Page 24 - June 2023

A close-up look at the aileron cable sawing through the wing rib.
Inexperience with the major maintenance required by this AD can have devastating consequences. This cannot be emphasized strongly enough. You do not want to go down that road, as you will soon see.
An Ordeal to Avoid
Years ago, a small charter business had a fleet with a couple of King Airs, plus some Barons and a few other aircraft. The owner-operator was methodical and attentive to the maintenance requirements of his fleet. One of his King Airs, a B200, was subject to AD 91-12- 10. Compliance was due by 9,500 hours TIS (Time in Service).
Although most of the maintenance on his fleet was done in-house, he knew he had to go elsewhere for this AD. As the deadline approached, he made arrangements to take his King Air to a Beechcraft shop for a Phase Inspection and compliance with the AD.
When the work was complete, the owner picked up his King Air and flew it back to his home base. A couple things caught his attention on that return flight: He thought the ailerons felt funny – something was different – and the control wheel travel was greater in one direction than the other; he was certain it wasn’t that way before. These were unsettling observations, especially since the wings had been off, so he contacted the shop and took his King Air back for them to look things over.
The shop kept it for 3 days and reported that nothing was found. The owner-operator picked it up and took it home again. The ailerons still felt odd, and the yoke
Photo left: The correct cable routing hole (top), notice it has caterpillar chafe strip around the inner edge to protect it; and the lightening hole (bottom), with no chafe strip and the improperly routed cable causing damage.
travel was still uneven from side to side. It was disturbing, but he didn’t know what else to do.
200 Hours Later
After 200 hours, the aircraft was due for another Phase Inspection and he brought it to my shop; I had never seen this King Air before. We proceeded with the inspection as usual, but right off the bat, I had bad news to report. (This wasn’t how I wanted to start with a new customer, but I had no choice.) The flap track rollers were a disaster. All of them were incorrectly installed – every single one – and there are 16 of them!
Every aft roller was installed in a forward position and every forward roller was installed in an aft position. Further, every roller was reversed or inverted or turned around in some way. You could not screw up flap track rollers any worse than this. It was a case study on every mistake possible. The only good thing was that no real damage was done to the rollers or flap tracks. We caught it in time.
Needless to say, the customer was furious. He wanted pictures. He was going to take the previous shop to task on this issue since they had the wings off and the control surfaces detached. He wondered out loud what I was thinking: How was this signed off during the Phase Inspection?
More Bad News
As my wife reached for the digital camera (no fancy phones back then), I got the ladder. We were getting a
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JUNE 2023