PSA- Please Be Sure To Always Conduct A Thorough Preflight And Don't Be Afraid To Call It Off If Something Feels Wrong
I was due to fly my club 172 this past weekend on a beautiful day with a friend to build some time and stay instrument proficient. It had been around a month since I'd last flown my plane because my bank account needed a little break after paying for my multi add-on rating. We have around 8 club members who regularly fly the plane, some more than others. I am currently prepping for my CFI rating and have a little over 400 hours. I generally consider myself to be quite cautions and conservative when making decisions. I started my preflight inspection as normal on the left side of the plane. Everything seemed normal. I then transitioned to the right side starting with the rudder and elevator. I am always cautions to check all of the bolts and connections to make sure everything is tight and connected the way it should be. It was at this point I noticed something strange.
On my 172, each side of the elevator is attached to the horizontal stabilizer via three points. There is a small cutout of the metal around the attachment point that normally looks like this:
Middle connection point on the left elevator
Now, nothing looks out of the ordinary here. This is how the left side of the elevator looked during my inspection. Aside from a little bit of missing paint, not too bad.
When I arrived to the other side, I immediately noticed this:
Middle connection point on the right elevator
This immediately caught my attention. In addition to this damage, the most outboard connection point also exhibited signs of damage while the innermost side was normal:
Outboard connection point on the right elevator
There were two weird things that stuck out immediately to me. Besides the fact that I had never noticed this before, the first weird thing was that even if I pushed the elevator to it's maximum deflection, there was still around a finger tip's worth of space in between the attachment point and the metal surface atop:
The second thing that stood out is the fact that the damage was present only on one side of the elevator, but as we all know, the elevator moves as one control surface- not independently of each other. If this damage occurred on one side, surely it would occur on the other side too, right??
I immediately texted one of our club's new CFIs who flew it last to get his thoughts:
His reaction seemed a little dismissive of the issue. In his opinion, he thought it was still safe to fly. I wasn't convinced, so I messaged our club A&P who is also an aviation safety inspector (ASI) at our local FSDO and a very experienced CFI. I asked for his thoughts and he said canceling was the conservative option and that he'd like to take a look but it was my decision as PIC. I did feel a lot of pressure to go because I live ~45 minutes away from the airport, my safety pilot friend lived about equally as far away and I could tell he was probably ok to proceed, the weather was amazing, and I really wanted to get up and going again myself. I did feel a little bit of pressure to go, but something didn't sit right in my gut. I decided to hold off and have our A&P take a look because there are a lot of internals that could have been damaged. On top of that, I couldn't even imagine how the plane was damaged in the first place.
Fast forward to today after he goes out to take a look. All of the club members get an email with the news that the plane is indefinitely grounded and will definitely need repairs before it can fly again. That was followed by the following couple of photos:
The A&P found that the "torque tube" that runs along the elevator had been sheared nearly entirely off and that the elevator would need to be replaced. My heart sank immediately at the thought of what could have happened if we took the plane up and lost full control of the elevator. I was very tempted to do so and nearly did, but something about it just didn't quite feel right.
I want to use this opportunity to emphasize once again what we have all heard many times- The best place to catch issues is on the ground before you find out in the air and it's too late. If you are not sure- ASK! And don't take one person's opinion and simply be ok with it. Just because someone has a CFI certificate doesn't make them an expert on every subject. If it doesn't sit right with you, then don't do it. You can always cancel a flight and fly tomorrow once someone you trust has reviewed the issue. I had a previous instance where I fully trusted a CFI back when I was a student pilot and it nearly ended in a full accident (a story for a different day). If something looks wrong, it probably is.
Thanks for listening to me speak atop my soap box. Fly safe and always remember to do a thorough preflight inspection!
Posted Sep 30, 2026, 3:34 AM UTC