Help needed please

[RW05]

Can anyone tell me where to find info about aircraft hours checks, annuals, CofA and anything else I need to know to legally maintain an aircraft? I assumed it would be on the CAA website but I can't find anything (anything at all - should that be a surprise?) Reason - I am considering buying an aircraft and am trying to gather costs etc.

[146fixer]

Try CAP 520 Light Aircraft maintenance on the CAA web site.

[RW05]

Sorry 146fixer, but I get a 'This page cannot be displayed' on your link. Any other ideas?

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

Your best bet would be to go and have a chat with a licensed engineer at your local airfield.

CAP 411 "Light Aircraft Maintenance Schedules, aeroplanes" sounds like what you want. You have to buy a paper copy (probably about a fiver from AFE).

TG.

Edit: £5.88 from AFEonline.

[RW05]

Thanks, guys, I've now been and searched for CAP520 and read it. They don't make things easy to understand. do they. If I churned out something like that at work it would be bounced right back to my desk. I don't have any local maintence people to ask any more - it's a case of talking to someone I really don't know, and I'd rather have a vague idea of what the requirements are before I start. Seems to be a check every 50 hrs (do they get more onerous - bit like car service intervals where each one covers a bit more than the last?), an annual (which can coincide with one of the others?) and the CofA every 3 years, then pass go and start again. Does that sound about right?

[bluskis]

There are mandatory heater pressure checks every second year . and certainly with vp props rather expensive propellor checks at about 3 year intervals. Then there are all the engine accessories which each year will produce some sort of defect which will require an overhaul or replacement. Then there is the airframe which will gather defects and corrosion, avionics which may require attention ,fuel tanks and tyres to replace,
and engine cylinders which may require replacement due to cracking and other defects.

With all these indeterminates it is unlikely you will get much more information on costs other than the cost of an annual inspection and cost of air test and paperwork and fees for a CofA.

these will be very poorly correlated with actual cost of maintenance.

Hope this helps.

[RW05]

Thanks Bluskis. I do realise there's a lot more to it than just the mandatory inspections. If I do decide to go into ownership it won't be for some time yet. This is just a feasability study at this point. It certainly won't be anything complex like vp prop or retracting gear. It's just that at the moment I'm hiring from a flying school and finding it very difficult even to keep in check. Aircraft availability, my availability and half decent weather never seem to coincide and my hours are dropping year by year. Who knows, the situation might change. They might buy lots more aircraft, or someone might start a syndicate I could get into, but at the moment having my own wings seems very attractive. And at the moment I can't afford it, hence it's a future project.

[bluskis]

Good luck when you decide to jump in to a group or ownership.
Meanwhile you could reduce one of the problems of British flying, namely weather, by hours building with an instructor suitably qualified.