What have you found in a postflight inspection?

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havand@reddit

Preflight from a previous crew (jet), who didn’t post flight. Brand new tire on the right side that had a 6 layer flat spot.. result was a wasted tire and 30 minute wheel/tire assembly swap. I wish I had a photo. I can’t imagine how they didn’t know.

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BagOfMoneyNoChange@reddit

I mean, no crew is doing a post flight unless it's last flight of the day at a non-maintenance base.

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rockdoon@reddit

Speak for yourself, I post flight after every leg (that being said I fly freight)

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BagOfMoneyNoChange@reddit

I speak for myself and about 80,000 other airline pilots.

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rockdoon@reddit

Like I said I fly cargo and work as a flight engineer so I’m sure it’s different. But we do a post flight after every leg on our 727s we don’t have trained ground crew that can spot an issue where we go

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Substantial-End-7698@reddit

We never do one at my company

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Substantial-End-7698@reddit

We never do one at my company

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Temporary-Fix9578@reddit

Anti skid inop?

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havand@reddit

No

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Temporary-Fix9578@reddit

So how’d they manage it?

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andrewrbat@reddit

Maybe a low speed taxi turn with too much brake? Theyd have to do quite a violent turn….

Most jets with anti skid and touchdown protection don’t have locked wheel protection below a certain speed. 25 kts or so. That way you can brake steer a little not great for the tires when take. To an extreme.

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havand@reddit

Over the years asked the same question

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havand@reddit

We did have one retard doing retard things in flight, forgot they left the partying brake on you can imagine the result on landing in EWR

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andrewrbat@reddit

Ah the ol hydraulic transfer via parking brake shuttle valve eh?

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Mundane-Reality-7770@reddit

I read retard like retarded timing. Zak galifanakis esque in the hangover

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aftcg@reddit

They did a nice 270 and stayed on the CL. FO is a Sr CA at UA now.

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lnxguy@reddit

You would not believe some of the mechanical failures helicopters can have and still make it to the ground.

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Figit090@reddit

Everything except that one big nut at the top?

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Drunkenaviator@reddit

All of them, I would imagine.

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aftcg@reddit

I mean, every mechanical failure gets a chopper to the ground, technically...

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lnxguy@reddit

Takeoff are optional; landings are mandatory.

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RiccWasTaken@reddit

C152 carburetor leak. Instructor thought it was just condense from a heat exchanger or so, but after a few minutes a pronounced puddle of fuel was there at the main landing wheel.

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aftcg@reddit

Wait, you had an instructor that thought a C152 had a heat exchanger?

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Turbo_SkyRaider@reddit

Technically the cabin heater is a heat exchanger...

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CommonRequirement@reddit

I’m technically a heat exchanger

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PresentationJumpy101@reddit

I like to exchange heat with your mom sometimes

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aidirector@reddit

Have you leaked recently?

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PhilRubdiez@reddit

Depends on how much ~~beer~~ water they had.

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aftcg@reddit

Ah yes. The silent killer. And so is the wee tube of air blowing over the oil screen housing.

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RiccWasTaken@reddit

It was condense he said, but was probably from something else.

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jemenake@reddit

My post-flight inspection is recording the Hobbs and making sure I didn’t leave my hoodie in the back seat.

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palbertalamp@reddit

1960 C 172, mine, hangared, flown couple times a week.

Little bit, two, three drops oil on nose wheel. Meh, wipe it off.

Next preflight flight same, wipe the two drops off, shine a light around inside cowl, wipe stuff down, filter, bottom oil plug, nothing. Go flying.

Four or five flights .

Month or so later, a cup of oil on nose wheel and floor.

Cowls off, better wipe down, finger goes through paint skim covering hole in magnesium oil pan. Oh boy. Bought a serviceable oil pan, AME installs it.

The O300 in the pre 1968 C 172s are magnesium, (rare as hens teeth ) , and used to be on the C170, tailwheel, engine parked nose slant up.

There's a little internal valley in the magnesium oil pan, around the carb.

Engine sitting level ( C172 nose wheel ) water gathers in the valley, eventually corrodes a hole. The hole was covered in enough sludge , that it was holding the engine oil in. Even with 25 hour ( screen, not filter ) oil changes. C 170 slanted, no water gathers in internal valley around carb on the bottom.

Then I tied the tail down to finish the oil change, waste a half quart 20w50, let it dribble, thinking I'm flushing the water out.

Dunno if it works, but still flies. And I'm a little more rigorous disallowing small harmless looking oil leaks.

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CapeGreg767@reddit

While flying KC-135's in the Air Force, we had a static discharge in flight, didn't think much about it until we landed. Crew Chief came up and said "What the hell did you do to my airplane?" When downstairs and found about 3 feet of the wingtip gone and about a 100 little holes in the wing! Lucky we didn't explode!

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Grand_Raccoon0923@reddit

I really had to pee after the flight.

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Improperfaction@reddit

Story time! A few years ago when I was a lowly reserve FO at PSA, I got called in to do a maintenance test flight. It's pretty basic... just take an empty CRJ up to 20,000, fly a big box around Ohio, and land back at Dayton. I'm PF today, and as we were taking off I see a massive bird wiz by the cockpit. Once we were climbing up, I asked the captain if he saw the massive bird we almost hit, and he said "No." The rest of the test flight was uneventful, but after we landed, and I'm doing my postflight, I notice that the wing had a MASSIVE dent in it and dried blood all over. The poor mechanics had to go to work again and I got to go home. The tower said it was a Great Horned Owl that they found on the side of the runway after the captain reported it to them.... so yea... those do a lot of damage.

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Gutter_Snoop@reddit

Ha. This one reminds me of a time we landed a King Air in BFE Tennessee to pick up a client.

FO did a great landing. Taxied to the ramp easy peasy. She went inside to use the restroom, I stayed behind to set up the FMS for the next flight.

She comes back out, I see her frown and look sideways underneath the plane. "Uh oh," I say to myself... noticing that maybe I do feel tilted a little sideways.

Yup, left main strut had blasted all its oil all over the wheel assembly and ramp and everything.

Got stuck there three days waiting on parts :P

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ne0tas@reddit

A whole brake caliper missing

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Feelin_Dead@reddit

Lets see....power cable from solenoid to started rubbing on intake clamp, just about worn through the insulation. missing bolt from a brake caliper. Fuel leaking onto tire causing a large bulge.

Back when I was a mechanic on heavy's in Florida we would find all kind of lightning damage. Rivets welded to skin, a hole burned through the end of an HF antenna. Anti collision lights blown out.

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Drunkenaviator@reddit

Wrote up the #2 engine on an e-145 for smoking after shutdown. Mechanic came out, opened up the cowl, and out dropped a very large (and very singed) oil filter wrench.

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cficole@reddit

Saw that once, looked scary, until I saw the beagle marking another plane.

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walleyednj@reddit

Cracked oil cooler mount on a Musketeer.

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asmartz@reddit

Never underestimate an under inflated tire

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skyHawk3613@reddit

The worst…flat tire

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Jrnation8988@reddit

Nah. Thats a CFI fluid leak

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Roger_Freedman_Phys@reddit (OP)

Call the hazmat squad!!!

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weaselkeeper@reddit

A cracked wing fold attachment on the F-4 I crew chiefed that was about half the wing cord after pulling 8 g to avoid a midair with a wingman during a dogfight.

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WhiskeyCharlie907@reddit

Missing access panel about 4”x4” on the fuselage.

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Mundane-Reality-7770@reddit

Coming from annual. Thorough preflight found the tail cone not quite right. Got that taken care of. Flew 8 miles to home drome. Very heavy left wing. Post flight I was wondering if they messed with rigging. Found the 4" wide inspection panel under the right wing spun around and acting like an aileron when tying it down on the lift.

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dendronee@reddit

Yo strut be strutting NO MO

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Av8torryan@reddit

Sucked a bird through the engine and dented the intake . Didn’t even know it until maintenance came up after doing a catch and told me.

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hyacinthhusband@reddit

Bird guts and feathers in a spot bigger than my head on the underside of the flap. Found it early in the morning on an airplane that had sat overnight. The whole point of the post-flight is to prevent the 2-hour delay we ate waiting for contract MX that morning

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lief101@reddit

I’ve been that guy. Worst part was I put it to bed the night before at the outstation…

Next morning, I saw exactly one tiny little feathers on the leading edge of one of turbine blades, did some more inspections then found the rest of the bird mixed in the compression section and bypass. Idiot…

Long day. Dark night. Windy on the ramp had the engine still windmilling. Oops. Sorry CPO / Dispatch

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EnthusiasmHuman6413@reddit

Damn the air in that tire turned straight into liquid when it hit the tarmac. Crazy.

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Slick-62@reddit

Came back from a mission and found left cargo door on Huey missing. Checked right just to make sure we had them to start with. Somewhere in a Central American jungle.

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ricktherick@reddit

Had an A/C installed and they upgraded the wiring. Had a loose connection, looked like the heat shrink tubing melted onto my fuel line.

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ricktherick@reddit

oh, bonus points for not post flight, but post leak check after an oil change. I was an idiot and missed a microfiber cloth that fell onto my exhaust pipe from under the oil filter. Melted onto it and I'm very lucky it didn't start a fire. That was embarrassing, but taught me a very valuable lesson to look thoroughly prior to closing it up.

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Puzzleheaded-Leg5064@reddit

A collapsed strut and a struck prop...

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capt_jack994@reddit

Missing overwing fuel cap on a SR22 after a long night of flying. No clue when the latch failed but luckily the tank didn’t vent any fuel in flight.

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DeluxeBurger01@reddit

Found a blown brake line on a post flight on the PC-12. Thought the right felt weird after landing…

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condor120@reddit

A bat still smashed against the leading edge of the wing with my solo cx student in the airplane saying he’s “ready to go”

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Illustrious_Sale_153@reddit

The aircraft had a missing elevator on the one side of the horizontal stabilizer. No one thought to take the plane out of service, it was available for rent. Had an ignorant person not done a pre flight walk around, they’d be dead. Unfortunately, my student didn’t get to see this but it would have been a great lesson on why we do pre flights.

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Sacharon123@reddit

Hole in the fan blade rubber / polyurethan covering about a thumb size. Guess we kicked up a stone on landing? Aircraft AOG ofc.

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storyinmemo@reddit

Spinner had a missing chunk upon landing.

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sirebell@reddit

Not me, but somebody at our school found a huge nick in one of our props during post flight. Weird thing is that it didn’t look like a rock hit it. It looked like somebody took a sword and swung it at the prop as hard as they could. It was a very thin and fine gash maybe 5mm deep. The instructor and student that were flying the plane said they felt nothing abnormal while flying.

Most unfortunate part of the whole situation is that it’s a brand new SR20 G7+. Can’t remember the technicalities of it right now, but Cirrus classified it as a prop strike. Thing has been in maintenance for like 3 months now.

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InteractiveCream@reddit

Flashlight left in nose wheel gear bay by MX

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jellenberg@reddit

A ratchet with crows foot sitting against the tail rotor driveshaft tops my list of things you don't wanna see again.

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Styk33@reddit

I️ found almost the same thing, just the puddle was not as big. oring in the brake caliper failed. Return flight was no fun, opened the doors to help slow the plane down and use more runway than what was calculated.

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Accomplished_Beat418@reddit

Elevator cable making contact with the metal above it when in the full down/forward position. Cable carved a curved groove into said metal. Cable checked/found okay, but from my experience with hoist operations and rock climbing, the micro fractures likely endured (not visible to the naked eye) significantly reduced the strength of the cable.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

We all do careful *pre*flight inspections, but some of us overlook the importance of a *post*flight inspection.

A case in point is this Piper I saw today, which had landed less than an hour earlier and has a pronounced hydraulic leak from the left main gear.

As the third photo shows, the gear leaked at the spot where the airplane was stopped, then continued to drip as it was being pushed back into its parking spot.

(I’ve shared these photos with the owner who rents out the airplane.)

What squawks have you found in a postflight inspection?

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