On pre-flight inspections

On Jul 27, 3:13*am, D Ramapriya wrote:
On Jul 27, 10:36*am, Dudley Henriques wrote:





Probably sucked in during post-landing taxi to the apron from the
previous flight?

Ramapriya

Nope. Saw the child who did it, although didn't actually see him do
it. He was being carried by his father on the line at one of our show
sites in 1971. Have used the incident in a hundred safety lectures on
pre-flights. I had preflighted the airplane for my next display and
had run across the ramp to grab a coke from a snack wagon. Saw the man
and his kid before I left. Came back and re-preflighted the airplane
again because it was out of my direct sight since I had done the last
one.
Caught the bear in the carb tunnel on the second preflight.
Rule number ONE for display pilots, and for all pilots for that matter
as far as I'm concerned anyway! ANYTIME the airplane is out of your
sight for ANY reason after you have done a preflight inspection, do it
again!
Dudley Henriques

Nice story

If only the two pilots on that fateful Aeroperu 603 had done one, 70
souls + an entire company + a nice 757 would all still have been alive
and functional.

Ramapriya

When it comes to flying and one's attitude about flying, a pilot is
well advised to remember the immortal words of race driver Tom Sneva,
who after hitting the wall at Indy at 200 plus, was asked by a
reporter as he was walking back to his pit if he would like to be able
to enter that turn again and do it right the next time.
Sneva looked at the man and said,
"If if's and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry
Christmas"
DH

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.

Depends on what counts as "significant deferrment" and what counts as
"pre-flight". 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 (turned
out to be lead fouling on the plugs, but we didn't find that out until
the following day). The delays were caused by a sheared bolt on a wheel
faring, and prop nick that had to be filed down. Those are the ones I
can remember offhand.

rg

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 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 Jul 27, 3:21*pm, Stealth Pilot
wrote:

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


I guess I got my wires crossed in a way, as a pilot friend kindly
pointed out to me in private :\

I was thinking of the everyday scene that I see en route home, in the
Emirates hangars at a spot circa here http://wikimapia.org/#lat=25.2653253...3&z=17&l=0&m=b
where some aircraft's engines get runup every other day by mechanics
standing around.

Ramapriya

In article
,
D Ramapriya wrote:

On Jul 27, 3:21*pm, Stealth Pilot
wrote:

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


I guess I got my wires crossed in a way, as a pilot friend kindly
pointed out to me in private :\

I was thinking of the everyday scene that I see en route home, in the
Emirates hangars

That is indeed a very different world.

rg

"D Ramapriya" wrote in message
...
On Jul 27, 3:21 pm, Stealth Pilot
wrote:

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


I guess I got my wires crossed in a way, as a pilot friend kindly
pointed out to me in private :\

I was thinking of the everyday scene that I see en route home, in the
Emirates hangars at a spot circa here
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=25.2653253...3&z=17&l=0&m=b
where some aircraft's engines get runup every other day by mechanics
standing around.

Ramapriya

-----------------new post begins---------

You appear to have been looking at maintenance runups of large turbojet
powered aircraft, which whould typically be run up following some types of
work having been performed--rather than prior to each flight.

OTOH, propeller driven aircraft, especially those with reciprocating engines
and magneto ignition, are usually run up prior to each flight--or at a
minimum prior to the first flight of each day. That may change within the
foreseeable future, as FADEC systems replace the manual mixture controls and
the traditional dual magnetos--so that computer diagnostics can be
continuously available without the need for the pilot to conduct a series of
tests and measurements. Then, only the propeller governor would remain on
those aircraft with neither fixed pitch propellers nor single lever engine
controls.

Peter

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:04:45 -0700, Ron Garret wrote:

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

Which begs this question.

How bad does a wood prop have to be to cancel a flight? I was going to
take a flight in a DA20 which has a twin blade Sensenich W69EK7-63 wood
propeller. On pre-flight, the prop was chipped in several places, no
runs but then its painted or enameled white.

http://www.controller.com/images/Con...e/80614723.jpg

The edges were so rough I was concerned about catching a splinter. I
passed.

And you?

In article ,
Gezellig wrote:

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:04:45 -0700, Ron Garret wrote:

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

Which begs this question.

How bad does a wood prop have to be to cancel a flight? I was going to
take a flight in a DA20 which has a twin blade Sensenich W69EK7-63 wood
propeller. On pre-flight, the prop was chipped in several places, no
runs but then its painted or enameled white.

http://www.controller.com/images/Con...e/80614723.jpg

The edges were so rough I was concerned about catching a splinter. I
passed.

And you?

I'm not a propellor sort of guy, but rough enough to catch a splinter
would be a definite no-go for me! Being that messed up sounds like a
potential structural problem to me. I'd bet that it's *probably* just
cosmetic, but I hate to bet on probablies. Having a blade suddenly fail
would ruin your whole day....

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

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:39:29 -0400, Mike Ash wrote:

In article ,
Gezellig wrote:

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:04:45 -0700, Ron Garret wrote:

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

Which begs this question.

How bad does a wood prop have to be to cancel a flight? I was going to
take a flight in a DA20 which has a twin blade Sensenich W69EK7-63 wood
propeller. On pre-flight, the prop was chipped in several places, no
runs but then its painted or enameled white.

http://www.controller.com/images/Con...e/80614723.jpg

The edges were so rough I was concerned about catching a splinter. I
passed.

And you?

I'm not a propellor sort of guy, but rough enough to catch a splinter
would be a definite no-go for me! Being that messed up sounds like a
potential structural problem to me. I'd bet that it's *probably* just
cosmetic, but I hate to bet on probablies. Having a blade suddenly fail
would ruin your whole day....


Dave added:

That would be a pass for me! I would stop right there......

For a friend here.... he passed on 3 spinner cracks on a rental 172.

One crack was 1 1/2 in long.

They (others) continued to fly the aircraft for another week before
the spinner was removed

Dave

Thanks, guys, I was really shocked as the local CFI had no problemo with
this prop which was on a student trainer.