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My lead at the hangar told me to always check the logbook first, even for a simple tire change
He said it saved him from a huge mistake once when a plane had a deferred write-up for a landing gear sensor that wasn't obvious. I thought it was overkill for routine stuff, but last month I was swapping a nose tire on a Cessna 172. I almost missed that the pilot had noted a slight shimmy on the last landing, which turned out to be a loose torque link. If I'd just changed the tire, I would have signed off on a plane with a real issue. Who else has a rule like this that seemed dumb but actually saved you? Or do you think it's a waste of time for basic jobs?
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viola_allen16d ago
Your point about the logbook check is spot on. A friend of mine who works on helicopters told me a similar story. He was just going to replace some worn cabin upholstery on a Bell 206. He checked the book and saw a note from two flights before about a faint, odd smell in the cabin that came and went. That small note led them to find a tiny crack in an exhaust heat shield, which could have been very bad. He said he would have never looked for that on a seat job.
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torres.thea16d ago
Totally agree, and @viola_allen's story about the smell is a great example. My old boss had a rule to always check the fuel sumps before any inspection, which seemed silly until we found water in a plane that was supposedly just in for an oil change.
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evakelly16d ago
Ngl, that upholstery story is wild. It's crazy how a tiny note about a smell can point to something that could bring a plane down. Makes you wonder how many other small write-ups get ignored because the job seems too simple. Those logbooks are basically a paper trail of little clues.
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