Exceeding hours on the maintenance release

[hypoxical]

Gidday, long time reader, first time poster - please be gentle :}

I've got around 15 hrs on the MR of my bugsmasher and am planning a private flight that'll get close to that. Don't really want to do the 100 hourly before the trip if I can avoid it but will if it has the potential of developing into a nightmare.

Would the buerocrats in Cantberra throw the book at me when I get the 100 hourly done after the trip and I'm an hour or so over, say I've had bad winds :} or an unscheduled diversion?! Any issues getting the new MR?

Of course sh%t could happen and in that borrowed hour that I'm using to get back to my base the engine quits, now will/could the insurance/a passenger turn around and screw me?

Wise words welcome, who's been there/done that/wouldn't go back/wouldn't think twice risking it again?! :ok:

[Torres]

It does not work that way. You can not commence a flight sector if the hours remaining on your Maintence Release is less than the sector planned flight time. If you get "caught short" of hours in some remote location, you need a Permit to Fly in order to ferry the aircraft to the nearest airport at which the required maintenance may be carried out.

[greenslopes]

Also be mindful of the requirements of the insurance both of the airframe and personal liability. If you fly without a valid M.R you will invalidate the aforementioned. A high price to pay if patient ole Murphy has his way with you..........is it worth the risk??

Remember your actions may have far reaching consequences.

[Jabawocky]

.............and you hear stories of folk turning their masters off, or finding the wire to the hour meter...........all good ideas ;), but not really worth it! :=

J:ok:

[SOPS]

In MHO that sounds like a very silly idea...you could be buying yourself at lot of problems...just do the 100 hourly.:ok:

[titenup]

First, the b..........s in Cantberry wont actually know unless specifically advised, or they happen to carry out an audit, but as already noted, the consequences of over-running could be disasterous.
Remember, it is the responsibility of the registered operator to ensure that all required maintenance is carried out as due, and failure to do so invalidates airworthiness, insurance, and incures the personal liability risk as well as legal risk.

If you are the registered operator, then the following may be of help in the future.
You say "bugsmasher", so I tend to think that the aircraft will be in private or airwork categories, if so talk to your friendly local LAME, or CASA rep about changing the logbook statement to remove the 100 hourly requirement for issue of MR - note that this does not remove the requirement to have 100 hrly maintenance carried out as per maint manual, but does remove the requirement to have new MR issued every time - there will still be a max 12 month duration of the MR.

If the logbook statement already shows "unlimited hours" (or words to that effect) then your current MR has been issued in errot if it shows a 100 hr duration. This is of no help currently, as it WILL expire at the hours / date specified. However, if issued in error, your maint org may elect to try and assist you in some way if approached tactfully.

Your other consideration is to be aware of how the hours are recorded - the requirement is to record FLIGHT time, not engine running time, or time that the master switch is turned on. As long as you record flight time accurately and your method of recording is not in conflict with the operators standard requirements, then you might find you can stop loosing hours that normally go to taxy and holding time. With regard to that, I know of flight training schools that have two hourmeters fitted, one to record flight time (maint) and one to record engine running time (charge the customer).

Happy flying,

Tite

[PA39]

Get the annual done mate. 15 hrs to run is peanuts, besides there may be some snags and unscheduled maintenance issues far from home...$$$$$

Good luck

[Arnold E]

There is no simple answer to this question, and it should not be treated lightly. Is the aircraft yours, do you have an intimate knowledge of it. If not, then it realy is not your problem. How close do you think you will come to the time limit? will your planned trip come in within the hours left. Your aircraft will not necessarily fall out of the sky at 100 Hrs if you do not do the maintenance, however, if you do the maintenance it does not necessarily mean that it wont fall out of the sky at, say,1 Hr into the maint period. Infact IMHO the most likely time to have a failure is immediately after maintenance. ( I can site many examples of this happening).
At the end of the day it is up to you, how comfortable do you feel? Remember, A 100Hrly is a minor service and wont necessarily protect you from disaster. There is no doubt, however, in the event of disaster, if the planned time is over what your MR has left, then your insurance will not cover you. REMEMBER only flight time counts.
PS. 15 Hrs is not peanuts if you are a private owner (IMHO)

[FRQ Charlie Bravo]

Just get it done early. There's not much of a loss involved. All time-lifed components are unaffected.

FRQ CB

[Grogmonster]

I have to agree with most of the people above get it done early and avoid all the worry. After all when you actually calculate the cost of doing it early it's not much. Say your little bugsmasher is in reasonable nick and a 100 hourly cost on average $1500 - $2000. You are talking about $300 lost in a worse case situation as opposed to what ever Mr Murphy has in store for you. Fly safe.

Groggy.

[185skywagon]

Always go early if you are in doubt about over-runs.
You really aren't losing anything, especially if your machine is doing less than 100hr/year.
We often end up with "60/80" hourlies(40 hours early), because a job cannot be completed within the available MR times.

It is illegal to operate on an expired MR, as stated before. Your insurance company will put it perspective for you, should something untowards happen.

[601]

Permit to Fly
are now
Special Flight Permits

Advisory Circular AC 21-9 (http://www.casa.gov.au/rules/1998casr/021/021c09.pdf)
Application (http://www.casa.gov.au/manuals/regulate/csofa/form725.pdf) for Issue of a Special Flight Permit

[Sqwark2000]

Interesting about the hard & fast rule of not exceeding the MR hours.

In NZ you can overun by 5% of the check. That is technically to allow you to fly your plane to a place of maintenance but it is widely used to allow booked flights etc to be carried out til it can go in for maintenance. The overun hours are of course taken off the next cycle, i.e overun by 5hrs next check is due in 45hrs.

This practice is avail to all operators, Private & ATO. Not sure about large 121 operators tho.

S2K

[triadic]

The comment of most interest above is the one about logging of flight time. Many private owners just use the tacho or a VDO which is fine, but you are most likely doing yourself out of hours unless the time is measured on an air switch. If you log flight time using your watch noting the airborne time and the landing time that is legal. You would be surprised how many hours you might gain as a result (unless of course your a/c is fitted with an air-switch)

But as they say above - don't over-run the m/r. Unless you have about 10% margin on your trip to allow for the odd diversion etc., then do the check.

safe flying!

[baron_beeza]

In NZ you can overun by 5% of the check. That is technically to allow you to fly your plane to a place of maintenance

Wow, that is going back a bit.

The last Maintenance Releases in NZ that I can recall were about 10 years ago. At least the ones that covered the GA aircraft that we are talking about here.

I used to write them out there,- and still do in Oz. The rules in both countries cannot be compared, not now and not then.

I do remember the difficulties we used to have in NZ when this very situation arose. We could not extend the MR without doing the required inspection, in those days the 100hr.

The latitude, then and now, was included by the issuing engineer. I generally annotate mine 50+(-) 5 hours.
The other thing about NZ now is the the RTS requirements can vary widely from operator to operator. The Maintenance Programme for each operator will detail the procedure to be used. Tricky, I know. We can't do any Scheduled Maintenance at all without first referring to the Programme. The Tech Log is nowhere near the document the previous MR was.
The NZ system, the new one, is much easier to use and adhere to. They really did a good job with the new rules. My view at least.