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Strangest/oddest finds at inspection time???

I once found a fuel line in a 185 split for about 1 inch. It was in the belly, going to the fuel selector. It had obviously had water in it and frozen at some point. The aluminum line had clear PVC installed from the factory on the part of the tube that had split,. Weird thing was it had not leaked a drop. Still have the split line in my show and tell box.
An AME I used to work with new a guy that new a guy. They found an unexploded grenade wired inside a Beaver wing. It was tied to the aileron bell crank or pushrod and was old and rusty. It was a converted military beaver. The grenade had been riding around in the wing for years.
i know another AME that was doing an inspection on a 182. The bolt on the top lift strut had no nut on it. It had the original Cessna witness mark paint on the threads. The aircraft was around 10 years old and had obviously come out of the factory and through many inspections with no nut.
 
A buddy has a huge bucking bar found inside a wing that ridden there for 20+ years. During the prebuy on an Ag Cat I reached into the belly to check the wing attach points, one of the only significant airframe AD’s, and put my hands through the bottom of the rusted tube cluster. The dealer had just flown it 5 hours home.
 
I toured the Beech factory in 2000. A King Air was just coming off the production line. A workman with a heavy rubber truncheon was beating the crap out of the bottom of the wings. Our guide said he was listening for loose tools, rivets, and other debris.
 
In the 1980 a Crew Chief found a 51 Chi-com nose in the tail boom of a Mike Gun Ship I was flying. There were several bullet hole patches walking up the tail but this bird had to be back here 15 years or more.
 
You guys are reminding me why I have felt so comfortable and stress free after stopping working on other people's airplanes. I too have seen all of the eye openers which you all have posted. It's a dangerous world out there. There are so many airplane owners who just don't understand what the mechanics find. Yes some is mechanic induced, and some is the owners doing things which they shouldn't. And, just because the airplane is new off the production line, it doesn't get a free pass. Just the thoughts of the stories I could tell are giving me a head ache.
 
Back in the 70’s a guide named Doug Vaden brought his 185 in for an annual and instructed us not to patch the bullet holes in the wing as they were “evidence”. Seems he and his son had some type of dispute over hunting grounds.....
 
Couple of years ago a local shop installed a new engine in a Saratoga, two weeks later we found the 6 foot hoist chain coiled up on top of the engine. Owner said there was a strange noise.
 
Two years ago, for a couple weeks I had noticed off and on that my nearly new Gearwrench 1/2" combo wrench wasn't in to the tool box where it should have been. I figured it would turn up eventually. It did, the next time I took the cowl off the S-7S, there it was, just laying on top the engine, having logged over 10 hours of flight time. No one to blame other then the last guy who worked on it (guess who)?!
 
Guy that used to do my service work had a DEA transponder hanging on the wall he pulled out of plane he used to service before it was confiscated that is.
 
courierguy said:
Two years ago, for a couple weeks I had noticed off and on that my nearly new Gearwrench 1/2" combo wrench wasn't in to the tool box where it should have been. I figured it would turn up eventually. It did, the next time I took the cowl off the S-7S, there it was, just laying on top the engine, having logged over 10 hours of flight time. No one to blame other then the last guy who worked on it (guess who)?!
Click to expand...
I know a guy who did the same thing on his PA-12/150. He pulled the cowl to clean the plugs and found the 3/4" wrench he'd left behind the last time he did the job. What an idiot.......
 
Found an oil can cut in half and full of cowling screws in an Aztec nacelle panel.
 
PerryB said:
I know a guy who did the same thing on his PA-12/150. He pulled the cowl to clean the plugs and found the 3/4" wrench he'd left behind the last time he did the job. What an idiot.......
Click to expand...

He left that wrench there for next time.
Idiot? I think not-- that's just planning ahead.
 
The last time I took my crane to SLC to get some major work done, I got home, 185 miles or away, and only then found the mechanic had left 1/2" impact driver on top the hydraulic tank. Nothing to keep it there other then slow cornering.....it could have fallen off on the interstate and gone through some ones windshield. I sent it back to them, and paid the UPS charges, and never got reimbursed, just 10 bucks or so but that's not the point! I haven't been back there since.
 
I’ve got a screwdriver that I pulled from the top of an engine in a 177. The last signature in the book was from a guy that went to work for FAA as an inspector. Kept the screwdriver in case he tried to give me grief at a later date.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
courierguy said:
I got home, 185 miles or away, and only then found the mechanic had left 1/2" impact driver on top the hydraulic tank. Nothing to keep it there other then slow cornering......
Click to expand...

Years ago when I was going to tech school I drove 18 miles home at the end of the day, only to find that I had left a side cutter pliers on the bumper of my car. It stayed right there for the whole trip, and I took it back to school the next day (in the car, not on it).
 
I've done that. I even found a coffee mug full of coffee on a grain truck fender after driving 20 miles over washboard roads.
jnorris said:
Years ago when I was going to tech school I drove 18 miles home at the end of the day, only to find that I had left a side cutter pliers on the bumper of my car. It stayed right there for the whole trip, and I took it back to school the next day (in the car, not on it).
Click to expand...

Sent from my SM-J320V using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 
jnorris said:
Years ago when I was going to tech school I drove 18 miles home at the end of the day, only to find that I had left a side cutter pliers on the bumper of my car. It stayed right there for the whole trip, and I took it back to school the next day (in the car, not on it).
Click to expand...

You sure don't drive like I do, I would have had that go through the window of a house on a corner.:lol:
 
found a gopro under in the floor of my pa12. must of been there a while it was pretty scratched up banging around the belly of a floatplane.

I also put a snowplow on my old 82 jeep cj7 few years back and I use permatex aviation sealant for pipe threads so I had hat around while rigging up the hydraulics, apparently I laid the bottle on my battery and forgot it, went the whole winter not knowing where that damn bottle went come spring time after a full winter of plowing I open the hood to take off hydraulic pump belt and there it is still somehow sitting on the battery. I was certainly surprised with the way I plow!
 
A half used cigar behind the panel on a Cub laying on wires. Must have been put there when someone was working on their back.

Gary
 
Removed the cowl of a Cherokee for the annual and found a full size bicycle pump wedged in the right side. The plastic on the T-handle had been partially melted by contact with the exhaust risers. When the owner came by to check on the progress he seemed surprised and offended that I had removed the pump. Apparently the location was quite intentional.
 
Bag of zip ties left in the engine compartment of a Bell 429... Fortunately, the previous flight was short as they were only 1/2 melted...
 
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