Just had a flap actuator seal blow out on a Cessna 172 during a preflight check this morning. I'm debating if I should have caught it sooner during the last inspection.

3 comments

3 Comments

Honestly, my buddy had a flap seal go bad right after his annual. Tbh those things can look fine one day and blow the next, it's just how it goes sometimes. You can't beat yourself up over it.

brianm662mo ago

Had a flap seal go on me last year. Just kept a spare in the toolbox after that. Cheap fix compared to the downtime.

jamesf292mo ago

Yeah, that bit about it looking fine one day and blowing the next is so true. Ngl, I see this everywhere, like a phone battery that's fine until it suddenly swells up. Stuff just hits its limit when it hits it, and no amount of looking at it yesterday would have changed that.