Ownership

Recently, I attended a two-day, FAA-sponsored, aviation maintenance symposium in Southern California, along with a few thousand other A&P mechanics who were there to renew their Inspection Authorizations. The symposium featured many informative presentations by experts in many different facets of aircraft maintenance. One that I found particularly fascinating — and also frightening — was […]

This article originally appeared in Light Plane Maintenance, May 2005. The modern dry vacuum pump — when it works — is economical ($200 to $400), low-weight (under three pounds) and capable of high-output operation. The dry pump displaced its traditional competition (venturis and oil-lubricated “wet” pumps) in a matter of only a few years during […]

I got the idea for this column as I was finishing up this year’s “annual ordeal” on my airplane. Because I do all my own maintenance, I tend to get a bit grumpy that time of year (or so says my wife). This year, I had to pull the #3 cylinder off of my right […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Consumer magazine, Oct. 2005. Sometime during the short but glorious history of general aviation gadgets, the notion that mounting some sort of accessory on the control yoke became accepted as a good idea. It wasn’t, it isn’t and it never will be. Festooning controls with wire-bound junk is at […]

My recent columns about reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) have elicited some interesting questions from readers. Here are some questions I’ve been asked, along with my answers. Quarter-Century-Old Engines? Mike:I read with very great interest your latest article regarding operating engines beyond the recommended TBO. My personal observation is that many engines are needlessly overhauled way too […]

This article originally appeared in Light Plane Maintenance, Mar. 2005. Elbow grease, grease the skids, greasy kid’s stuff; grease makes the world go ’round — literally. The earliest forms of grease were various and sundry animal extrusions and leftovers.Today still, numerous organically based greases give excellent service — although their origins are more from lithium […]

For three decades, the airlines and military have been using the principles of reliability-centered maintenance to achieve drastic reductions in maintenance cost while actually improving reliability (discussed in last month’s column). The lion’s share of this improvement in maintenance cost-effectiveness has come from a major shift away from fixed overhaul, replacement or retirement intervals towards […]

This article originally appeared in Aviation Consumer, Aug. 2005. For most aircraft owners, dealings with insurance companies will be limited to shopping rates and paying premiums. Not many will file claims for a damaged airplane. But if the worst does happen, does the insurance company hold the upper hand?Generally, yes. Insurers employ claims adjusters and […]

More than 30 years ago, in 1974, the U.S. Department of Defense commissioned United Airlines to prepare a report on the techniques used by the airline industry to develop cost-efficient maintenance programs for civil airliners. The resulting report, titled Reliability-Centered Maintenance (F. S. Nowlan & H. Heap, National Technical Information Service, 1978) described a radically […]

This article originally appeared in Light Plane Maintenance, Jan. 2005. This article will cover things that cause problems with propeller governor systems and how to diagnose them. Often, governor problems don’t give any warning until something obvious happens, such as the inability to hold selected RPM, the propeller surges or seeks an RPM, or is […]