[Jeff Brooks]

For starters, I know a good preflight goes a LONG way!

When I was an instructor pilot in the army, I used to explain to the new guys how the book defines the preflight, but really .. your experience guides it. If you had an experience that scared you once ... you will look for it on every preflight from now on!

Old guys in the unit would let the new guys look at everything, then they would go up and look at the rotor head themselves ... because something scared them into not trusting the new guys.

A war story about a hydraulic emergency spooks you into checkin that resevoir every time.

Your preflight becomes a group of experiences that scare you into checking certain things every time before you go fly.

I know a guy very well who built a baby ace. He was putting the 25hours in the pattern, when he experienced an excellerated spin stall. He went straight into the ground. The FAA investigator found that one of the contributing factors of the accident was that a control cable was off the pulley, and when the pilot should have been warned of the onset of the stall by a shutter in the stick, he got none because that cable was isolated between the pulley and it's race. This plane had no way to inspect the pulley on preflight, it wasn't in the plans. But you know my plane will have some inspection doors on the pulleys now, and I will check it before every flight!

A recent "rough landing" I know of, was caused by leaking fuel at a fitting on the carb. It was working fine on very recent flights, but it caused a loss of power that resulted in a wrecked plane. The FAA found it by the degreasing of the engine around the carb. Now I know to put a large access door near the carb so enough light can get in there, and I can look for things like this ... before every flight.

I read a story about a guy in Long Island who built a Fokker DVII and he let a friend who is an experienced pilot do the inital flights. On landing, the plane swerved off to the right as weight was applied to the wheels. It turns out that the bungee cords were tighter on one side than the other. That pilot had the opportunity to talk to an old timer who explained that on preflight, they used to sit on the wing and measure how far the wing drooped. Then they repeated the check on the other side, trying to determine if both wings dipped down to the same level. Now that is in my preflight.

Although a good preflight usually catches problems on the ground, as a builder, you write the manual. Some builders are not always the pilot. We as builders need to consider what is important to pass on the those folks who fly the plane. That stuff goes into the operator's manual or aircraft manual. We don't always know what is important ... but it is important enough to research.

When we build our replica's or reproductions or whatever ... we seldom put as much effort into planning out regular maintenance. Although these planes can be built using automotive engines or certified aircraft engines, how often does the average home (often first time builder) plan in a regular inspection cycle for the plane. If the builder writes out how often something should be looked at, oil changed, or replaced, it becomes a requirement once the plane is certified.

I found that the one way check valves that keep my oil scavenge pump from cavitating had an AD on it. This part was once on Bell 47's, and has a history of not opening in either direction causing the transmission to sieze. The AD explains how the valve will be removed and checked for proper operation every 25 hours. YOU KNOW that is gonna go into my maintenance manual!

My point is the Builder needs to spend as much time researching the problem areas of a plane as he does on historical research.