By Tom B, Pilot, Aircraft Owner & Builder, From Somewhere In the Midwest
Hi Doug (My Mechanic):
Finding this 7/16-inch wrench in my right wing bay last week is one reason to do a thorough condition inspection (see photo). I was kind of playing around with a new long-stemmed fully articulating borescope when I decided to look beyond the Van’s Service Bulletin inspections on my RV8A. I decided to look in some adjacent wing bays to test out the features of the borescope. “HOLY CRAP…. look what I found,” I said out loud to myself. A Craftsman original! Apparently, it was last used during my Garmin right wing autopilot servo install 5 years ago. It somehow migrated to the next open bay!
Well, we all know that loose metal objects in a busy, motorized wing section is not a healthy thing! I can only imagine what would have happened if the wrench got lodged in the bell crank area!?!?
Like many of us, I have many extra wrenches, just in case I need a certain fit. Maybe next time, I should count them, both before and after I do projects.
Funny thing, the same thing happened to me during elbow tendon surgery about the same time. After the arm close-up, the doctor went home. The diligent staff still needed to perform a post-op X-ray. Sure enough, half of a long-broken drill bit was left deep inside of me. “Quick, call the doctor back before Tom wakes up,” said one of the nurses. That’s not exactly how it went, but you get the idea. They woke me up and asked if we could do Deja-vu all over again. It was a long, sleepy day.
I guess this borescope was a lot like my Xray… finding unwanted loose objects to keep me alive and well.
Yep, dodged another bullet.
Be careful out there and report back your findings.