AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2024 - 96

RUDDER & WRENCH
isn't your mechanic's job to make your
maintenance affordable, it's yours. " Paul
is spot-on.
Most GA airplanes are grossly overmaintained.
That's because most owners let
their A&Ps decide what maintenance is necessary
rather than making those decisions
themselves. Mechanics make decisions
based on very different motivations than
owners do. Both owners and mechanics
want the aircraft to be safe and legal. But
owners also want to minimize expense,
while mechanics want to minimize their
liability in case something goes wrong.
To minimize their perceived liability,
mechanics will usually do things strictly
" by the book. " The book in question is the
manufacturer's maintenance manual. The
maintenance that the manufacturer calls for
in the maintenance manual is usually grossly
excessive for most aircraft for reasons I'll
get into shortly. If mechanics are allowed
to decide what maintenance work to do,
they will invariably do a lot more work than
is necessary to make the aircraft safe, reliable,
and legal. A lot of this excessive work is
" defensive maintenance " done to minimize
the mechanic's liability rather than to make
the aircraft safer or more reliable.
Owners need to understand that maintenance
is not an inherently good thing
(like exercise) where the more we do, the
better. Instead, maintenance should be
thought of as a necessary evil (like surgery)
that we sometimes have to do, but
we sure don't want to do it any more than
absolutely necessary. More maintenance is
not better. Usually, it's worse.
A huge amount of scientific research
proves this conclusively, ranging from the
work of C.H. Waddington with the Royal
Air Force in the 1940s to the development
of reliability-centered maintenance
(RCM) by United Airlines scientists
Stanley Nowlan and Howard Heap in the
late 1960s and early 1970s. (I discuss this in
detail in my first book, Manifesto.)
So, whenever your mechanic tells you
that he needs to perform some maintenance
task on your aircraft that is going
to be costly and/or invasive, determine
whether or not that maintenance task is
demonstrably necessary to make the aircraft
safe, reliable, and legal. You need to
ask yourself (or your mechanic), " What's
96
AOPA PILOT / January 2024
the worst that could happen if we don't do
this? " Unless you are absolutely convinced
that the work is necessary, it's your job to
say " no thanks. "
2. Not requiring authorization
You won't have the opportunity to say " no
thanks " unless you establish and enforce a
set of ground rules for how you and your
shop or mechanic work together. The most
important of these ground rules is that the
shop will do no work on your aircraft without
your authorization. If the shop believes
that they have the discretion to perform
whatever work they consider necessary or
appropriate, you've effectively abdicated
your maintenance management authority
to your mechanic. The result is often
unpleasant surprises at invoice time (i.e.,
sticker shock), which can lead to disputes,
hard feelings, and occasionally lawyers getting
involved.
To avoid this, you need to make it clear
that they are not permitted to do any work
on your aircraft without your explicit written
authorization. Your authorization
needs to be in writing so there can be no
debate over exactly what you authorized
the shop to do. Email or even text message
works fine for this. Your authorization
needs to be specific (e.g., " I approve removing
the number 2 cylinder and sending it
out to Tim's Aircraft for overhaul " ).
Take care never to give the shop a blank
check. Never tell the shop, " Please troubleshoot
and fix the problem with the electric
trim. " Instead, say, " I approve up to two
hours of labor to troubleshoot the problem
with the electric trim and report your
findings to me. "
Annual inspections are a special
case. When you put your airplane in
the shop for its annual ordeal, give the
shop specific marching orders along
the following lines: " You are authorized
to perform the annual inspection
on [insert aircraft] at the agreed-to
flat-rate inspection fee of [insert dollar
amount] and to report back to me your
findings and repair recommendations.
You are not authorized to do any repairs
or order any parts until I have had the
opportunity to review your inspection
findings and to specifically approve or
decline your repair recommendations. "
3. Not requiring estimates
Of course, you can't make an informed decision
about whether to approve work that the
shop recommends without first knowing
what it's going to cost. I find it astonishing
how often owners allow their shops and
mechanics to do work on their aircraft without
requiring a written cost estimate.
Aircraft maintenance is a business
transaction, and needs to be handled
like a business transaction. Most people
wouldn't make a purchase-whether having
their house painted or buying a pair
of shoes-without knowing exactly what
it's going to cost. Why do so many aircraft
owners give their mechanics the go-ahead
to do work that might cost thousands of
dollars with nothing more than a smile and
a handshake? That's no way to do business.
In most states, an automotive repair
shop is not permitted to work on your car
without first giving you written work order
containing a detailed description of each
task they propose to perform and exactly
what each will cost. You need to require
the same from your aircraft repair shop or
mechanic. If you give your shop a blank
check-explicitly or implicitly-and then
are shocked by the invoice, you really don't
have a leg to stand on. Don't let it happen.
4. Not declining work that's due
One of the best ways to eliminate excessive
maintenance (and associated expense)
is to give serious consideration to saying
no to work your shop or mechanic wants
to do because the maintenance manual
says it's due even though there's nothing
demonstrably wrong with the component
involved. The word " due " is a big red flag
that makes me spring-loaded to say no.
Our maintenance manuals are chock
full of maintenance tasks that are supposed
to be done every so many hours,
months, or years. Lycoming wants you to
overhaul your engine every 2,000 hours or
12 years, whichever comes first. Hartzell
wants you to overhaul your propeller every
1,500 hours or six years. Cirrus wants you to
replace your battery every two years, your
alternator every 500 hours, and a whole
bunch of stuff every five years. The maintenance
manual for my Cessna 310 contains
more than 250 of these " due " maintenance
items. (If I did all that stuff when Cessna
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2024

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