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My shop removed the flap cables from one wing today. Here is what was found. The cables looked fine before they were removed. They looked fine when they were in our hands but you could clearly see a bend in the cable where they were running across the sharp turn on the pulley. Untwisting the cables in our hands revealed one broken strand and when my mechanic cut the cable and completely unraveled it, two or three more broken strands were apparent.
My mechanic was concerned enough about what he found that he mentioned he was going to file a "Service Difficulty Report." I'm not really sure what that all means but he did mention it. I did not get the impression that he felt the cables were anywhere near failure but he and I are happy they are out.
I am certainly no cable expert but two things were apparent to me today. The wear process in the cables was clearly underway and the process begins on the inside of cables.
Based on what I saw today, an external examination of the cables on the airplane could have never revealed what was found after the cables were removed, and twisting an intact cable after it is removed from the airplane makes it difficult at best to see the inside of the cable. Unraveling the cable after it was cut (and obviously destroyed) is when the best look could be had.
My airplane is a 1973 337G with 2480 hours total time.
When the other side comes off I will report the findings.
Ed Asmus
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