Maintenance of Australian registered lightie in Europe

[PlankBlender]

Looking for people who've been there done that for some advice:

Will be ferrying my Archer to Europe (Germany initially, but moving around a fair bit for work) in Jan, and had initial conversations with CASA advising me there is most likely a possibility (based on instrument 127/95) to self-issue a maintenance release and have a licensed engineer of any Chicago convention country signatory do and sign off maintenance abroad.

Have already ordered a stack of Maintenance Release forms, and need to know what else I need to do. Someone was talking about a formal Maintenance Authority I might need, any other stumbling blocks/experiences/advice?

Will obviously talk to CASA further, just wanted to tap the fountain of real world knowledge here to see what issues I might face on the ground, and what I could possibly do here before I leave to mitigate them..

Cheers! :ok:

[LeadSled]

Plank,
The reason you need to have an MA is that you have to be able to produce the Maintenance Release when you have had work done on the aircraft. You will be directly responsible for the "supervision" of the work carried out

As the Registered Operator, you are already legally responsible for the airworthiness of the aircraft, but it will have been a CASA LAME who produced the Maintenance Release.

Now it will be you who entirely takes actual responsibility for all airworthiness requirements for your aircraft being completed, generally being all requirements of your system of maintenance, that you are currently using for regular inspection, plus AD compliance, plus any repairs and component replacement required as a result of in-service or defects found during inspections.

You need to thoroughly understand how your aircraft is presently maintained (Manufacturer's Schedule, Schedule 5 or CASA approved system of maintenance) and regardless of the system, you must have all "acceptable data" (not the same thing as "Approved Data", no matter what your LAME says) see the CASA Instrument that defines acceptable data. I don't have the relevant Instrument No. at my fingertips, it was re-issued early 2007.

In short, "acceptable data" is wider than the "approved data" in some maintenance regulations, and roughly means any data that would be acceptable under FAA FAR 43, including AC 43-13A and B.

NO GA aircraft manufacturer's maintenance manual contains all the data you need for continuing airworthiness, with Piper and all other US manufactured light aircraft, the FAA Maintenance Library is a given, as part of the data, as well as the manufacturer's model specific manual.

If you are using Schedule 5, all that tells you is the "what" to do, not the acceptable data of the "how" to do it.

Unfortunately, quite a few CASA people, including one's you will need to issue your MA, don't have any better understanding of this than most LAMEs. You should contact the CEO of AMROBA, in Sydney (Google it), who does know what he is talking about.

Tootle pip!!