So a few months ago I was doing a lot of touch n gos on a damp grass strip, so of course got quite a bit of crap under the wings etc. I did a rough spot clean back then but last weekend I decided to give him a proper bath. Once a year whether he needs it or not 😄
Well, maybe he needs it more than once a year because when you're washing a plane, you are looking at parts of the plane you don't often look at, or at different angles for things you see all the time.
I found three loose bolts on my radiator 😲
I know why, and it wasn't because of me. I won't go into that. But whether it's someone's elses fault or not, the buck stops with the pilot.
I had an instructor who got me in the habit of checking random things you may not look at in your 'standard' walk around. I haven't actually picked up anything yet on my plane doing that (although I did find something on the last hire plane i flew), but I also do it with work vehicles, which have check lists. Sure enough, looking at random things NOT on that list meant I've found a number of faults most other drivers wouldn't notice.
But back to the plane. Most of my random checks are INSIDE the engine bay. These bolts are outside the bay. And I haven't done many random checks of the airframe in general.
So I'm going to step up those RBTs (random bolt tests 😄 )