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The Savvy Aviator #28: Be Prepared

February 15, 2006
by Mike Busch
Columnist


About the Author ...

Mike Busch is co-founder of AVweb, and served as its Editor-in-Chief for more than seven years until it was acquired by Belvoir Publications. He started flying 40 years and 7,000 hours ago, bought his first airplane (a Cessna 182) four years later, and soon became a CFII. After 20 years of owning and flying as a typical "appliance operator," he became increasingly involved in the maintenance of his third airplane, a 1979 Cessna T310R. Before long, Mike began assisting other owners to solve their thorniest maintenance problems as a member of the technical staff of the Cessna Pilots Association, and ultimately he earned his A&P ticket and Inspection Authorization.

A well-known aviation writer, Mike's first feature-length aviation article appeared in the May 1970 issue of Air Facts magazine. Since then, he has written hundreds of articles for Aviation Safety, AVweb, CPA Magazine, IFR, Light Plane Maintenance, and The Aviation Consumer.

Mike's latest undertaking, Savvy Aviator Inc., is dedicated to helping aircraft owners become more knowledgeable, confident and empowered to manage the operation and maintenance of their aircraft. Mike conducts weekend seminars for aircraft owners at venues throughout the U.S.

The rest of Mike's Savvy Aviator columns are available here.


The Savvy Aviator

More than a dozen single-engine airplanes converged on Ocracoke Island airport on the North Carolina Outer Banks for the long-awaited weekend fly-in. The October weather was extraordinarily delightful, the camaraderie was even better, and a great time was had by all. The only fly in the ointment was that a couple of participating airplanes developed significant mechanical problems. One aircraft developed a brake-line leak and dumped most of its brake fluid onto the tarmac, while another developed a rough-running engine on departure due -- at least in part -- to contaminated spark plugs.

These problems could easily have ruined an otherwise great weekend for these two aircraft owners and their passengers. Ocracoke Island is very remote -- accessible only by air or boat -- and its airport (W95) is rather desolate, with no FBO, no fuel, and no mechanic.

Fortunately, another fly-in participant happened to be carrying a fairly comprehensive collection of tools and parts in the baggage compartment of his Cessna. He located a small, plastic bottle of MIL-H-5606 hydraulic fluid and a tiny funnel and refilled the first plane's brake reservoir. He also came up with an aircraft sparkplug socket and ratchet that enabled him to remove, clean, and reinstall the second plane's balky spark plugs.

Lucky thing he was there, too. None of the other fly-in participants had the foresight to carry much in the way of tools or spare parts.

Airplane problems are never fun, but they're infinitely more frustrating when they occur while you're on a trip, far from the security of your mechanic, toolbox and hangar. That goes double if you use your airplane for serious business transportation the way I do. I've flown at least several transcontinental trips a year in small planes for the past 35 years, so I've had a fair share of mechanical glitches away from home.

For some reason that I've never been able to explain, my on-the-road mechanicals always seem to occur in out-of-the-way places between Friday night and Sunday afternoon when parts and mechanics are difficult or impossible to find. I'm not sure whether I'm just unlucky in this regard, or whether there's some all-pervasive scientific law at work here. In any case, I've learned over the years that the difference between minor annoyance and major trauma can hinge on being prepared to deal with such problems.

Service Information

Perhaps the single most important preparation you can make is to have ready access to the information you'll need to deal with a mechanical problem. Even if you're lucky enough to find a mechanic to help you on Saturday night or Sunday morning, what's the chance he'll have the parts and service manuals for your make and model? He might be able to lay his hands on a service manual for a Cessna 182 or Piper Archer, but if you're flying a Bellanca Viking or a Socata Trinidad or a Piper Mirage, rotsa ruck!

The parts and service manuals are among the most important "tools" you can bring with you on trips. There's nothing more frustrating when you need a part to get back in the air but can't come up with the part number. Also, even if you can find an A&P mechanic on Sunday, he can't legally work on your airplane without a service manual. Nor can you.


The best way to carry parts and service manuals with you in the airplane is on CD-ROM. For Cessna models up through 1976, you can purchase them very inexpensively from McCurtain Technology Group.

Nowadays you can get the parts and service manuals for most aircraft on CD-ROM, and that's a whole lot more convenient than lugging the binders around with you. I recommend you burn an "airplane copy" of the CD-ROM and stash it in the glovebox or seatback pocket so it'll always be there when you need it.

What about the aircraft maintenance logbooks? Although having them along might prove useful if the aircraft requires unscheduled maintenance away from home, I personally avoid carrying them in the aircraft for several reasons. For one thing, I don't want to risk them getting lost. For another, I'd really rather not have them with me in case I'm ramp-checked by the FAA. Finally, in the event of an accident, the NTSB would much prefer the aircraft maintenance records to be kept in a nice, safe place.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Another important thing to carry with you is a list of important telephone numbers. Your list should include the phone numbers of your favorite parts suppliers, especially the ones in Memphis who can take a parts order at 10 p.m. and get it on a FedEx flight for next-morning delivery. It should also have the home, cell and work numbers of one or more trusted A&Ps, and your type club's tech-support hotline.

Depending on your preference, you can keep these numbers in your cellphone's memory, or in a PDA (if you habitually carry one in your flight bag), or on a notebook computer (if you never leave home without it). If you're digitally challenged, you could even list these numbers on a piece of low-tech paper stashed in your wallet.

It's also not a bad idea to carry a copy of Trade-A-Plane in the airplane, even an old one. TAP tends to be a very handy reference, because it has ads and phone numbers for a ton of parts vendors and specialty shops that you might need to call.

Survival Toolkit

If you can't find a mechanic to help you out, at least you should have access to some tools so you can help yourself. A decent aircraft mechanic's toolbox weighs at least 400 pounds and stands five feet tall, and obviously you can't carry that much stuff around in the airplane. What you need is a small "survival toolkit" containing only what you really might need to get your crippled bird patched together enough to get home.

Everything in your survival toolkit should be small, lightweight and essential. For example, the big, roll-around toolbox I keep in my hangar contains 30 different screwdrivers plus a cordless Makita power-driver with two battery packs and a quick charger. By way of contrast, the survival toolkit I carry in the airplane has just two screwdrivers: a ratcheting screwdriver handle with multiple replaceable tips, and a stubby #2 Phillips for working in tight quarters.

Likewise, my roll-around has four entire drawers devoted to wrenches and sockets, while my survival toolkit makes do with a small socket set, a small set of combination wrenches, and some vice-grip locking pliers. (It's amazing what you can fix with nothing but vice-grips, tie-wraps, and duct tape!)

In addition to these basic tools, the most important tools and supplies to put in your traveling toolkit are the ones that might be hard to find while on the road. When you're stuck in the boondocks with a mechanical problem, you can almost always come up with a #2 Phillips screwdriver or a 3/8-inch combination wrench at a local hardware store, auto-parts store, or Wal-Mart. But coming up with an aircraft spark-plug socket, safety-wire pliers, or exhaust gasket on Sunday morning in Sheep Dip, Neb., could be problematic.

Naturally, you'll want to tailor the contents of your survival toolkit to conform to your own mechanical aptitude and ambition, not to mention the useful load of your airplane. Because I fly a turbocharged twin and am an A&P mechanic, my kit is probably bigger than what most owner/pilots would want or need to carry along.


I carry my survival toolkit in a plastic "Stack-On" box like this one. My stash of parts and supplies is kept in another, identical, Stack-On box. Another good choice is a soft-sided canvas "fishmouth" tool bag.

I carry my kit in a pair of lightweight, plastic, "Stack-On" toolboxes, one for tools and the other for spare parts and supplies. Another good choice is a canvas "fish mouth" tool bag. Avoid metal boxes; they're heavy and can dent or scratch the airplane.

Once you've assembled your traveling toolkit, put it in the airplane baggage compartment and don't raid it! If you borrow tools from your aircraft toolkit, they might not find their way back. You'll find yourself stranded at midnight in Okmulgee with a desperate need for your needle-nose pliers, only to find that they're back home in the drawer next to the kitchen sink.

Toolkit Shopping List

Now let's get down to the real nitty-gritty and review what tools you might consider for your traveling toolkit. Serious wrench swingers like me tend to carry enough tools to accomplish almost any conceivable field repair. You might want to pare down the following list to conform to your own mechanical aptitude and ambition.

Parts And Supplies

In addition to tools, you'll also need to carry some parts and supplies. What you carry depends on what model aircraft you fly, your mechanical aptitude and ambition, and your level of paranoia. When Flying Magazine editor Dick Collins flies around the country in his Cessna P210, he carries spare vacuum pumps, spare alternators, and replacements for darn near every other part he's ever lost on the road in his baggage compartment. That's probably overkill for most of us.


If I could carry just a few items in my survival toolkit, these three would be high on my list: duct tape, tie wraps, and vice-grip locking pliers. Never leave home without them!

Take what you think you might need to get home. Keep parts and supplies in individual Ziploc bags. That way, the parts don't get mixed up and the consumables can't leak. I keep mine in a second plastic Stack-On box identical to the one that houses my survival toolkit -- one box is marked "tools" and the other "parts."

Your shopping list of parts and supplies to carry is quite model-specific, but as a starting point consider carrying the following items:

Parts

Supplies

A Mini-Toolkit For The Cockpit

In addition to the survival toolkit for the baggage compartment, I also carry a mini-toolkit in the airplane glove box for dealing with in-flight cockpit emergencies. My cockpit kit includes:

I keep these items in a heavy-duty Ziploc freezer bag and store it in my airplane's glovebox. A seatback pocket is also OK, so long as you can reach it easily from the pilot's seat.

Where To Buy This Stuff

These days, everything you need for your survival toolkit, cockpit mini-toolkit, and parts/supplies stash can be purchased online. Here are a few sites you may want to check out:

Snap-On Tools

Craftsman Tools (Sears)

U.S. Industrial Tool & Supply Co.

Aircraft Tool Supply Co.

Brown Aviation Tool Supply Co.

Harbor Freight Tools

Aircraft Spruce & Specialty

Chief Aircraft

Sacramento Sky Ranch

Air Suppliers

Tex-Air

Radio Shack

Newark Electronics

Your Mileage May Vary

By now you've probably figured out that I carry quite a bit of stuff in my Cessna T310R, but keep in mind that it's a complex machine and I'm an A&P. If you fly a Skyhawk and are mechanically challenged, you'll undoubtedly want to carry less. Each aircraft and each owner is different. Do what makes sense for you.

I still don't look forward to mechanicals on the road. But now that I carry my parts and service manuals, my who-ya-gonna-call telephone directory, a survival toolkit, a few key spare parts and a big roll of duct tape, these incidents seem to happen less often and be much easier to cope with when they do.

See you next month.

Want to read more from Mike Busch? Check out the rest of his Savvy Aviator columns.



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