Hello,
for many years we carry a well sorted set of tools in the aircraft and there have been few occasions where this was very usefull. Lately on a MTOW flight I noticed how heavy this thing is and started to wonder if it was worth to spend money on a light weight solution. Did anybody investigate this yet? I did not look into the details but most of the weight seems to come from the spanners, sockets, wrench etc. I read that McLaren used to provide Titanium toolsets with some of their cars but I fear that would be quite an expensive solution…
I’ve considered titanium tools, but given the price of a few thousand euros per set, decided in favour of alternative solutions:
- Keeping track of the tools I actually use and removing the unnecessary ones from the kit
- Losing 7-8 kg of my own weight instead
Some of the bigger and heavier tools are much stronger than you will ever need – in this case, it’s possible to lighten them by drilling lots of small holes. To be fair, I did manage to bend a 24 mm wrench once, but it got bent sideways and the force I applied was greater than my own weight.
If you carry a full socket rail or full spanner set yet perhaps don’t really need all of them, that’s an easy way to cut weight. Parallel jaw pliers work remarkably well for lots of fasteners if needed. Stubby spanners over normal length will save a bit. I think you can get lightweight / slim spanners.
I usually carry a 1/4" socket rail upto 9/16 and a small different offset stubby spanner roll. With only a couple or large spanners needed . It’s worked pretty well so far, but no doubt has missing bits.Off_Field wrote:
Parallel jaw pliers work remarkably well for lots of fasteners if needed.
Not all of them are created equal, but fortunately, there is a clear champion, Knipex 86 03 series (several sizes available):
Ultranomad wrote:
there is a clear champion
Agreed, I have the small ones in my aircraft toolkit and the large ones in my workshop. They’re remarkably handy tools, and much less damaging than the adjustable nut lathes or slip joint serrated jaw pliers.
Ultranomad wrote:
Knipex 86 03 series (several sizes available)
That is a good step as the big spanners seem to make up much of the weight. I will give it a try with two smaller ones as it seems very often you have to hold one nut and turn the other so having just one tool will not help much.
Further how about the nuts? I have a full set but especially the big ones are heavy and I have the feeling most of the time one rather needs the smaller ones. Any ideas on that? Just keep the 1/4 drive ones on board and dump the 1/2 wrench and sockets?
That’s an interesting tool; just ordered the 150mm version to replace one I carried whose serrated jaws do too much damage.
I carry a big toolbox which weighs at least 20kg. It contains everything for the 50hr service and various things to do with electrical wiring and such, including a little 24V soldering iron. There are a couple of spanner kits like this; one metric and one imperial
and a small socket kit like this
Then I have a set of small Bahco ratchet spanners
and some cut-down (to save weight) spanners for spark plugs. More details here.
I did look at titanium tools but they are incredibly pricey – of the order of £100 per spanner, and sometimes much more – and the weight saved is very small. And that is just spanners. Other tools you can’t do much about. One could perhaps achieve a few kg weight saving but it would take a long time to find all the sources. One sometimes sees used titanium spanners on Ebay, singly.
One instructor I flew with was horrified at how much stuff I carried, but… 
To really save weight, replace the steel oxygen cylinder with a composite one. I know a guy who did it on a G-reg TB21 and it cost him ~10k in paperwork costs, including a destructive test of a cylinder. So maybe 1k per kg saved. He no longer flies. Actually he got good value there because NASA paid North American (?) $100k per 1lb weight saved on the Apollo LM
A Skytec starter saves a load of weight too but not on a Jetprop
Sebastian_G wrote:
Just keep the 1/4 drive ones on board and dump the 1/2 wrench and sockets?
It depends what you need on your individual aircraft and access. but I’d definitely drop any of the bigger sockets unless absolutely necessary. I only carry a single 3/8 socket that is my spark plug one. One of those cheap little credit card sort of sized multimeters can be handy for simple checks too.
1/2" sockets weigh a ton; I would not carry a set of those. The only one I do carry is a torque wrench for spark plugs, which together with the plug socket attached weighs perhaps 2kg.
Regarding the drive size for sockets, I settled on 3/8" for all ratchets, extensions, levers, U-joints and so on, plus two adapters – for 1/4" and 1/2". Most of the sockets are 3/8", too, except some exotic or really small ones. 1/4" drive is a bit too flimsy to my taste – a cheap one can be sheared with the force of one hand. For the torque wrenches, modern digital torquemeters are really light, compact and very convenient.
One of those cheap little credit card sort of sized multimeters can be handy for simple checks too.
Yes, they are sufficient 99% of the time, but be sure to get one with a beeper for continuity testing.
