AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2021 - 85

terms that he had no intention of approving many of the repairs Alpha felt were
necessary, but he didn't.
The debate between Sam and Alpha
raged on for months. Sam kept insisting
that most of the discrepancies didn't rise
to the level of airworthiness issues. Alpha
kept making it clear that they would not
be able to sign off the annual as airworthy
unless they were all addressed. Sam asked
for detailed estimates of what each of the
discrepancies would cost to resolve. Alpha
said it would take them some time to work
up such estimates.
Then something happened that
Sam didn't see coming: Alpha Aviation
informed him that the shop would be
shutting down permanently and would
not be able to perform any of the necessary repairs. They told Sam they would

Considerable research was required to
locate the necessary parts and determine
what they would cost.
Finally, Bravo provided a detailed
written repair estimate to Sam that had
a bottom-line total slightly north of
$20,000. Sam was not amused. He made
it clear to Bravo that he had no intention
of spending anywhere close to that much
money. Bravo's director of maintenance
added fuel to the fire by suggesting that
what Sam really needed to do is to replace
his almost-at-TBO engine with a factoryrebuilt one (for $35,000 plus installation
labor) and to overhaul his way-past-TBO
propeller (for about $6,000). Those suggestions didn't sit well with Sam.
A long negotiation ensued. Finally,
Sam reluctantly agreed to have Bravo
repair 30 of the 40 airworthiness dis-

The debate between Sam and Alpha raged on
for months. Sam kept insisting that most of
the discrepancies didn't rise to the level of
airworthiness issues. Alpha kept making it clear
that they would not be able to sign off the annual
as airworthy unless they were all addressed.
be signing off his annual inspection as
unairworthy with a list of discrepancies.
Alpha's director of maintenance recommended that Sam's airplane be towed
over to another shop on the field-I'll call
it Bravo Aircraft Services-to have the airworthiness discrepancies resolved.
Sam felt his hands were tied. By now
he was back home on the East Coast and
his airplane was 3,000 miles away. He
agreed to have the airplane moved to
Bravo, and reluctantly paid Alpha its flatrate inspection fee that was about twice
what he was accustomed to paying back
in Maryland.
REPAIR ESTIMATE

Bravo reviewed the discrepancy list from
Alpha and looked over Sam's airplane
carefully to assess the discrepancies and
evaluate what parts and how much labor
would be involved in repairing them.

crepancies on Alpha's discrepancy list,
but declined repair of the remaining 10
discrepancies that Sam felt strongly were
not really airworthiness items and should
be deferred until after he got the airplane
back home. Bravo's director of maintenance said that unless Sam authorized
Bravo to repair all 40 airworthiness discrepancies, Bravo would refuse to repair
any of them. Bravo didn't want to be in
the position of aiding or abetting Sam to
commit the violation of flying his airplane
to the East Coast in in an unairworthy
condition.
Sam was furious. He instructed Bravo
to close up the airplane and tow it to a
storage hangar at the FBO on the field.
The folks at Bravo said they would be
delighted to do that. Sam asked Bravo at
least to help him get a ferry permit to fly
the airplane to another shop 15 minutes
flying time away. Bravo said they would
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 85

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - April 2021