Engineers
Can I appeal to the engineers out there for some advice on the following?
I bought a brand new aircraft - 4 seats/ 180 - last year.
I have been 100% loyal to my maintenance facility since - nobody has touched my aircraft.
The facility is like an operating theatre, the engineers very polite and willing. Totally nice people.
So why have I gone elsewhere?
I wanted an 'early' 50 - hour pending a French trip and flew my aircraft in without any snags to report.
By sheer good fortune, the oil cooler - I was advised over the phone - suffered a catastrophic failure during the post-service ground run and left a 20ft oil slick on the apron.
THe engineer told me that it would have emptied the oil tank in 'just a few minutes.'
What luck! And I have never even won a decent raffle prize let alone the lottery!
When I turned up to collect, the new cooler was fitted, fat invoice waiting.
So - now, shall we say 'still happy but uncomfortable' with my engineers yet'staggered' at the coincidence- my expectations were that the CAA and the component manufacturer would be involved.
An enquiry regarding any possible warranty/ goodwill claim too?
Not a bit of it!
What did they do with the old cooler?
Binned it!
Did they file any report?
No.
Did they tell me of their intentions to dump the part let alone ask me if that was OK?
Er...No again.
This has been niggling me ever since. I then query another invoice - surely my right, especially as I was still fairly sensitive about the last one.
What happened?
A scribble across the top of the header of my comprehensive fax saying 'don't pay the invoice - take your work elsewhere.
So I did.
In view of the catastrophic failure of the part - one which would have led to a rapid engine failure - is there not a mandatory responsibility to inform the CAA?
What if the part was one of a defective batch and somebody ended up in a smoking hole as a consequence?
This sits very uncomfortably with me indeed......
HP