REFLECTOR:Confession Week!!!

[reflector at tvbf.org]

OK, the worst things I have seen and done.  Mind you, this is all Berkut 
and Long EZ related, but close enough for Government work.

1) Finishing the major MAJOR rebuild of my Long EZ just before the first 
KittyHawk-Oshkosh race.  As in JUST before.  Like, 2 days before.  Did I 
get my 40 hours of test in before departing?  I was within an order of 
magnitude.

I flew that trip with a mostly not working IFR panel.  In fact, the only 
gyro that WAS working was a TC.  Before the race we got an FAA brief saying 
the route would be easy VFR, with a couple of cells to skirt in 
Ohio.  Naturally we got trapped between converging layers about 90 minutes 
in.  I ended up IMC for several minutes.  I let social pressure get to me, 
and pressed on through long after I should have turned around.  Of course, 
the source of that social pressure turned around after 30 minutes and spent 
the afternoon taking a nap at an FBO, while CAP launched a search and 
rescue for him.

On that same trip one of our people wiped out his landing gear trying to 
land downwind at First Flight Airport.  When we took his airplane apart for 
transport, I found the left outer bottom nut was missing.  The person that 
assembled the wings a couple of weeks earlier had left it off (not me, and 
I ain't namin' names).  That same person had flown acro with the plane 
after assembly.  Apparently most of the load is shear.

2) Stuff that I've seen go through the prop.  Lots.  A dipstick, left in an 
exhaust pipe.  An upper cowl, set in place with out screws.  Canopies - 
installed without safety catches, as specified by the designer.  My Tilly 
hat (they replaced it).   Assorted nuts and bolts.

3) Bad preflights.  One EZ pilot was coming home from Reno.  His back seat 
was full, he couldn't see his sight gages.  He assumed the FBO had filled 
the tanks, as requested.  They hadn't.  His engine quit a couple of minutes 
after takeoff.  He made it back on his second tank.  Same guy left the nuts 
off his throttle linkages,  the bolts came off over Beal AFB.  He had full 
throttle only, and could kill the engine with mag switches.  He made it 
back too.