The Declining State of Maintenance
Although I didn’t plan it that way, this issue deals with a couple of critical aircraft maintenance considerations: corrosion prevention efforts and engine maintenance. The ugly reality here is that owners, because they are flying less, are also doing less preventive maintenance, if they’re doing any at all. It has now become normal to see an airplane in annual with 20 or fewer hours on the clock during the previous year. You can blame this on high fuel prices if you want, but I think there’s more to it than that. I think just about anyone who can support the airplane’s fixed costs can also afford another 100 gallons of gas a year. But I digress.
I was talking to a mechanic the other day about an annual he was working on. The airplane needed some significant work, including a couple of overhauled mags. They hadn’t been touched in 1200 hours, despite the standard service bulletins requiring 500-hour inspections. He also told me that when he calls owners to discuss such things, he’s hearing more pleas to just overlook the problem or defer it to next time. I suspect a lot more IAs are being asked to sign off unairworthy airplanes and that it’s getting more difficult for them to resist the pressure to do just that.