Shoutout to the new guy who caught a stripped bolt on a King Air flap track

We were doing a 100-hour check on a King Air 200 last week, and he pointed out a bolt on the right flap track that looked a bit off. He said the head was rounded, and sure enough, it was a quarter-turn past where it should have been. In my experience, people often just torque it and move on, but that can lead to a real problem down the line. Has anyone else found a better way to flag these for the logbook so they don't get missed on the next inspection?

4 comments

4 Comments

karencampbell3mo ago

Actually, a stripped bolt head is rounded off, not a quarter-turn past torque.

wyatt1353mo ago

Okay but come on, is a slightly rounded bolt head really the end of the world? Karencampbell is technically right about the definition, but in the real world a bolt that's a quarter-turn past torque is basically useless too. It's all just different levels of broken. Sometimes you can still get a grip on it, sometimes you can't.

phoenix_lewis3mo ago

Look at a bolt head with a perfect hex shape versus one that's just starting to round. That first one is still totally usable with the right socket, you just feel the slip. Karencampbell is right on the technicality, but Wyatt's point is the practical one. In my garage, both bolts mean the job just got harder and I'm reaching for the extractor set. The difference is just how much swearing happens first.

evan_cooper732mo ago

Ever notice how this same argument pops up with other stuff, like a cracked phone screen? People will fight over if it's "shattered" or just "spiderwebbed," but either way you're dealing with a broken thing and figuring out how to live with it until you can fix it.