Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Weding and Rust Removal

I have mischief fairies in my garage. I go into the garage to remove a tool, only to find it is missing. I go and buy a replacement to undertake the repair, only to find the original missing tool sitting on the step in the garage. Many months later, I need the same tool again. Remember I now have two of these tools, both of which are missing. I buy another, only to find both of the original tools sitting near each other on the garage floor. I give up.

I have the same type of problem and it maybe as in my case old age or ' automatic pilot syndrome', where the brain switches off when you are doing repetitive tasks eg how many times do you go into the kitchen to make brew and then when you get there you can't think why you went in there.

I have a further problem, its called Sue and no matter where I put something down its always in the wrong place and moved without telling me. Strangely it never applies to anything she puts down, even when we both know it's in the wrong place

It is a well known fact that the only way to find a missing tool is to buy its replacement.

That goes along with the fact that the time you will finally manage to find a use for all those bits-and-bobs you have been keeping for years, is the week after you took them to the dump.

It's really annoying isn't it, I still can't find my tin of Duraglit that disappeared from the bench while I was using it or my badge bar from the car that I want to put back on and I had a new dust sheet in a plastic bag that I can't find anywhere. Having suffered this since my teen years I have stopped trying to work it out.

Most of my stuff stays put, but occasionally something will vanish.

I have had a couple of occasions in the garage when a plastic oil bottle came off the shelf and almost hit me as I was bending over, and MrsW did see a Victorian lady on the drive one Wednesday lunchtime, on the wrong side of our locked gate. By the time I got to the door, she had vanished.

We lost a B&B in St Ives. Never stayed but made a note of the location for another time, then it was never the same after that. Lost a boat keep in Looe. Saw this old castellated inner harbour once. Never thought anything of it until we tried to find it again. And we lost a tea room near Braunton. Had a cream tea there in 1977. Then despite searching every year after, it had vanished, until about ten years ago, there it was but derelict. Memory is really weird, but shared memories are weirder.

A work colleague of mine never lost his tools. He was a helicoptor service technician with the RAF. When he had finished the work he always checked his tools as, often, the pilot would come to test fly and invite him along. As he said, concentrates the mind somewhat.

Yes all so reminiscent of my experiences, including the ghosts! I too am a stickler for checking tools having started as an engineer and then flying helicopters too. My tools mainly seem to disappear when I'm actually using them, doing the job! I too have a Sue only she answers to Maddie and I call her the racker and stacker as she's always tidying my things away but as she has no idea of what they are she can't tell me where they are! To add to this frustration, over the last two years we have acquired a couple of new dogs and it has become apparent that they also steal tools and parts when I'm working in the garage. Just recently I changed the cam chain on my sons car and at one point so many things disappeared I actually started to think I was losing the plot! Like the poltergeist some things never were found, perhaps they are working as a team which is rather worrying!

Its interesting you mention pilots, because of autopilot syndrome we had to change the flight route of pilots who flew regular daily flight routes to the same locations, usually every 3 months or so, to break their 'routine' repetitive regularity of the trip, to stop their brains switching off to repetitive tasks during the flight. Quite a few aircraft crashes have occurred due to pilots going on auto (not thinking) to regular tasks eg landing at the same airport where if they are used to landing at runway 1 but instructed to land at runway 2, that instruction is not acknowledged correctly and they land at runway one. , Black box recordings have demonstrated pilots incorrectly acknowledging Control Tower instructions that varied from their normal flight path daily patterns and routines

It can also happen with ground crew, who perform the same daily routine at the same time when servicing aircraft turnaround. At Liverpool Airport a ground crew member just drove into a rotating propeller on an aircraft that he normally serviced at the same location. same time everyday, but because slightly delayed still had an engine turning.

Oh Yes Its usually human error of some sort even compounding things when its mechanical, weather or an unusual event!
After the services I flew gas line inspection flights generally 7 hours a day for 4 days a week mostly at 200ft AGL at about 120 kts, all hands on and throwing the aircraft around all day! Tends to keep you concentrating quite hard especially in London and the SE along with north Thames areas. Even around the perimeter of Heathrow airport!

I would imagine that that would keep you pretty focused at 200ft, Very different to the eg Post Office freight routes we used to fly at night eg Edinburgh, Liverpool, Edinburgh 5 nights a week with a HS 748 at 20 to 30000ft with auto pilot switched on. The return leg whilst still climbing normally flew over my house and I would listen out for the dart engines about 1am in the morning