Bobupanddown
A good engineer going over the aircraft with ACF50 or some of the other products on the market is part of a corrosion control program. This type of program just assures that the work is done in a logical and controlled way so nothing gets missed.
It is clear that leaving an aircraft outside will result in bigger corrosion issues than one that is kept in a hangar, those who are doing the SID's checks are finding this to be fact.
Quote..... I see plenty of hours builders queuing up to fly tatty aircraft
No doubt you do but do they have any idea about the state of the aircraft, they are blissfully ignorant of the state of the aircraft and only see the cheap hours rather than the risk, that notchy feel of the elevator may not worry your aspiring young airline pilot because he has not the experience to know that it is a badly frayed control cable that is about to fail. The fact of the matter is that the cable should have been changed years back when just one strand in the cable had been broken. ( this is an Incident that I have seen and disaster was averted by a new engineer who picked up the problem )
Two or three years back I was about to do a deal with a flying club on a lease and was pipped at the post on price by another operator...... Weeks later I got a view of the aircraft that the club had leased in, it was clear that the old dog had seen very little maintenance and from the evidence of some of the screws in the inspection panels that critical systems had not seen inspection and lubrication for years.
All I want to see in this business is aircraft that are maintained to a safe standard and not to have to compete with people who send their customers flying in aircraft that have not been maintained to a safe standard.
Last edited by A and C; 27th Jul 2013 at 10:41.