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Video too important not to share

Paul 5r4

Paul 5r4

Well Known Member
I just got home from doing some work on the RV. Getting ready to hopefully fly it from here in South Alabama to Massachusetts to visit my son
and his family. Anyway... Something happened at the hanger that I felt compelled to make a quickie video about. I'm going to try to
provide a link. Hopefully it will work.

Edited: I took the below criticism as constructive and cut the fluff out of the video so here is version 2.0. :)

 
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Wow...that would have been a very noisy start-up. Thanks for taking the time to make a video that could potentially affect any one of us.

Might I suggest getting a tripod for future videos? I started getting queazy about halfway through the video.🤣
 
Paul 5r4 said:
I just got home from doing some work on the RV. Getting ready to hopefully fly it from here in South Alabama to Massachusetts to visit my son
and his family. Anyway... Something happened at the hanger that I felt compelled to make a quickie video about. I'm going to try to
provide a link. Hopefully it will work.

Click to expand...
Paul,

Thanks for taking the time to video your experience. I would imagine just about everyone viewing this has been guilty of this. I, for one, won’t be guilty in the future thanks to you.

Steve
 
Paul 5r4 said:
I just got home from doing some work on the RV. Getting ready to hopefully fly it from here in South Alabama to Massachusetts to visit my son
and his family. Anyway... Something happened at the hanger that I felt compelled to make a quickie video about. I'm going to try to
provide a link. Hopefully it will work.

Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this Paul. I’m not yet flying my 10 but will add this step to maintenance in the future!

keith
 
Yep, the video is "jerky", and longer than it needed to be.

But the message is very valid! Worth viewing.
 
It's not just tools you have to look out for.

I once dropped a washer working on the electronic ignition Hall effect bracket installation and couldn't tell if I had heard it hit the floor. I looked *everywhere* for that thing and finally gave up, figuring it would make an appearance later when I swept the hangar floor or had entered a transdimensional portal where 10mm sockets and socks in the dryer go... It made an appearance sooner than that. When I test-ran the engine it was rough as a cob. Finally found that washer - stuck to one of the position-sense magnets on the inner rim of the flywheel and utterly confusing the spark timing until I peeled it off, after which the CPI-2 has been flawless.

Moral? I guess it would be when you think you have looked everywhere, you haven't. If you think military aviation maintenance culture is overboard about accounting for loose items in a nd around aircraft - they're not.
 
PCHunt said:
Yep, the video is "jerky", and longer than it needed to be.

But the message is very valid! Worth viewing.
Click to expand...
Yep - video "too important not to share" - must be important so I gotta watch it, right? 4 and half minutes later I finally figure out what it's about...

Still - good job on finding it, and sharing it.
 
FYI. Because of the good suggestions in a few of comments, I've edited the video and removed all the fluff. Main lesson is a
Complete and thorough PreClose Inspection should be considered just as important as the maintenance we've just performed.
 
Bill Boyd said:
Moral? I guess it would be when you think you have looked everywhere, you haven't. If you think military aviation maintenance culture is overboard about accounting for loose items in a nd around aircraft - they're not.
Click to expand...
I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes into DEFCON 1 for as little as a washer missing. I've been tempted many times to say, "oh it's just a washer, it's probably on the floor in the corner of the hangar. I'll grab another one." and it's almost never on the floor.
 
First, I'm glad I got this at V2.

When I was young my father was very rigid about tools being stored correctly. There were Dyno labels ALL OVER the place about what went where and a larger sign stating "Put them back when you are done". It was 'drilled' into us, so to speak. Well, I'm mechanically inept, but when I do take on a task I go to the garage (hangar) and get an empty cady, get the few tools I think I need, and make sure I put them all back. Fortunately I work alone so I don't do any "go get me a muffler bearing".

Putting things back everytime might be overkill in building, but eventrually when something is out of place it "looks wrong" and you think about when you used it last, and voila. Neat and tidy shops are safer shops IMHO.
 
Capt said:
If you want to skip all the fluff FF to time stamp 4:30 mins👍
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I’d like to skip ALL the fluff and just read the ”problem statement”. Can it be described in 5 words or less?

if so, would someone please write those words somewhere in this thread?

Edit: Watched the important bits of the video and yep, “always perform a PCI”.

Even in “big aerospace” where we have shadowed toolboxes and chits or RFI scans for individual accountability, tool trays, minimum supplies going into the shadow of the aircraft, we always do an extremely thorough bay inspection prior to final close of the panel. And even then, we sometimes miss things.

Not all of us adhere to “clean as you go” shop policies or the FOD and Tool control programs of big aerospace, but everyone can certainly take an extra minute or two before close out of a bay. When you think you are done and ready to close, step away from the area for a minute and grab a coffee or check email. Come back and look the bay over again with fresh eyes and EXPECT that there is something that does not belong. Once you are sure it’s clean, then close.
 
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Toobuilder said:
I’d like to skip ALL the fluff and just read the ”problem statement”. Can it be described in 5 words or less?

if so, would someone please write those words somewhere in this thread?
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The video stresses the need to do a comptete "Pre Close Inspection" when concluding maintenance and illustrates it with an errant wire clipper that somehow fell down near the ring gear / belt. Could have been a start up issue.
 
Draker said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes into DEFCON 1 for as little as a washer missing. I've been tempted many times to say, "oh it's just a washer, it's probably on the floor in the corner of the hangar. I'll grab another one." and it's almost never on the floor.
Click to expand...

I was once working in the rear floor area of a car. I placed a small washer on the carpet, right next to me. Not one minute later, I couldn't find the washer. I spent an inordinate amount of time searching . I was incredulous that I could lose a washer I'd just placed down next to me not a minute earlier. It was maddening.

I was so obsessed, I got out of bed at 10pm that night and went into the garage for another look. I grabbed the flashlight that I'd left sitting on the rear carpet of the car where I'd been working. There, stuck to the magnet on the bottom of the flashlight, I found the washer :LOL:
 
I always have trouble closing up after doing some work. I’m always thinking I’m missing something.
Recently found a small pair of vise grips in the engine compartment on a plane someone else built. I assume I had the same as the OP , just slipped out of my box , but when I went to put them back into my toolbox, my grips were already there. Now that I see mine, I noticed these were a new pair( mine had wear on them) .
The last person to work on this plane didn’t have a missing pair.
A while back a battery powered trouble light was found in the wing of a plane I worked on. When I got a call from a mechanic that he had found a light, I quickly looked for mine and it was missing, I owned up to the serious mistake.
A problem we home builders have is we use our tools on things other than aircraft . So if something goes missing, it’s probably not in a plane. I had my awl go missing after an annual inspection. I was tempted to go back in and search for it. Luckily it was winter an I wouldn’t be flying for a while so I put it off( not forgetting) . It turned up elsewhere, yes.
Thanks for the video
 
I am like Draker with his DEFCON 1 comment. In this case of my wire cutters, this thought crossed my mind... I didn't drop or lose them, heck I didn't even know they were in there and missing!!! They got there by falling or sliding off of my wood tray I was using. I feel very lucky that I noticed them. Admittedly, I always do a PCI but most often it's the simple quick look and move on. Not anymore. (I will always use a flashlight too because it helps the eyes to focus on a specific area and not dart all over the place).

I said it in an earlier post and will say it again... From now on the PCI is just as important as the maintenance I've just performed.
 
One of my favorite places to drop things is between the cylinders. I lay a bright yellow microfiber cloth over the gap on each side when the cowl is off - can't really miss that before closing it up.
 
At my second 100hrly on the 10 I found a small digital hygrometer sitting on the top of the inter cylinder baffle between 4 and 6. Only found it because I dropped a spanner in there!
Been there for probably 4 years 😱
rv8ch said:
One of my favorite places to drop things is between the cylinders. I lay a bright yellow microfiber cloth over the gap on each side when the cowl is off - can't really miss that before closing it up.
Click to expand...
 
Draker said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes into DEFCON 1 for as little as a washer missing. I've been tempted many times to say, "oh it's just a washer, it's probably on the floor in the corner of the hangar. I'll grab another one." and it's almost never on the floor.
Click to expand...
I went full DEFCON 1 a while back when dropped a washer with an open mag hole on the back of my accessory case. It was either find the washer, or tear down the engine. About 20 minutes of searching turned it up, longest 20 minutes of my life...
 
airguy said:
I went full DEFCON 1 a while back when dropped a washer with an open mag hole on the back of my accessory case. It was either find the washer, or tear down the engine. About 20 minutes of searching turned it up, longest 20 minutes of my life...
Click to expand...
I had a piece of safety wire go flying whilst the oil filter was off (smaller hole, for sure, but still...Murphy is alive and well). Like you, a few minutes of panicked "where the F did THAT go?" and searching, it turned up on the drip pan under the engine. Whew! Since then, any hole or opening that results from a removed part gets *immediately* plugged with paper towels, shop rag, towels, etc., until things are back together.
 
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