The cover of the recent Coupe Capers included a letter from EAA president Paul Poberezny. In the letter Tom noted that old airplanes often have a problem finding mechanics who know [my words] beans about the special aircraft.
Tom suggested that type clubs work with the EAA to develop a pilot maintenance program for old aircraft. As partial answer, Roy Prugh asked me to come over and swat the idea around. He had ideas about how this could be administered in a practical way. We spent a few hours this afternoon working on it and wrote down a proposal concerning pilot maintenance. Below, you'll find the plain text version of the proposal we came up with. At the bottom, you'll find the same file formatted in Word 6 format. (All word processing programs can read Word 6 files, and Windows, from Win95 on, has the accessory program WordPad built-in which uses Word 6 format.) Those who'd like, please swat this around. Since this is specifically maintenance related, perhaps Tom will allow it to be cross-posted to -tech. I think most comments will be on Coupers, though, so I encourage those of you on both lists to post to Coupers. Please comment on this proposal. All ideas are welcome. Please tell us ** why ** our heads aren't screwed on straight, and tell us, as best you can, the correct orientation. This will be fun and, potentially, very important to us all. -- Ed Burkhead Peoria, Ill. Ercoupe N3802H, 415-D Never open an attachment with a ".exe" or ".com" or ".vbs" suffix. To be safe, turn off Microsoft's Visual Basic Macro execution option. Consider not using Outlook for mail - lots of viruses target its security flaws. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- By Roy Prugh, EAA 466372 and Ed Burkhead, EAA 575594 Statement of problem: Some antique aircraft no longer in production now have a small population in the fleet. Though some had a large population in the 1940s or 1950s, due to maintenance and incidents, there are few aircraft of these types now in the fleet. Some are orphans, some have minimal support from current type certificate holders. These aircraft, such as Stinsons, Funk, Culver, Swift, short wing Piper, Ercoupe, 120/140 Cessnas and others have maintenance issues that are specific to the aircraft type. This has led to difficulty finding mechanics and AIs with type-specific knowledge for maintenance. After years of maintenance by mechanics with little experience in a rare type, a type-specific mechanic can often find thousands of dollars of maintenance not common to the general fleet. Some of this overlooked maintenance can be critical to flight safety. The FAA assumes that all inspection authorized A&P mechanics (IA) are capable of working on and approving work on any small aircraft. In spite of this, we have the problems listed above. A need for type trained mechanics is apparent and has been suggested by the EAA in a recent letter sent to aircraft type clubs. Suggested solutions: The EAA or any type club that chooses could develop a type specific certification program for A&P mechanics who would like to work on the aircraft type. For normal annual maintenance, a person who has received the special training program would be allowed to perform and sign-off the annual inspection. Open for discussion are the needed qualifications for the person performing the regular, annual inspection. We think that, even on unusual aircraft, it is valuable for a highly experience, outside inspector to review all maintenance on a periodic basis, i.e. once every 3-5 years, provided the intervening annual maintenance is performed by an appropriately qualified person. We would observe that an aircraft owner is ultimately responsible for the mechanical state of the aircraft for every take-off - much more so than is any A&P or AI mechanic. We trust that the owner/pilot will monitor all parts of the aircraft and perform certain preventive maintenance. In addition, an aircraft owner is dedicated to the aircraft type. This dedication is intensified for out-of-the-ordinary aircraft. As the aircraft owner of the out-of-the-ordinary aircraft takes the plane to the mechanic each year, it is often necessary to re-train the mechanic or train a new mechanic of the specific maintenance needs of the aircraft. Our proposal is that pilots and A&Ps be trained in the necessary annual maintenance of specific out-of-the-ordinary aircraft. This training should be developed cooperatively by the specific aircraft's type club, the EAA and the FAA. It would specify what the pilot would need to know to perform annual inspections on that specific aircraft type. The pilot type-specific maintenance authorization (TSM) will be a certification of skills necessary for regular maintenance of the aircraft. This would be similar to, but not as extensive as, the privileges allowed to experimental aircraft builders, a program with a long, successful history. A second, higher level of rating, would be the type rated A&P certification. These TS A&Ps would have all AI privileges for the certified aircraft types. To exercise the privileges of these certifications, the person must be member of an organization which will distribute information related to the aircraft type. Pilot TSM certification The certification test should spell out very high minimum levels of competence for every task needed in a normal aircraft annual and normal maintenance of that specific aircraft type. It should include regular replacement of parts (i.e. replace an alternator or magneto, or doing maintenance on the landing gear). However, the Pilot TSM would not fabricate parts, recover wings or do similar maintenance without approval by an IA or a type-rated A&P. Pilot TSM maintenance on the avionics of an IFR certified aircraft must be inspected by an IA to maintain the IFR certification. The Pilot TSM rating would only apply to aircraft owned by that pilot or to one or two specific aircraft, listed by serial number, of which that person is a pilot. No maintenance may be performed under a Pilot TSM certification "for hire." Type Rated A&P (TR A&P) The certification test should spell out IA competence levels for the specific aircraft type as agreed between the FAA, the EAA and the type club. The TR A&P would not need IA skills for other aircraft types. The TR A&Ps must be a certified A&P mechanic and, with the additional type specific certification, would have all the IA privileges for the aircraft type(s) for which they are certified. Periodic and time-of-sale IA or TR A&P inspection To ensure that all maintenance gets regular review, we suggest that Pilot TSM maintained aircraft have a time-of-sale inspection performed by an IA or a TR A&P. Similarly, no aircraft should go more than five years without an annual inspection reviewed by an IA or a TR A&P. Consideration should be made of whether this interval should be once every five years, every four or every three, depending on type of aircraft. We suggest that an IA or TR A&P review should not be needed more often than once every three years. Benefits: Those who fly in out-of-the-ordinary aircraft would be in an aircraft in which the pilot has special training to be a mechanic of that aircraft type, enhancing safety. The minimum maintenance of the aircraft would be specified by those knowledgeable in the aircraft type. The certifying groups would create minimum inspection checklists for the aircraft type. The ongoing maintenance would be performed by a certified Pilot TSM who would be performing maintenance throughout the year and before each flight. The pilot of the aircraft, because of the training and certification, would have improved knowledge and consciousness of necessary maintenance. Summary: Flight safety for out-of-the-ordinary aircraft will be improved by developing type specific certification for maintenance of the aircraft Due to the rarity of these aircraft, most general aviation mechanics won't choose to undertake the extra training needed for these aircraft. Therefore pilot type specific maintenance (Pilot TSM) and type rated A&P (TR A&P) certifications should be developed to improve the ongoing maintenance and period inspections of these aircraft. Finally, the improved safety will be best enhanced by training and certifying the person who has the most intense and long-term interest in the aircraft's safety, the pilot.
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
