What do you guys carry in you plane for repairs and unexpected misshaps? The survival kits and safety items have been discussed heavily but what do you have for airplane first aid?

Alaska Airlines Visa with lots of available credit.

Gump

I have a small Sears tool kit, which I've supplemented with an aviation spark plug socket, a Crescent wrench that opens wide enough to remove the spark plug wires, a gapping tool, some safety wire and safety wire pliers, some extra screws of various sizes, electrical tape, and a few other odds and ends tools stuffed in there.

I also carry an aviation jumper cable set, which has been useful both for me and for others. One of my friends had a tire go flat at Marble last Fall, so I decided to start carrying a small tire pump and patch kit.

I don't have the skills to do much more than clean spark plugs and tighten up loose screws and bolts, so that's the extent of it.

Cary

I take along more than I'll use, but less than I'll need Murphy's Law and all....

I have a soft bag that I keep tools that I'd need to open her up for an annual inspection...which is fairly little really.

A couple spark plugs and the necessary tools to R/R
Tire valve stem extension for airing up the tailwheel, along with some extra valve stems/tire tools. Fix-a-flat
Safety wire and tool,
Misc. tapes and zip-ties
Tools necessary to repair electrical connections, along with some various terminal fittings.

Not much really. Bottom line, if you blow a tire or something else that requires big heavy tools to fix, its just gonna be a long day/night/week, and probably cost ya some big time/money to get flying again if your more than a short car ride from home base. Good reason to maintain your airplane as best you can, and keep things like that in the back of your mind when deciding how to land at that new spot!!

I keep....

Basic wrench and socket set
Safety wire and pliers
Jack with gear leg attachment
Main and tailwheel tube
Small tire pump
Small pump can/hose full of brake fluid
Lots of duct tape
Old headset and an antique mic.

Plus "stuff" that just ends up in the bag. I'm afraid to look.

Gump

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I started carrying a "Fix a flat" style sealant, tire pump and an *ABW patch kit. The ABW patch kit saved the day early this summer!

*Alaska Bush Wheel tire patch kit purchased when company was located in Oregon circa 2012

Tool bag with 1/4 inch drive set (including several "wobble sockets" ) several screwdrivers including a small battery powered screw gun, Plug socket(s),3/8th set from 38ths to 3/4thinch ,"get her home jumper ,2 spare plugs ,can of fix a flat, Crescent for odd ball stuff ,peanut can with spare screws and other hardware , Everything from Sears or better with whatever else I can add to keep airplane going .Lineman plires-crimp on connectors,,duct tape ,safety wire pliers and .032 safety wire ,small VOM meter ,

Does anyone carry a 12 volt tire inflator? I worry about running my battery down using it on ABW's. I carry around a nice bike pump but it's slow and kinda heavy. I picked up a small lightweight battery powered screw driver the other day, looks like it will work.. Happy New Year!!!
Mike

Yes, with the Alaska Bush Wheels no tube sealer and syringe.

I also carry a 12V 7Ah Tenergy LiFePO4 Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery
http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-LiFePO4-Lithium-Phosphate-Battery/dp/B0056BEJCI
that I use to power/recharge, friend's iphones and iPads well as to power my APRS
http://www.byonics.com/.

This battery seems to be a better buy - more power, more features, lower cost:
http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-SideKick-Resistant-Portable-13600mah/dp/B00KQSEOPI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1420223729&sr=8-3&keywords=tenergy+lifepo4

Had most of the tools and gear mentioned above, with me yesterday when an unplanned battery change out happened. After borrowing a crew car to run down the battery... I zoomed back to install it and beat sunset. Discovered the plastic bag with the nuts and bolts was missing a nut.
Damn Murphy... the FBO had a junk tub of hardware, so I was saved. From now on, I will have a ziplock with misc. AN nuts and bolts along with the other tools. And a piece of safety wire. The leatherman got a workout of course...

In the Taylorcraft, where excess weight was a bigger issue, I carried a couple of hand-made tools that made heavier and larger standard tools (like a three pound Crescent wrench) unnecessary. These special tools included a large spanner for the axle nut made from sheet aluminum (not a lot of torque needed), and a cut down end wrench for the spark plugs.

For standard tools, I had a light weight 1/4" drive ratchet and sockets, and one of the GearWrench quad wrenches that had 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, and 9/16 all on one ratcheting box end wrench. Realizing that the other end of the fastener needs to be held, I also carried three or four combination wrenches. A screwdriver with interchangeable hex bits and a hex to 1/4 socket adapter. Small safety wire pliers, a small plastic retractable razor knife.

A really neat little tool I found that weighed three ounces and cost $2.00 was a small low-tech ratcheting screwdriver handle with a 1/4" hex (screwdriver bit) socket on one side and a 1/4" square ratchet drive on the other. If it weren't for the fact that this cheapie tool needed 8 or 9 degrees of movement to click over, this could have replaced my nicer (and heavier) 72 tooth ratchet handle.

For non-tool repair stuff, a small bunch of Ty-Raps (zip ties), safety wire, , a small can of WD-40 spray, a small (crack cocaine sized) Ziploc bag with Lubriplate grease. A small roll of self-fusing tape(I understand this is known in the military as "F-4 Tape"), a small plastic bowl (for cleaning parts in avgas, or not losing small hardware),and a small plastic container with castle nuts and lock nuts, Cotter pins, washers, a Schrader valve and the little tool to install it, some small machine screws and P-K (sheet metal) screws, and even a couple of small AN-3 and-4 bolts.

All of this was painstakingly packed into a standard 11 or 12 inch olive green military mechanic's tool bag. I realize full well that this kit was far more than just "minimalist". But it goes without saying that if you're stuck somewhere trying to fix something, having the ability to choose between wrenches and drivers to find the right combination is worthwhile. I believe that highly experienced mechanics will agree that when you're making an emergency field repair, that's the time when you need all the help you can get, and the little things (like 72 teeth on your 1/4" ratchet) become make-or-break items.

OK, EZflap, if you have the axle nut off, I assume that you have jacked up the landing gear on your Taylorcraft. What did you take along to do that?

I carry an assortment of tools -- 3/8 socket set, spark plug socket, end wrenches, crescents, vicegrips, pliers, hachet, bicycle pump, bottle jack, gear leg jack point. Plus safety wire, duct tape, tie-wraps, fix-a-flat, spare inner tube for mains, spare tire & tube for the t/w. And of course wheel chocks, and a set of bike-binders for tying down.

on top of previously mentioned items (duct tape, crescent wrench, tiedowns, rope, small hatchet, screwdriver, leatherman, spark plug socket, zip ties, patch kit, bicycle pump, safety wire)

i also carry a small bottle of brake fluid and a syringe for topping off brakes
dental floss - never know when you might have to rope trick

MontanaT-craft wrote:OK, EZflap, if you have the axle nut off, I assume that you have jacked up the landing gear on your Taylorcraft. What did you take along to do that?

Well, you caught me, I was working on that problem when I sold the airplane. What I had in mind was one of those clever little over-center cam devices that one of the guys on the T-craft forum had invented.

I don't remember the name of it, but it was definitely another guy on that forum. It was a BRILLIANTLY simple tool, where you had an almost round cam with a cutout for the axle on the opposite side, and you used a broomstick or piece of tubing as a handle to roll the axle over the cam and it lifted it off the ground, then over-centered it onto a stop. I would have bought one on the spot, but I had 8.50 tires on the airplane and it was sized for the stock 6.00's.

But like I said, I never got around to making one sized for 8.50's, about that time AK Jack on the forum put out a want-ad for a BC-12-85 LSA, and I was running out of savings between jobs.

Just a comment on the tool "bag". I use a roll-up tool pouch. It has pockets for the tools and keeps everything organized and easy to lay out on the ground to keep things clean. I wrap some rags inside to pack all the tools tightly. This is the best one I have found:

Arsenal 5870 Tool Roll-Up
by Ergodyne

Mike

EZflap, thanks for your reply. I have the same problem and I was hoping that you had a light weight solution for me. I will try to find the Taylorcraft Forum thread and see if I can make the larger version of which you spoke.

These are aluminum and pretty light.



http://www.easternmarine.com/easy-lift- ... k-50080578