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From: William R. Bayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 9:35 AM
To: Ed Burkhead
Subject: Re: WRB Re: [COUPERS-TECH] Verify inlet/outlet on Fuel Pump
RLYTECH
Hi John,
Is "your part of the country" an airport, a county, a state, or a geographically significant part of the United States? Even in the smallest of these areas, I confess my doubt you have even met everyone, much less know much about many of them. It has been my experience that there are essentially two types of mechanics everywhere.
One is basically defensive of their "turf", charges whatever they can get away with, and can't be bothered with owners who have knowledge they don't or who want to learn by doing some of their own work "under supervision". Many airports are owned, or at least dominated by an FBO of the first type, and I avoid these at all costs.
The other category includes those who will let one do "owner maintenance" items only with reluctance, those who enjoy teaching others when the schedule permits (for full pay), those who will do this simply because they love aviation (on occasion), and those who do paper annuals, etc. (the "gypsies"). I have used all of these satisfactorily at one time or another.
Back in the eighties I began to do an increasing amount of my own work "under supervision" because I was either not impressed or downright leery of the quality of work rendered me by local certificated mechanics. None were reticent to work on an Ercoupe, but none knew zip about it. (There's more than a few instructors like that too.) Others were unorganized or did sloppy work. In each case I would take my business elsewhere if they were unduly defensive.
I began accumulating my library and knowledge as long term survival insurance. After one corrects a mechanic a number of times (politely but insistently), an relationship of trust gradually emerges. The mechanic's credential and experience together with my determination and money forged symbiotic relationships of mutual respect. I have never betrayed that trust, being open and honest as to what I plan and what I do. A minimum of two heads and four eyeballs meaningfully involved in any decision that might place me, my plane or my mechanic's credentials at risk is expensive, but safely redundent. The emperor needs to know when he has no clothes on, and that knife cuts both ways.
That having been said, if you expect names, places, dates and specific work on specific airframes; I would tell you this is none of your business. As John Cooper sometimes puts it "don't ask, don't tell".
If foreign made parts are not visually indistinguishable from those they replace, I would further consider their suitability for the intended purpose. You infer that all such "crap" is as obvious to the trained eye as if it were painted bright yellow. If you're a mechanic, you have undoubtably worked on planes containing such parts and never known it!
Further, no mechanic knows during the first annual on a given airframe whether certain parts, assemblies, etc. are as originally manufactured or whether they were disassembled and reassembled by some owner long ago. They can't charge the time to completely disassemble, inspect, and reassemble all parts of any plane, but the signoff attests that everything there is as it should be to be airworthy at the conclusion of every annual inspection. You may not like it, but that's the way it is.
Sleep well,
William R. Bayne
<____|-(o)-|____>
(Copyright 2004)
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On Oct 31, 2005, at 4:53 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hello All,
WRB you have convinced yourself, but not me. I do have one question
for you. I believe that you said you were not a mechanic, so who do you
get to sign off that Chinese crap? No one in my part of the country will
do it.
John
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