Silvaire wrote:
Really? I have no idea of the difference between airborne time and moving time in my flying and simply record tach time in the aircraft logs when maintenance or Annual is recorded. It’s close enough for me and legal for the purpose.
In the much more oppressive (certified) European environment with prescribed tasks at prescribed intervals of flight hours, the difference becomes important.
If you’re having to count down the flight hours before you must perform maintenance then you don’t want to be counting anything more than actual flight hours. If you had an average flight time of e.g. 1 hour then you could easily be over-recording by 10-20% if you used brakes off/on times as opposed to actual flight times.
A common method is to record block times for the personal logbook and then deduct 10 mins / 0.2 hours to get flight time which goes in the airframe log. The more anal will do it to the minute for each individual flight and software packages like SkyDemon have made this easier, but I’m into flying rather than precision record keeping :-)
Silvaire wrote:
the paper process takes on a life of its own. The function and goals of the activity itself lose focus
Exactly.
Winston
I assume you are on a SDMP ? You can write a 10% & 1 month variation into such a program you also only need to do the Calendar items on calendar time not every 100 hours.
This however depends on how your SDMP is written.
In the 110hr/yr case for how our shop does it, you would end up doing the annual every 11 months and just accepting the date rolls around.
This wasn’t about not doing the work where required (I am the son of an airframe fitter) – it was about taking the thing apart twice in about 4 months when I’m not sure that really helped find any issues and cost a week of downtime and a couple of maintenance-induced snags.
My question remains the same as @Snoopy’s: on G reg, which I understand is still the same as EASA, can we just fly the 172 and take it up to the shop when it needs it during the course of the year without a Big Fuss every 100h.
Peter wrote:
It is just wasting money performing unnecessary maintenance.
Can you please explain what “just the wrong number” means? I really don’t understand. It’s not like you have to do both a 100 hr and an annual if you fly 110 hrs, say, every year.
It is just wasting money performing unnecessary maintenance.
No problem 
Peter wrote:
This SDMP requirement is clearly a big problem for owners who do “just the wrong number” of hours a year, because a lot of planes have the 100hr schedule in their MM.
What is the “big problem”? If you base the SDMP on the EASA MIP and fly more than 100 hr/yr, you do a check each 100 hrs. If you fly less than 100 hr/yr you do a check once a year.
With certified aircraft we talk about paperwork, and how to get the maintenance cost down. With non certified aircraft we talk about hose clamps and the best way to synchronize the carbs – we talk about how to keep the aircraft in tip top shape, how to do stuff, what and where to purchase stuff. It’s a much more healthier environment.
Obviously I operate on the same philosophy with my N-registered certified aircraft, as do others. Nothing else is legally necessary when the plane is operated on condition with no documented maintenance plan. Simple annual inspections by an A&P mechanic and ADs are the only externally imposed factors for most planes and operators, and the paperwork burden is minimal as per my post above.
Having said that, your point is a good one. It is indeed a healthier environment and doing does matter more than talking. When discussions such as this thread are necessary due to complex over regulation, the paper process takes on a life of its own. The function and goals of the activity itself lose focus, the participants are kept away from their own property and don’t learn much of any practical use, and worse (not better) maintenance results.
No. You have two options for the SDMP: Base it on the EASA MIP, which includes 100hr or base it on the MM which you assumed did also.
In the case of the C172, that means only an annual inspection, regardless of hours.
That would be nice. Is there any rule saying otherwise?
