Narrative:

On the date of the incident; I flew the incident aircraft for 3 hours on a cross country flight. I was completing the flight to build cross country time for my instrument rating. During the preflight; I checked all of the systems; and did not find anything. To the best of my knowledge; I did not skip anything; and I checked my results against the checklist to be sure the aircraft was airworthy. Specifically regarding the propeller; I do not remember running my hand down the tip as I usually do; but I also do not remember noticing anything out of the ordinary. After I was satisfied with the preflight; I proceeded with the flight. I stopped for fuel; and before I proceeded I did not complete a preflight check other than sumping the fuel tanks to ensure that the fuel was not contaminated. I felt that this was adequate as I had not left the aircraft during the fueling process so I was confident that nothing had occurred that would affect its airworthiness. During both legs of the flight I noticed a slight clicking noise; similar to how a fan would sound if it was hitting something each time it went around; every time the aircraft was stressed due to turbulence. This was enough to keep me looking for alternative landing sites during the flight; but not enough to cause me to land and inspect for damage. Upon completing the flight I chocked the aircraft and left. Two days after my flight my CFI called me; and informed me that in the flight previous to mine; which occurred the evening before; the incident aircraft had sustained a prop strike. There was substantial damage to the propeller; including a severely bent tip and a hole in the metal. There was also internal engine damage; including the firewall. I must have missed this during my preflight; although I am shocked to find that I did. A few potential reasons come to mind when I try to figure out how I could have made such an error. In the hours leading up to the flight I had been working washing other planes. Due to this; I was somewhat fatigued. Also; my flight was originally scheduled to start at 3 pm; but I did not start until nearly 4 pm. I was supposed to be bringing dinner home that evening; and I think I may have been suffering a form of get-home-itis before I even left the ground. Another possible factor was my fixation on the low fuel. I do my preflight in a circular manner; starting behind the left wing and working my way back around to the left wing before entering the aircraft. Just before I would have been checking the nose section I had checked the fuel in the right wing tank; and it was quite low. While I should have been focusing on checking the nose section and specifically the propeller; I was considering what I should do about the fuel on board; which was not adequate for my entire planned flight. At such a critical time I should have been focused on doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Also; although I usually did my preflight inspection in a certain way; I did not do it this way every single time. This lack of standardization directly caused me to not adequately check the prop for damage; as I generally ran my hand over the edge of it; which would have certainly alerted me to the damage. Another mistake I made was that of not checking the suspicious noise when I stopped for fuel. I had noticed the sound; and knew that it was out of place; but once I had landed for fuel I did not check on the cause of it. This incident seemed to be caused by quite a chain of mistakes; all of which were preventable and any one of which would have alerted me to the problem.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Private pilot describes his inadequate pre-flight of a Cessna 172 and his failure to detect significant damage sustained the day before; and presumably by someone else. The reporter was informed by his instructor; two days after the fact; that he had flown the aircraft on several flights with serious damage to the engine; propeller; and firewall.

Narrative: On the date of the incident; I flew the incident aircraft for 3 hours on a cross country flight. I was completing the flight to build cross country time for my instrument rating. During the preflight; I checked all of the systems; and did not find anything. To the best of my knowledge; I did not skip anything; and I checked my results against the checklist to be sure the aircraft was airworthy. Specifically regarding the propeller; I do not remember running my hand down the tip as I usually do; but I also do not remember noticing anything out of the ordinary. After I was satisfied with the preflight; I proceeded with the flight. I stopped for fuel; and before I proceeded I did not complete a preflight check other than sumping the fuel tanks to ensure that the fuel was not contaminated. I felt that this was adequate as I had not left the aircraft during the fueling process so I was confident that nothing had occurred that would affect its airworthiness. During both legs of the flight I noticed a slight clicking noise; similar to how a fan would sound if it was hitting something each time it went around; every time the aircraft was stressed due to turbulence. This was enough to keep me looking for alternative landing sites during the flight; but not enough to cause me to land and inspect for damage. Upon completing the flight I chocked the aircraft and left. Two days after my flight my CFI called me; and informed me that in the flight previous to mine; which occurred the evening before; the incident aircraft had sustained a prop strike. There was substantial damage to the propeller; including a severely bent tip and a hole in the metal. There was also internal engine damage; including the firewall. I must have missed this during my preflight; although I am shocked to find that I did. A few potential reasons come to mind when I try to figure out how I could have made such an error. In the hours leading up to the flight I had been working washing other planes. Due to this; I was somewhat fatigued. Also; my flight was originally scheduled to start at 3 PM; but I did not start until nearly 4 PM. I was supposed to be bringing dinner home that evening; and I think I may have been suffering a form of get-home-itis before I even left the ground. Another possible factor was my fixation on the low fuel. I do my preflight in a circular manner; starting behind the left wing and working my way back around to the left wing before entering the aircraft. Just before I would have been checking the nose section I had checked the fuel in the right wing tank; and it was quite low. While I should have been focusing on checking the nose section and specifically the propeller; I was considering what I should do about the fuel on board; which was not adequate for my entire planned flight. At such a critical time I should have been focused on doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Also; although I usually did my preflight inspection in a certain way; I did not do it this way every single time. This lack of standardization directly caused me to not adequately check the prop for damage; as I generally ran my hand over the edge of it; which would have certainly alerted me to the damage. Another mistake I made was that of not checking the suspicious noise when I stopped for fuel. I had noticed the sound; and knew that it was out of place; but once I had landed for fuel I did not check on the cause of it. This incident seemed to be caused by quite a chain of mistakes; all of which were preventable and any one of which would have alerted me to the problem.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.