Had a control cable snap on a Cessna 172 last Tuesday during a preflight inspection

I was doing a routine check near the rudder pedals and found one of the push-pull cables had frayed through about 80 percent. Has anyone else run into hidden corrosion inside those conduit housings before they show external signs?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan.logan5d ago

Finders keepers is right. Bet that cable was ready to clock out.

dianal946d ago

Does the preflight inspection count as a finders keepers situation for that cable? Because it sounds like you caught a pretty good one before it could let go mid-flight. I've seen that exact kind of hidden corrosion inside the conduit on a friend's Cherokee, and it was basically a rust party up in there. The cable looked fine from the outside until you pulled it and saw the frayed end that was just holding on by threads. My luck with finding stuff like that usually means I'm the one who has to fix it instead of just pointing it out.