AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2024 - 95

this with the FSDO manager and received
assurance that if the A&P who put the airplane
back together was willing to sign a
" safe to ferry " logbook entry, the FSDO
would issue a ferry permit. Thankfully we
were able to find a mechanic to get Mark's
airplane out of the shop and back home.
Lessons
Mark's unfortunate tale offers some
important lessons for any aircraft owner
who faces unplanned maintenance away
from home. If you need to put your airplane
in a shop that you haven't worked
with before, make sure you keep the
shop on a very short leash. Give them
precise instructions on what work
you want them to perform and make it
explicitly clear that they are not authorized
to go beyond the scope of what
you've authorized. Give the shop a maximum
number of hours or dollars that
they are authorized to expend without
contacting you for authorization.
Make sure the shop understands
you are not authorizing them to perform
an airworthiness inspection or to
make an airworthiness determination.
Make it clear that your objective is to
make the airplane safe to fly home, not
to make it technically airworthy. The
FAA only requires you to have your
airplane inspected for airworthiness
one day per year (FAR 91.409)-the
other 364 days a year, responsibility for
determining airworthiness lies with the
PIC (FAR 91.7).
If despite your instructions you get
the feeling that the shop is on a fishing
expedition to find things wrong with
your aircraft or to make a determination
that your aircraft is unairworthy,
immediately instruct them to stop
work. (When you find yourself in a hole,
the first thing to do is to stop digging.)
Then come up with a plan to get your
airplane put back together and out of
the shop (not necessarily in that order).
Finally, the regs require anyone who
commits maintenance on your aircraft to
document it in a logbook entry and to sign
it off-they cannot refuse to do that. While
it might not be a regulatory violation for
someone to take your airplane apart and
then refuse to put it back together, it certainly
is unethical in my humble opinion.
mike.busch@savvyaviation.com
savvyaviation.com
Ask the A&Ps /
Podcast hosts Mike Busch, Paul New,
and Colleen Sterling answer your
maintenance questions on Ask the
A&Ps. See the show live, Tuesday July
26 at 11 a.m. at EAA AirVenture at the
AOPA Program Pavilion.
95
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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2024

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