Ah the joys of owning an airplane. C182P in for routine annual. Almost done when the shop sends these photos.



No other visible damage. Speculation is nose wheel landing while on wheels. Currently on floats.

Anybody have a source for Cessna part numbers 0713631-1 and -2?
A boneyard mid 70s 182 perhaps?

What caused the tunnel to crack like that - was it the forces from a hard landing that transmitted through to the tunnel? If so, what does the firewall look like?

ah man... that blows. Sorry brother.

Halestorm is up that way. Im sure he can chime in with some suggestions.

Ouch.
They're local to me so I usually try https://www.discountaircraftsalvage.com/ first.
Beyond that maybe Texas air salvage or similar?
https://www.texasairsalvage.com/main_view.php?editid1=184533

Thanks for sharing! great to see what damage can look like

when you land on rough water does the plane make any crazy knocking noises? ive seen cracked V braces from hard landings on water..

many 182 have the float struts hooked up to the nose gear mount. load get transferred to right there.

did you just buy the plane?

With the seaplanes west float kit the struts are tied into the engine mount, there’s no stress in the tunnel area. Those yellow chromated doublers on the firewall are part of the SPW kit.

This damage must have happened since the SPW kit was installed because whoever installed the kit would have seen that damage.

What’s the belly skin look like? I can’t believe those members could be that bent without the lower nose gear attach casting being pushed up into the belly.

The plane is currently on floats but has been on wheels the last couple of winters. The belly skins, firewall and wheel mount all look perfect. I have photos of the very area when it was rebuilt 4 years ago.
Best guess is the damaged occurred due to nosewheel landing, perhaps over time.

Textron online appears to stock the parts and my sheet metal guy says if we can get the parts the repair “shouldn’t be too hard”. But he is a wizard with sheet metal.

Update, Textron has the tunnel assemblies in stock. 3 AMUs isn’t.cheap but at least not too crazy for a combination of cast and stamped AL.

Don’t think I’ve had my head under a late model 182 but tell you what I see:

There appears to be threaded nut plates in the top flange of the tunnel.

Someone elected to drill holes and add sheetmetal tinnerman nut plates.

I’m thinking the cover not seen in your photoes is a lot more structural than someone thought and without it the “ box “ was allowed to compress inward causing the failure of the lingatudansl angles.

Seen almost the same thing under the engine of the 206 when people chose to not reinstall the avionics panel under the engine after a wheel/float swap. Without that plate the motor mount brackets tip inward at the bottom causing all kinds of issues.

And ya, someone has been banging her in, need that bump of power to get the nose up into a good flair if you don’t have the trimable stab like the early 182/180/185.

Good find regardless.

Rocket

Astute observation Rocket, however I checked both the parts manual and photos of the rebuild done by Kenmore in 2020. It is just a cover held on by Tinnerman nuts.
I agree the only rationale explanation is nosewheel abuse but it calls into question the assumption that the result of such damage can be seen on the outside.
Interesting note is that the last annual was extremely thorough, as in replacing the LED interior lamps with incandescents and removing the Kenmore installed inboard fuel fillers because they were not “FAA approved”, but missed this.

Moral of the story is to closely check the tunnel at your next annual … or … not.

Man, that's unbelievable to have that damage with the reinforcements and not be able to see it. Having just changed those parts out. Along with a firewall and many other parts, I can confirm that they are stock with those holes and tinnerman plates.
I am curious about the 206 comment Rocket. My old 306 didn't come with a tray in the fed avionics compartment. It just has the 90° angles. Are you saying i should install a flat plate on there?
Thanks.

Fortunately repair parts were in stock at Textron. 2AMUs each for the Tunnel Assemblies plus about 60 hrs labor. But it is done and back home.


Now the insurance question. Expert consensus is that the damage is very rare, not consistent with wheel barrowing or other “normal” 182 nosegear abuse. Those all show “chin damage”. And if the damage load is vertical, e.g. dropping it in, the the upper rivets normally shear. These were not sheared.
The damage appears to be from an aft load on the upper nose gear attached fitting crumpling the top of the tunnels rearward.

Best guess is a tug pulled the nosewheel sharply forward crumpling the tunnel assemblies.
Sooo how do we go after the maintenance shop insurance?

As in someone forgot to untie the tiedowns and tried to tow her with a nose wheel/gear tow bar? Ouch!

No idea about legal action, might not be enough to go after with legal costs time etc…

Rocket

The opinion that's been reached on the how will be even harder to prove. The repair cost will be a drop in the bucket compared to the lawyer's invoice.

I can't imagine how a tug did that. Its also interesting that apparently it's been like that long enough for the rudder horn to rub a hole through the tunnel where it's been contacting (RH side, aft of the big crack). Looks like years to me.

PNW Flyer wrote:

The shop that did the annual last year says it wasn’t there in December and it went on floats in June. The rudder rubbing would have then continued but the damage time frame is quite narrow.
I think I will let the insurance adjuster decide how much to waste on lawyers.

Those vertical extrusions on the firewall are perfect, there’s simply no way the nose wheel strut pushed in against the firewall and those extrusions and did that damage to the tunnel while leaving those extrusions and the firewall untouched. Directly on the forward side of your firewall where that internally wrenching NAS bolt by the pilot’s right toe in your photo is a large aluminum casting that secures the top of the nose strut. You’re telling us that some tug operator pulled so hard on the nosewheel that it caved the tunnel in but left all the other stuff like new? There’s really no other part of the surrounding structure that showed damage?

No, something else happened here. Those tunnel frames were pushed/pulled inward by some other force.

In your position my conscious wouldn’t allow going after some fbo or whatever on such nebulous evidence.

Halestorm wrote:Those vertical extrusions on the firewall are perfect, there’s simply no way the nose wheel strut pushed in against the firewall and those extrusions and did that damage to the tunnel while leaving those extrusions and the firewall untouched. Directly on the forward side of your firewall where that internally wrenching NAS bolt by the pilot’s right toe in your photo is a large aluminum casting that secures the top of the nose strut. You’re telling us that some tug operator pulled so hard on the nosewheel that it caved the tunnel in but left all the other stuff like new? There’s really no other part of the surrounding structure that showed damage?

No, something else happened here. Those tunnel frames were pushed/pulled inward by some other force.

In your position my conscious wouldn’t allow going after some fbo or whatever on such nebulous evidence.

This

I could see someone over tightening the screws that go into the nut plates where those cracks originate, leading to a slight crack that grows a little every time the nose is dropped in on landing. Once the crack gets big enough the bracket starts to bend, the load path has to travel somewhere.

As far as blame, that will be tough to prove, and even tougher to collect on. Not to mention being blackballed by local shops, regardless of the outcome.

Halestorm wrote:......In your position my conscious wouldn’t allow going after some fbo or whatever on such nebulous evidence.

this