Maintenance management guide for plane owners who can't talk shop.
Credit: Verdict Media Limited.
People tend not to put enough emphasis or attention on this important factor and this negligence for maintenance management is due to a number of reasons:
1. The person not being aware of the importance.
2. The person thinking it’s a process automatically incorporated into the deal.
3. The person only knowing a few aspects that go into maintenance management.
4. The person being misinformed.
The problem with mis-management is that, ramifications of not carrying out proper maintenance are huge and not just to your safety but also to your finances.
I will give you the main pointers using simpler, more understandable language so that the jargon you may be fed is replaced with a guide that you can fully comprehend.
When you have established that this it is the aircraft for you, you then have to do your checks to make sure that you are not confronted with the maintenance problems that may plague you when you begin to fly with your private plane. In fact, this can be the prime factor that may influence your decision to buy or not buy the plane.
Just like how cars have their annual Ministry of Transport (MOT) tests for vehicle safety, road worthiness aspects. Aircraft also have annual reviews, which are designed to assess airworthiness and aircraft safety. At the end of the review, if passed successfully the owner will be issued with a certificate referred to as the Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) which validates the initial Certificate of Airworthiness (CofA) you receive after acquiring the plane, registering yourself as the owner of the aircraft and most importantly passing the initial inspection of Airworthiness.
When you start using your aircraft, you have to make sure procedures are put in place, which ensure that your plane operates in continuing airworthiness according to the regulations and standards of the authority that governs airworthiness and safety standards. I will go into detail with these procedures later on.
Credit: MW Aircraft services
On top of this annual review, plane owners will also be advised to set up maintenance programme, which consists of schedule tasks and regular checks on the engines and other significant components. The Programme has to be approved by the national authority governing aircraft airworthiness, so it should be constructed by an individual or organisation who has the credentials and qualifications. The maintenance program is imperative to the success of your Continual Airworthiness Management Program (CAMP) keeping your plane in operation. They will also have a huge bearing on how well you plane performs, how much it suffers from mechanical problems and how smooth the process will go if you ever plan on selling your plane in the future.
The inspections/checks; which are part of the programme, are carried out after a certain period of flight time. This can vary, for instance, one owner can agree on their plane being checked every 100 hours and another can decide that every 200 hours their plane is to be checked. Costs can vary vastly and checks for turbo prop planes can cost you from £25,000 to £80,000 per 200 hours depending on the plane and £32,000 to £95,000 for jet engines.
The regularity of your maintenance checks plays a considerable part in detecting any potential problems. You can then take it further by conducting quarterly or even monthly reports with your Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO).
In Europe, these organisations have to be approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), a governing regulatory organisation that oversees all the parameters of European Aviation Safety. If these organisations are not EASA approved, meeting the requirements in part 145 of the EASA standards and therefore proceed to conduct work on your plane - your plane will not be eligible for its annual airworthiness certificate after its annual review by the EASA.
America civil aviation regulatory body the Federation Aviation Administration (FAA) also has a similar model for regulating planes.
Checks are categorised depending on the magnitude of the work from A - D.
A, being the after every flight and takes up 20 to 50 man-hours to complete.
B, which is done every 6 months and takes between 120 and 150 man-hours.
C, checks time frame is defined by Original Engine Manufacturer (OEM) usually based around a certain amount if flight time. It can take one to two weeks to complete, and as many as 6,000 man-hours.
Lastly, D checks, which are carried out every 6 years. The procedure needs 50,000 man-hours over a period of two months. A checks and B checks, which can be done regularly are the checks I was referring to in the last paragraph – helping with problem detection and high performance.
For all aviation engines, the OEM will specify a time limit - in its manual - the engine is allowed to operate for before requiring an overhaul. When this time occurs, the engine is uninstalled from the air-frame by engineers and shipped to the maintenance organisation. During the overhaul process the engine is removed, disassembled (torn down), cleaned, inspected, repaired as necessary and tested using factory service manual approved procedures. The procedure generally involves honing, new piston rings, bearings, gaskets, oil seals. The process will cost owner anywhere from £150,000 to £1,200,000 for turbo prop depending on the type of turbo prop and what work that has to be done. For jet engines, the cost will be between £180,000 and £1,500,000. As many experts vehemently tell you, overhaul prices aren’t easy to forecast when you initially buy the plane and you will always be warned that the costs will be higher than expected.
Landing gear is another significant component that can be a very stressful thing to account for. Costs of an overhaul range from 160,000 to £380,000 and the procedure can take up to 8 weeks to complete.
Fortunately, it is something most plane owners won’t ever experience as it tends to be carried out every ten years on average. To completely replace the landing gear with a new one, which is even more of a rare occurrence, the seismic costs range from £180,000 to £500,000. This procedure takes a minimum of eight weeks. Any replacement landing gear purchased needs to be accepted by the regulatory body of safety in the country your plane is based – in England, the EASA (which was mentioned earlier) is the one to adhere to. These costs and lengthy procedures give the landing gear it’s feared reputation when it comes to maintenance issues and activities.
Credit: MRO management
To sum up, aircraft maintenance is a continual activity that is paramount to running a safe and effective plane. No one will buy a poorly maintained plane because of the implications of flying in one. Bare that in mind when you pay to arrange your maintenance program.
