The day I found a paperclip holding a landing gear wire

I was doing a routine inspection on a Cessna 172 last Wednesday and popped open a panel near the wheel well. There it was, a bent paperclip jammed in where a cotter pin should have been, holding a brake line clamp. The owner swore he'd never seen it before, but the rust on that paperclip said otherwise. How do you even miss that during a preflight? Has anyone else run into weird stuff left behind by previous mechanics?

3 comments

3 Comments

jessica9219d ago

Found a crushed Red Bull can wedged under a battery box once, still had the pop tab poking out. Dude must have been in a hurry to get that plane back in the air lol.

the_oliver9d ago

You ever get that call from a buddy who can't believe what he found? My friend Alex was helping swap out a starter on a Cessna 172, and he found a half-eaten bag of chips shoved behind the panel. Not just any chips, but some greasy barbecue ones. The bag was all crunched up, probably sat there for years. He said the oil from the chips was like, smeared all over the wiring. Had to clean it up before the owner saw, total mess.

erickelly9d ago

Got a call from my buddy Mike last year, he works at a small repair shop out in Ohio. He was doing an annual on a Piper Cherokee and pulled the floor panels to check the control cables. There was a whole McDonald's bag stuffed down there, like from the 90s based on the logo he said. The fries had turned into this greasy dust that was caked onto the rudder cable pulleys. He spent like two hours with a toothbrush and some solvent getting it off. Said he couldn't even be mad, it was more funny than anything but man, people are wild with what they hide in planes.