection cavities on the
starboard fuselage/wing root joint, when he let out a low whistle.

Since I was futzing around with re-attaching my god-awful wheel pants (I
don't CARE if they get me 7 knots, I almost trashed these damned "Fancy
Pants" in frustration, trying to get 'em back on!), I was right next to him
under the plane. My heart stopped -- I *knew* this annual had been going
too well!

Peering up into the hole, he showed me what looked like massive corrosion on
the wing spar -- a sometimes fatal malady, not unknown to Cherokees. Two
years ago a good friend had to replace BOTH wings on his Cherokee 140, and
his plane was down for almost a year, precisely for this problem.

My stomach churned as he called his partner, the senior A&P -- a guy with
30+ years experience on all kinds of planes.

His advice: Poke at it, to see if it's not left-over paint stripper from
the last paint job. This nearly inaccessible joint is a common place for
stripper to accumulate, because it's almost impossible to remove during the
pre-paint job pressure wash.

So, we fashioned a long, sharp scraper from some scrap aluminum, and I held
my breath as he began to poke away at it...

It easily flaked off into little chunks of "melted" paint. The metal
underneath was perfectly clean -- and completely unblemished.

Airplane ownership: A sure-fire way to take YEARS off of your life
expectancy...

Dodged another one! Hee hee!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article %0drc.88357$xw3.4960992@attbi_s04,
Jay Honeck wrote:
The junior A&P in the shop that is doing my annual (whom I've known for
years) was poking around in the under-wing inspection cavities on the
starboard fuselage/wing root joint, when he let out a low whistle.

This must be the A&P equivalent of the pilot saying "we're not going
to make it".

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

On Fri, 21 May 2004 03:01:27 GMT, (Ben Jackson) wrote:

In article %0drc.88357$xw3.4960992@attbi_s04,
Jay Honeck wrote:
The junior A&P in the shop that is doing my annual (whom I've known for
years) was poking around in the under-wing inspection cavities on the
starboard fuselage/wing root joint, when he let out a low whistle.

This must be the A&P equivalent of the pilot saying "we're not going
to make it".

Or when Jay calls the tower and says, "Piper XXXXX is coming in on one
engine...." :-)

Ron Wanttaja

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, isnt it, Jay? (referring to the
junior A&P).. maybe you need to go flog the poor kid for taking 10 years
off your life with that one whistle..

Sounds like this could be the ONE downside to an owner assisted annual.

Grins..
Dave

Jay Honeck wrote:
The junior A&P in the shop that is doing my annual (whom I've known for
years) was poking around in the under-wing inspection cavities on the
starboard fuselage/wing root joint, when he let out a low whistle.

Since I was futzing around with re-attaching my god-awful wheel pants (I
don't CARE if they get me 7 knots, I almost trashed these damned "Fancy
Pants" in frustration, trying to get 'em back on!), I was right next to him
under the plane. My heart stopped -- I *knew* this annual had been going
too well!

Peering up into the hole, he showed me what looked like massive corrosion on
the wing spar -- a sometimes fatal malady, not unknown to Cherokees. Two
years ago a good friend had to replace BOTH wings on his Cherokee 140, and
his plane was down for almost a year, precisely for this problem.

My stomach churned as he called his partner, the senior A&P -- a guy with
30+ years experience on all kinds of planes.

His advice: Poke at it, to see if it's not left-over paint stripper from
the last paint job. This nearly inaccessible joint is a common place for
stripper to accumulate, because it's almost impossible to remove during the
pre-paint job pressure wash.

So, we fashioned a long, sharp scraper from some scrap aluminum, and I held
my breath as he began to poke away at it...

It easily flaked off into little chunks of "melted" paint. The metal
underneath was perfectly clean -- and completely unblemished.

Airplane ownership: A sure-fire way to take YEARS off of your life
expectancy...

Dodged another one! Hee hee!

;-)

Jay Honeck wrote:
The junior A&P in the shop that is doing my annual (whom I've known for
Peering up into the hole, he showed me what looked like massive corrosion on
the wing spar -- a sometimes fatal malady, not unknown to Cherokees. Two
years ago a good friend had to replace BOTH wings on his Cherokee 140, and
his plane was down for almost a year, precisely for this problem.
His advice: Poke at it, to see if it's not left-over paint stripper from
the last paint job. This nearly inaccessible joint is a common place for
stripper to accumulate, because it's almost impossible to remove during the
pre-paint job pressure wash.
So, we fashioned a long, sharp scraper from some scrap aluminum, and I held
my breath as he began to poke away at it...
It easily flaked off into little chunks of "melted" paint. The metal
underneath was perfectly clean -- and completely unblemished.

Yea. My A&P found a similar area several years ago. I can't remember
what he did to clean it, but I do remember him dowsing it with one of the
corrosion sprays (ACF-50 or Corrorsion-X or something) after he was done
cleaning it. You might want to do the same thing "just in case". It
couldn't hurt.

--- Jay

--
__!__
Jay and Teresa Masino ___(_)___
http://www2.ari.net/jmasino ! ! !
http://www.oceancityairport.com
http://www.oc-adolfos.com

(With respect to Ann Rand)... Atlas shrugged.

EDR wrote:
(With respect to Ann Rand)... Atlas shrugged.

[groan]

Yea. My A&P found a similar area several years ago. I can't remember
what he did to clean it, but I do remember him dowsing it with one of the
corrosion sprays (ACF-50 or Corrorsion-X or something) after he was done
cleaning it. You might want to do the same thing "just in case". It
couldn't hurt.

Yeah, he painted the exposed metal with the green stuff.

(Can't think of the name of that anti-corrosion paint at the moment...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

That was truly awful...

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Dave Butler" wrote in message
...
EDR wrote:
(With respect to Ann Rand)... Atlas shrugged.

[groan]

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
On Fri, 21 May 2004 03:01:27 GMT, (Ben Jackson) wrote:

In article %0drc.88357$xw3.4960992@attbi_s04,
Jay Honeck wrote:
The junior A&P in the shop that is doing my annual (whom I've known
for years) was poking around in the under-wing inspection cavities
on the starboard fuselage/wing root joint, when he let out a low
whistle.

This must be the A&P equivalent of the pilot saying "we're not going
to make it".

Or when Jay calls the tower and says, "Piper XXXXX is coming in on one
engine...." :-)

Or "Cessna XXXX student pilot, I am out of fuel [five seconds wait] Could
you send the fuel truck to the north ramp?"

jue