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Today’s episode is about those times when you notice something on an airplane that doesn’t seem quite right, but you’re not sure what’s going on, and it might take some real digging to get to the bottom of the issue.

But before we dig into those stories, I want to acknowledge that I’m super grateful for my high school English teacher, Miss Vivian Beachy.  Her classes were not easy, but she really cared about her students, and we learned a lot of valuable skills.  She’s the one that sticks out in my mind as one of the best influencers on my current writing ability, and I use that ability often, to write discrepancy reports, and maintenance record entries.  So, thank you Miss Beachy!

Now for the stories in today’s episode:

Story #1 – A strange situation in the steering, rudder, and rudder trim system in a Piper Saratoga.  (I had never seen this happen in all my previous years of airplane maintenance.)

Story #2 – A strange clicking noise in a Beech Baron elevator control system.  There were two distinct clicks as the elevator was raised, and no clicks as it was lowered.  (Once again, I had never seen this exact issue before.)

Here is the area in the tail of the Baron where the issue was happening:

Watch this video and see if you can spot the problem:

And here’s a closer view:

 

Story #3 – A Beech Debonair with a gear door problem.  The right, outboard gear door was in a serious bind where it attaches to the gear leg.  It turns out there was a very good reason for this, even though it was very difficult to discover.

Listen to today’s episode to find the detailed descriptions and the solutions to all these issues.

Bottom line:  If it don’t seem right, it probably ain’t!  And, it’s worth the effort to figure out what’s going on