G'day CTR. That may be the extreme and funny side to it.
We actually have seen customers front up and expect an annual to be done, and under their terms. They seem to have ignored the fact that they are yet to pay for last year's... What would you be saying to them ?
The same with guys that take the aircraft away with everything all in order and then start playing with things, changing radios and similar with nothing mentioned in the logs. We have just done a conformity report, and forwarded it to CAA (CASA), stating that the avionics installation is as per the Flight Manual insert.
Similarly any other tinkering that has not been recorded is not appreciated either. Yes, naturally, the jungle drums do beat. Why wouldn't they ?
We are only talking about a very small percentage of owners..... however the risks are just not worth it to the LAME or the hangar.
I am just wondering why Jim never mentioned anything about the LAME in the opening statement.
Most of the replies here seem to suggest that would be the starting point of choice.
I should elaborate on the fleet comment. What would possibly happen is that another aircraft would be brought in for extended maintenance and the rotable parts would be changed.
The previously damaged one would be back in the air. The downtime can then be utilised productively, perhaps a major paint job or whatever else that might need to be done with a week or so on the ground.
Fleet operators generally have ready access to spares as well. The very well organised ones may even have an engine spare, one that has almost been run out of time but has calendar time remaining.
The engine has paid for itself and owes them nothing. Having a spare engine all ready to go, even it is only has 100 hrs left is great. At least you know that it will work and chances are run extremely well for those 100 Hrs.
Some of the better operators really are brilliant to work with. They have it all sorted and generally everything just flows.
Last edited by baron_beeza; 17th Jan 2012 at 02:34.