[NCC] Check your nuts

[John's Travel and Cruises]

For the last few weeks I have been hearing a squeak
as the antenna stack moves around in the breeze.  It's
been getting louder so today I climbed up and found
all the bolts that hold the bell housing on the rotor
loose and two of the nuts had fallen off.  What I was
hearing were the two sections of the bell housing
scraping against each other.  Replacing the two missing
nuts and tightening everything up took care of the
squeak.

A few years ago I had a similar problem when the
bolts holding the rotor to the tower plate worked
loose.  I didn't catch it in time and it destroyed the
terminal strip where the rotor cable connected.

The bottom line is that we need to check the bolts
on and around our rotors on a regular basis.  I
would be interesting in hearing how many members
find loose hardware when they make an inspection.

John Getz, AD8J
John's Travel and Cruises
3905 Monet Court South
Allison Park, PA  15101-3220
Telephone:  412-487-4733
Fax:  412-487-0338