Quote:
Originally Posted by Seahawk
How much can you do before the A&P gets involved?
Is he or she more of a Quality Assurance role?
I have never owned my own plane but buy gas for friends of mine that do. I only fly 30 hours or so a year now, CAVU to the Moon, $100 dollar hamburger stuff.
My business partner has a Lancair but it is really cramped (sitting height) and I don't enjoy it at all...amazing aircraft but it is like me trying to get into a wet suit.
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As an owner and if I understand the FAR's, I can legally do oil, brakes, fluids, tires n tubes, repack wheel bearings, filter, plugs. I am required to document it in the appropriate logs. I am sure I have either missed something but that sums most of it up on the certified stuff. Any additional items, I discuss and plan with the A&P on what needs to be done under his tutelage. I have always been in the mechanically minded and like working on stuff. It my bacon up there so I take the time to research and do things right taking copious notes. Once completed, I then show, explain and present any documentation to my A&P. In all, it’s all very basic stuff that is non-structural or power plant related. I will always defer that to the subject matter experts. So you can say it a quality assurance thing too. Once the job is completed and inspected, he then endorses the appropriate log book.
Although, that little nugget bit me in the arse earlier with just a simple Cessna nose strut that I dropped off at a licensed FAA repair facility rather than tackle it with my A&P since he was out of the state on another job. I don’t trust our local in field FAA repair station simply due to the fact they have done some questionable things to some our older pilots an owners regarding aircraft repairs.
In my case, after I dropped off the strut, I get what no owner wants to hear. “Just the person I need to talk to”. I “guess” when they(probably the high school ROP student- but no proof so it’s just speculation) was tasked with the struts breakdown. When the metering pin was removed, the small press nut was removed. Now I am unsure because I’ve yet to get a straight answer on “how” it was removed, via wrench, socket or air tool. Anyway, all of the threads were damaged.
This is where aircraft ownership becomes ridiculous. That particular metering pin for our 150, carried a price tag of $3850.00 from Cessna. Now I have no way of knowing how that bolt was removed and if it was locked on it was, I just know that if I encountered a frozen bolt, I would have taken steps to try to remove without destroying the part. Saying that, I fully understand that my result may have been the same. Anyway, all I could do is move forward. Luckily, I have an aircraft salvage yard down in Sacramento that I was able to find one very close to the one in our nose strut. There were some differences but very minor. The shop wanted me to have the replacement pin machined down to match exactly match. Luckily, we have a machine/milling shop that does some very high tech stuff that I was able to have done as a “side job”. Even better, they like odd jobs like this and even have a retired A&P who comes in once in a while take on this job.
The repair shop rejected the first go by saying a collar was .0030 too tall and needed machining. So I lost another two weeks in getting the metering pin machined again.
Once the metering pin was accepted, I provided them with the FAA/PMA seal kit and they reassembled the unit. Reinstalling the nose strut was a very simple job, especially with my A&P overseeing it. A simple roll pin on the tip mounting collar and a through bolt in the lower to lock it in. Everything else is bolted back in place, torque specks checked and cotter pins installed.
I guess it comes down to me doing the grunt labor, learning something and the A&P’s supervised time.
Cheers