Amazing Winter Maintenance find in Fairchild PT-26

[cooper9411]

wow you guys are very critical of others. Glad you are better then them!

Has nothing to do with being better, it has everything to do with pride in one's work!

[CAPFlyer]

And a gross violation of the airworthiness, maintenance, and repair standards that all A&P's have to adhere to as part of having that license. Anyone who will make such a gross violation or sign off on it for an owner needs to be looked at because those kinds of poor decisions lead to people being killed.

Airworthiness isn't something to play with. There's a reason that yellow-tagged items cost so much and why you buy the aviation-purposed hose clamp instead of the cheap one from Home Depot. Not using approved parts will lead to failures, no matter how much money you save or how identical the two items seem.

[gary1954]

wow you guys are very critical of others. Glad you are better then them!

Has nothing to do with being better, it has everything to do with pride in one's work!

P r o f e s s i o n a l i s m

[cooper9411]

And a gross violation of the airworthiness, maintenance, and repair standards that all A&P's have to adhere to as part of having that license. Anyone who will make such a gross violation or sign off on it for an owner needs to be looked at because those kinds of poor decisions lead to people being killed.

Airworthiness isn't something to play with. There's a reason that yellow-tagged items cost so much and why you buy the aviation-purposed hose clamp instead of the cheap one from Home Depot. Not using approved parts will lead to failures, no matter how much money you save or how identical the two items seem.

Exactly!!!! And I, personally like to have a clear conscience!!!

[lmritger]

One, to the guy complaining about the harsh tone being expressed to whomever performed that "maintenance" beforehand... it is ABSOLUTELY deserved, every single bit of it. People have died within the past year because of engine issues, not least of whom was the beautiful Amanda Franklin who suffered for MONTHS with incredibly painful burns before succumbing to her injuries- all due to a engine issue which forced her husband to set their plane down quickly. So yes, those who do this work professionally have every right to get pi55ed off seeing such shoddy work because they know what can happen as a result of that.

And two- I'm glad I clicked on this post, because I just learned something about using sealants- namely what you can and cannot use in a fuel supply system. I'm not a mechanic and did not know you can't use RTV around gas- but you can bet your butt I'm going to remember, so if I have to do any work on my car's fuel system, I'll seal it up correctly. So thanks to all you A&P guys for sharing your knowledge on this.

Lynn

[the330thbg]

wow you guys are very critical of others. Glad you are better then them!

And they have every right to be! We're not talking bad paint jobs here, but airworthiness items whose failure could result in injury or death.

http://www.permatex.com/products/Automo ... Gasket.htm

Doesn't say specifically NOT to use it near fuel. So I guess, they are legally OK. Even says it "resists auto and shop fluids".

http://www.enertechlabs.com/Hi_Temp_Red ... licone.htm
Here is states "Not Recommended for use where there will be direct contact with gasoline, fuel oil, diesel, caustic, or acid solutions"

Should be a little clearer on the "Not Recommended" part!


Just a direct finger towards 'laziness'!

[The Inspector]

wow you guys are very critical of others. Glad you are better then them!

Oldman,
Here's a simple but VERY effective lesson in doing things correctly EVERY TIME. When I was instructing, I used to have one student, usually the class smart a$$ come to the front of the room. I'd have him or her hold their hand out palm up, then I'd tell the class that 'Jocko' here just pencil whipped an item and put it in the logbook as 'good to go'.

Then I'd place about a tablespoon of thin washers in his hand, have him close his hand and turn it over while saying 'these are the people who trusted you to do your job correctly, now open your hand and watch them die because of your laziness and stupidity, now go to prison for 10 years. You could always hear a cricket fart it was so quiet for a few seconds.

The absolutely tiniest thing can lead to the loss of every life on that airplane. I would tell students that if I knew I had caused the preventable deaths of innocent people, I wouldn't be able to live with myself and would most likely run off the end of the tallest hanger roof I could find. Never had to go near a roof in thousands of maintenance issues over 40+ years, never had a problem sleeping either.

My belief is, "If you are a hack, get out of my profession right now because you ARE dangerous and you ARE going to kill people"

When I was a mechanic, I NEVER took offense if an Inspector found an issue, I would correct it because I understood the cost in lives,I carried that atttude over to when I became an Inspector, and I always had a very good relationship with the mechanics I worked with, to the point that I'd see one small thing they would fix that and two or three other things that they thought weren't 'just right'. I could get more corrective action done by sticking my head in to where the mechanics were working and say 'I'm not happy with that' and indicate something, then say 'I'll check back in a bit, have something else to look at' when I came back the issue was resolved and I never had to put pen to paper, and if they worked on it, they knew I'd go on the test flight and never had a major issue on any test flight.

[svengi]

Oh man, that just makes me nauseous to see. People have died due to MUCH less obvious mistakes. I'm so glad you took note and decided to have it looked at. As an A&P I was always angry/nervous seeing the many ways people misuse rtv but this definetly tops the ones I've seen.

[brucev]

I've found record of maintenance like that usually isn't to be found in the aircraft logbooks.

[tinbender2]

I've found record of maintenance like that usually isn't to be found in the aircraft logbooks.

Yep.

And I've found much worse damage that was never recorded in logbooks, including gear-ups and massively cracked engine cases (covered up with proseal).


As the GA fleet grows older, I'm finding quite a few aircraft with automotive Bondo, covering up all kinds of damage. I pulled the side panels out of a twin last year, and found they were made of old Home Depot paneling, Liquid Nails, and outdoor carpeting.

[cooper9411]

How about this, steel lines that had been cracked repaired with JB-Weld!

[SPANNERmkV]

Being the aggrieved party here- and NOT an A&P- yet still doing work SUPERVISED by A&Ps I will try and do some "splainin'" here.
I see bodies. I see wrecked air frames. I see the ripples throughout families if outright shoddy work is allowed to pass.

Thank you for mentioning Amanda Franklin. I am not certain it is right to attribute their accident to bad work or even an honest mistake. I haven't heard a cause. Sometimes parts fail. Sometimes we push them once too hard, once too often for what was perfectly within the operating parameters of an air-frame or power-plant.

But in my own work and in other Volunteers and A&Ps- I would like to see the cause of failure reduced to "Something old just finally broke" and not a case of somebody did something wrong. And that can be either knowingly or unknowingly.

For those who followed the TEXAS RAIDERS thread you might remember Gary Austin getting after me to use the larger "safer" size washers when I was working on throttle linkages.
I made some comment like, "I only put on what I found in the first place." He was not a bit impressed by that logic. After he made me see the Light- He was Head of A/C Maintenance at that time for the CAF- I happily fixed it. He even apologized off-thread if he was a bit pointed and I said no- it was what I needed to hear and I thanked him for finding it before the FAA or the NTSB did.

None of us are Saints. Gary wasn't and I am not either. But we all try to do the best we know how and who knows- maybe Mr. Red RTV guy was doing what he thought was a gem-crack job. And he just didn't have a Gary or a Matt or whomever to shed further light on the issue.

But the most strident complainers about this are probably seeing faces too. Maybe from ones who were not as lucky as me, SPANNER or the people like BOMBERFLIGHT and others I unknowingly took up in that airplane in that condition.

So I will go back to the log-book and see who signed off on the restoration work. It may very well be that the fuel tank work is NOT signed off as someone else noted.

Anyhow- I thank the Lord for looking out for me on not only the dumb stuff I have done, but the stuff others have too.
And if anyone ever notices me publishing any pictures in any threads about any airplanes I work on where something is a little hinky- feel free to wade into my poo poo!
(Amazing- the WIX filter even changes the exclamation pointed version of poo poo to poo poo- What won't they think of next?)

Keep 'em Flying Safely,

SPANNER

[Canso42]

Good catch Don, glad you're safe.

[K5DH]

Anyone who's tempted by the forbidden fruit of taking the easy way out should stop and ask themselves a very important question: "If I do this, will I trust people's lives with it?" The answer they give will ultimately define whether they're a good mechanic or a lousy mechanic. This holds true for airplanes, cars, trucks, boats, tractors, locomotives, chainsaws, lawnmowers, and any other machine that might kill or maim someone.

While doing some restoration work on one of my classic Mustangs some years ago, I found Walmart-grade bolts holding the suspension in place in a car that I drove my family around in. If those bolts had sheared off, the suspension would have come apart. On an old used car that I bought back in college, I found a piece of STRING holding one end of the throttle return spring into place. If that string had broken, the accelerator would have gone to full throttle. On yet another car, I found a piece of coat hanger wire tightly twisted around a rubber fuel line in place of a missing hose clamp. I guess I don't really need to point out the danger there!

Let's not play games with people's lives, okay?

[avenger2504]

In my restoration I told my engineer who will be signing off the work I do (or rather am allowed to do)that I wanted to do it properly and to the book. The idea of cutting corners is alien to me as it will put me, my wife and anyone else who goes up with me at risk. I'm in engineering (not aircraft sadly) but that doesn't make me an expert so i might ask some seemingly stupid questions but I'd rather do that and do something that will kill me or others. Money doesn't even come into it, if I can't afford something I'll wait til I can.