Howdy! A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my cowling hinge pin was beginning to work it's way out of the hinge, towards the propeller. I ended up taking a mallet to it, to get it back fully into the hinge. The last flight I took, I preflighted and made sure that the pin was all the way in. I went flying for an hour or so, landed at a few various spots, then decided I was going to fly to a different river. That's when I first noticed that the hinge pin had worked it's way out of the hinge again towards the prop, about damn near 3-4 inches. So I landed on the nearest gravel bar and used the mallet to get it back in.

Here's an image of the hinge I'm referring to, the pin is basically a metal rod connecting the hinge.


Has anyone ever had this happen before and if so what was your course of action? I'm thinking I'm going to pinch the end of the hinge closed with some pliers so that the pin won't go no where. Thoughts?

Pinch it both ends OR use a center punch and give both ends of the hinge material a good punch mark.. Either should keep the pin from vibrating out..

Brian.

Been there done that, I remember happening to notice my hinge pin in my PA12 cowl was doing the same thing and about had heart failure. I landed right away and shoved it back in and finished my trip. Crimp the end like Brian says and even then you need to check to make sure it doesn't eventually wear through and do it again.

Yup. Just pinch it good and hard with some Vice grips or stake it real good with a center punch. As the above posters mentioned.

Awesome, thanks for the reply guys! I'll give it a try this afternoon. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's had this happen.