Maintenance Return to Service Flight

Radar Contact

Radar Contact

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
2,305
Location
Illinois
Display Name
Display name:
Kevin
I've read a lot of people on here and other sites discuss the seriousness of the first flight after maintenance. Being a new owner, I've had to drop the plane off for the left fuel divider O/H, HSI repair and most recently the installation of a Garmin G5. Each time I did an extremely thorough pre-flight/runup and ensured no passengers.

On Tuesday I went to the avionics shop to pick up my plane after the G5 install. It is a reputable shop that came highly recommended by multiple people in the area. The owners were very friendly and I reviewed all the paperwork, settled the bill and then they showed me the simple operation of the G5 in my plane. We said our goodbye's and I began my pre-flight.

First thing I noticed going slowly through the checklist was that the elevator would only raise about 1/3 and then something was stopping it. I didn't force it. I went to the back of the plane to see if there was any damage or anything externally blocking it and there were no visible issues. I went and got the owner and he came and looked under the panel and mutter a few curse words. An entire wire bundle was blocking the travel of the elevator on a plane they signed off and returned to me! He then resolved it using several large zip ties to raise the wire bundle up and out of the way. While he was resolving this I noticed two screws on the left side of the cabin protruding by 4 inches. I pointed this out to him and he apologized again and said it was leveling screws and had one of his technicians replace the screws. At this point I asked him if he is a pilot and he said yes pointing to his V-tail Bonanza on the ramp which made me feel a little better about the zip tie repair.

Needless to say when I departed I was very much paying attention to everything to make sure all was well and the flight home was uneventful with the exception of pretty strong turbulence bashing me around which resulted in a blurry picture but I'll attach it anyway (already posted once on the G5 thread).

Reference the G5, I'm very excited about it. For the price and what I get, I don't think it can be beat. I moved the T&B indicator down and left one (drives the YD) and moved the AI to the T&B spot as that drives the FD/AP. The airspeed/altitude tape/inclinometer/VSI/GS/heading/attitude were all perfectly matched to the primary units and now I have a 4 hour battery back-up multi purpose screen that gives me a nicely presented extra safety buffer.

Luckily I took the return to service flight methodically and didn't discover the elevator problem at 100+ knots down the runway!
 

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Radar Contact said:
I've read a lot of people on here and other sites discuss the seriousness of the first flight after maintenance. Being a new owner, I've had to drop the plane off for the left fuel divider O/H, HSI repair and most recently the installation of a Garmin G5. Each time I did an extremely thorough pre-flight/runup and ensured no passengers. Luckily I took the return to service flight methodically and didn't discover the elevator problem at 100+ knots down the runway!
Click to expand...
Funny you just posted this. I just got back from my own post-annual flight a few minutes ago. Same deal: no pax and took a lap around the pattern (several actually at altitude). Before I did however, I did a thorough preflight. As I went to put the tow bar on the nose, I immediately noticed the thru-bolt was showing some threads. I put a finger on it and sure enough it was loose. I was told that bolt 'kinda helps the nose gear stay on', so it could have been an ugly landing.

Another time as I helped a friend button up inspection covers, I found a pair of dikes laying up inside the wing. Not a smart place to lay some cutters down!
 
Same thing here. I climb about 3500 and check everything while staying in gliding distance. Never had any issues but another post like this reiterates the importance of it.
 
After maintenance I've had screws so loose I could undo them with my finger. Cowling not hinged on one side and didn't notice until takeoff roll when it bulged out. Prop seal split after new prop put on causing oil streaming back on the windscreen. AA-5 nose fork not tightened at all (18-20lbs required) and shook like a shopping cart wheel.

These are just things that are proven poor QC. There's always the other items that mysteriously don't work after maint and the usual scratch or chip here or there due to lack of attention to detail. So yeah, be prepared for anything after maintenance has been done.
 
I have my plane down for annual... very helpful to read these posts. I am tinkering with the idea of taking my mechanic up on the first flight

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
It's worse when it's hidden. I ended up with an expensive Remote gyro repair in which we discovered that a prior shop - not sure which one - had stolen my almost-new unit and replaced it with a piece of junk that had improper repairs. We found it after comparing serial numbers.
 
wsuffa said:
It's worse when it's hidden. I ended up with an expensive Remote gyro repair in which we discovered that a prior shop - not sure which one - had stolen my almost-new unit and replaced it with a piece of junk that had improper repairs. We found it after comparing serial numbers.
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Did you by chance have any avionics work done in Ohio? I know a shop who uses this as their modus.
 
Found a screwdriver that was left on top of an engine in a friends plane. Found a pear of vice grips under the floor of another plane. Lucky there was no damage or problems found. Something to be said about tool box inventory after a job.
 
iflyvfr said:
Did you by chance have any avionics work done in Ohio? I know a shop who uses this as their modus.
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Yes. I was based at ISZ. And had issues with the shop there. But I suspect it was done later (shop in Texas), can't prove it.
 
I always treat my first after-maintenance flight as a test flight and go solo. Once after a simple ski install I went to full theottle to take off and the engine quit. That's where I was when it ran out of fuel as the hangar rule was to turn fuel off. I never checked it. Had one post-annual flight where the lower spark plug caps vibrated loose, obviously never torqued. I broke my rule last year and took the wife with after my annual. Off Lake Hood strip and across 3 miles of ocean inlet, and then smoke started coming in. It's a hard decision to make about where to go but I elected to go back across three miles of water to Hood. After a thorough inspection and a call to the mechanic we figured it must have been soapy water residue that got into the heat box. No issues found so we went back out and had no problems. Ever wonder what a scared woman looks like? I don't!
 
I got my plane back from annual a month ago, and found that there was some resistance when pushing the yoke forward, like it was hitting something. A vacuum hose wasn't secured properly.
 
The post maintenance thing with interference of wire bundles or other stuff with flight controls is really common. I've had that one, too.

I cringe when I see wimpy little control checks on YT videos.

Box those things, and go to full travel all the way around every time.

I learned that flying gliders (they're often disassembled and wings taken off between flying days!) but it's served well in everything ever since.

Had a friend have a brake failure after maintenance also. He says he never points the airplane at anything on the ground he doesn't want to hit after brake work now.

He missed a hangar by a foot or so when they failed. He got a brake "check" and a couple of stops out of them before all the fluid was pumped overboard into the taxiway.
 
Radar Contact said:
I've read a lot of people on here and other sites discuss the seriousness of the first flight after maintenance. Being a new owner, I've had to drop the plane off for the left fuel divider O/H, HSI repair and most recently the installation of a Garmin G5. Each time I did an extremely thorough pre-flight/runup and ensured no passengers.

On Tuesday I went to the avionics shop to pick up my plane after the G5 install. It is a reputable shop that came highly recommended by multiple people in the area. The owners were very friendly and I reviewed all the paperwork, settled the bill and then they showed me the simple operation of the G5 in my plane. We said our goodbye's and I began my pre-flight.

First thing I noticed going slowly through the checklist was that the elevator would only raise about 1/3 and then something was stopping it. I didn't force it. I went to the back of the plane to see if there was any damage or anything externally blocking it and there were no visible issues. I went and got the owner and he came and looked under the panel and mutter a few curse words. An entire wire bundle was blocking the travel of the elevator on a plane they signed off and returned to me! He then resolved it using several large zip ties to raise the wire bundle up and out of the way. While he was resolving this I noticed two screws on the left side of the cabin protruding by 4 inches. I pointed this out to him and he apologized again and said it was leveling screws and had one of his technicians replace the screws. At this point I asked him if he is a pilot and he said yes pointing to his V-tail Bonanza on the ramp which made me feel a little better about the zip tie repair.

Needless to say when I departed I was very much paying attention to everything to make sure all was well and the flight home was uneventful with the exception of pretty strong turbulence bashing me around which resulted in a blurry picture but I'll attach it anyway (already posted once on the G5 thread).

Reference the G5, I'm very excited about it. For the price and what I get, I don't think it can be beat. I moved the T&B indicator down and left one (drives the YD) and moved the AI to the T&B spot as that drives the FD/AP. The airspeed/altitude tape/inclinometer/VSI/GS/heading/attitude were all perfectly matched to the primary units and now I have a 4 hour battery back-up multi purpose screen that gives me a nicely presented extra safety buffer.

Luckily I took the return to service flight methodically and didn't discover the elevator problem at 100+ knots down the runway!
Click to expand...
Honestly, after that display I would have told him, "Great, get your headset, we're going flying." I wouldn't have taken my airplane until he had gone on a checkout flight with me. A good way to make sure he's truly confident in the work his shop did.
 
Radar Contact said:
First thing I noticed going slowly through the checklist was that the elevator would only raise about 1/3 and then something was stopping it. I didn't force it. I went to the back of the plane to see if there was any damage or anything externally blocking it and there were no visible issues. I went and got the owner and he came and looked under the panel and mutter a few curse words. An entire wire bundle was blocking the travel of the elevator on a plane they signed off and returned to me! He then resolved it using several large zip ties to raise the wire bundle up and out of the way. While he was resolving this I noticed two screws on the left side of the cabin protruding by 4 inches. I pointed this out to him and he apologized again and said it was leveling screws and had one of his technicians replace the screws. At this point I asked him if he is a pilot and he said yes pointing to his V-tail Bonanza on the ramp which made me feel a little better about the zip tie repair.
Click to expand...

And what happens in a couple of years when the zip ties break and the wire bundle falls back down (maybe in flight). I had this very thing happen to me in a Tomahawk several decades ago. Wasn't fun (although it turned out OK). I would have done what others suggest - invite him to join you on the PMCF.

Steve
 
GlennAB1 said:
That wire bundle is still discrepant, still needs secured properly.
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They told me that wire bundles are routinely secured with zip ties. He did use almost a handful so several would have to break which in my experience isn't likely. Thoughts?
 
Radar Contact said:
They told me that wire bundles are routinely secured with zip ties. He did use almost a handful so several would have to break which in my experience isn't likely. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

As Glenn said, not too likely. But watch out as they age. Some varieties turn very very brittle and snapping a handful of them with an errant foot kicking the bundle or whatever, becomes way too easy. Takes years usually but heat accelerates the degradation of the plastic they're made of.

Nylon ones that are also listed as having UV protection (whether actually in sunlight or not) are mucho better and last much longer. But that's from data center usage, and I don't know what materials are allowed in cockpits that use them.

Hope that helps. You probably have a while before needing to worry about it, but the ones that turn brittle over time eventually need to be replaced before they get too weak.

I re-did some big cable bundles in an older data center once. All I had to do to remove entire 7' cabinet runs worth of old zip ties was just pull on the wire bundle. They all snapped and then you just picked them all off of the bundle as you replaced them with new ones at the same locations. Pop pop pop. No real pressure to bust them at all.
 
After my G5 install (and an intercom mod) the shop neglected to screw my fuel selector plate in all the way, preventing me from being able to switch tanks. Caught on preflight even though it isn't on the checklist.
 
I wouldn't worry about the zip ties on the way home, nor would I worry about them for the next six months. At SOME point before you forget about it, Adel clamps and metal screws and self locking nuts are in your vocabulary. Nylon of ANY sort ages, cracks, and breaks over time.

Jim
 
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