500E Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 A lesson for us all.Pictures of a Lycoming Chest, the story we were told was, "flew the helicopter for 3 hours after checking & topping up oil, then noticed the extension for the oil filler bottle was missing, don't know if it was dropped down oil filler neck or after we filled up but we could not find it".It was immediately decided that as the tube could not be found a strip to check if it was in the engine was required, luckily it was found in the oil chest still in one piece partially wedged in the scavenge suction pipe bent at over 45 degrees 3 thoughts 1/if it had been sucked in further it would have blocked scavenge pump, 2/ if it had not bent it could have caused cavitation in the pump, the other lucky thing was it did not melt. all 3 leading to a bad experience, the pilot has probably used all his luck in one go. So if you use a bottle to fill make sure it is all there when you finish. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary-mike Posted July 4, 2011 Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 Good call! In maintenance a missing tool is never taken lightly, you only hope and pray that your maintainer has the integrity to make the right call. I have put in alot of extra hours searching and reaccomplishing work due to a missing tool. It is always a frustrating experience put the one time you find out something was actually left in an aircraft (and not in some ones pocket). it is all worth while. The other times are always good for free beer, (as long as it wasn't in your pocket). The only bad call I see here is that an inventory of all tools should be done prior to and after performing maintenance, even if it is just a simple task. So in other words the helicopter should have never left the ground until the tube was found. Kudos though to whoever it was that lost it and had the balls to admit to it and take every precaution to ensure flight crew safety, espe3cially after they had already flown the aircraft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomPPL Posted July 4, 2011 Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 A valuable lesson there, thanks for posting - scary..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
500E Posted July 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 It was the pilot who did the oil check & fill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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