Broken, Loose, Failed

The pilot was making a left turn in front of a hangar. He pulled the control wheel full aft to take the weight off the front wheel and the control wheel broke off in his hand. The break formed across the wheel, from the lower left to the upper right. Control wheel p/n: 0513168-2.

Editorial Staff

Monday, February 23, 2009 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Multiple Cessna aircraft experienced critical component failures or manufacturing defects, including a broken control wheel (172A), a brittle oil-cooler gasket failure potentially due to improper torquing (210), and loose fuel-servo plugs attributed to factory assembly errors (172S/T206).
Piper aircraft incidents involved structural integrity issues, specifically a fatigue-cracked nose gear drag link (PA-44-180) and a main gear torque link failure (PA28-140) where the part had significantly exceeded its recommended service life.

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Cessna 172A

Broken Control Wheel

Part Total Time: (unknown).

Cessna 210

Failed Oil-Cooler Gasket

An oil cooler adapter gasket failed in flight, causing two quarts of oil to be pumped into the engine cowling within an hour. The IO-520 was a factory remanufactured