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Hi, everyone. I'm in the process of getting back into aviation after a ~20 year hiatus. I earned my PPL and IR early in my college days, built about 300 hours in light GA, switched majors to maintenance, got my A&P from a 141 school, spun wrenches on GA a/c for a few years, then got out of aviation altogether after 9/11. I ended up getting a good break in IT and have been building my career there ever since. Now that I have a little discretionary cash and my son is expressing an interest in flying, I would like to get current, then get my CPL, CFI, and CFII and instruct on the side... then maybe instruct my kiddo some day. I love mentoring and teaching, and my passion lies with GA, so I'll never go on to the majors or anything; I've no desire to fly anything heavy. I can see myself really enjoying flight instruction, so to that end, I've started looking into a few flight schools in the area. I flew for the first time in 241 calendar months - to put it in FAA parlance - at the beginning of October, but am so far batting about 1/7 in lessons. Five have been canceled due to weather (autumn in the midwest hasn't changed in 20 years), one because I was sick last week, and one last night were I rejected the aircraft due to maintenance issues. Weather is weather. Illness is illness. Maintenance is... well... I don't know. This one's got me a little irked and I just need a platform to vent a bit. I'm currently working with a small flight school with an embedded maintenance shop at an uncontrolled field. On the preflight yesterday evening, I came across a number of things that my old A&P brain couldn't ignore. 1. The a/c we were supposed to fly (Cherokee 140) was just returned to service a week ago after an extended downtime for an "ongoing electrical issue." First thing we notice, the landing light is out due to a blown fuse. It's a day VFR flight not far from the field, so no big deal. Then as my instructor and another instructor are talking about it, it comes to light that this is the 3rd time the fuse has popped in the week this a/c has been back in service. The instructors alerted the mechanic whose solution was to provide yet another fuse.  In my head, I'm thinking "strike 1," and noting that whatever happens, we will not be energizing the landing light circuit under any circumstances.2. I sump the right tank and after inspecting the fuel in the cup, I notice that the sump is dripping at a rate of about 1 drip every second. So, I wiggle the sump a little bit, pop it a few times with the sump cup, and the best I can do is get it down to a drip rate of ~1 drip every 3 seconds. My instructor goes to get the mechanics again and two of them crawl under the wing while I continue the preflight. They more or less do what I did, then get more excited about the dead earthworms splattered on the bottom of the flap (the a/c had landed after a rainstorm and the tires kicked up some worms off the pavement). The mechanic got it down to a drip rate of ~1 every 10 seconds, but it definitely was still leaking... right on the tire... next to the soon-to-be-very-hot brake rotor and calipers. He waved his hand and said, "you're fine, don't worry about it," then walked back to the hangar. Once he was out of earshot, I turned to my instructor and said, "that's strike 2 on this aircraft. If I find strike 3 before the end of preflight, we're going to call it a day." He was very supportive. 3. I noticed the brake reservoir was a little low, maybe an inch below the designated fill line. Odd, but not a show stopper, so I just filed that one away. As I hop in the aircraft after preflighting, I looked down and notice on the floor directly under the pilot's right brake pedal a ~3"x8" swatch of fresh brake fluid  (there's no carpet in the aircraft at this point). I poke my head under the IP and immediately see an active leak on the brake cylinder for the parking brake. That explains the low brake fluid anyway. I point it out to my instructor who again goes back to the hangar, but this time comes back without the mechanic. "He [the mechanic] says it's airworthy, don't worry about it." I politely but firmly declined to take the aircraft, gathered my things, and left. There were more things that I didn't bring up to anyone - the cowl was cracked and outrunning its stop hole, and the fairing between the vertical stab and fuselage was so badly cracked it was held on by one washer and some hot glue. And, while none of these issues alone are airworthiness issues, I feel that each one adds risk and that the risk curve is usually exponential, not linear. Besides, for everything I saw, how many things did I not see? I talked to the mechanic on the way out to say that I'd been on both sides of the squawk sheet, so I hope there were no hard feelings. I'm still early in my relationship with this school and I don't want to be labeled as "that guy." While he was polite and said things like, "nah you're good, man, I understand," he was clearly annoyed. During the course of that conversation, he revealed to me that he was already aware of all of those issues and had chosen to leave the a/c in service anyway. In the course of saying that he was planning to bring the plane down for maintenance "the next day" he also revealed that the seals on the nose strut were shot and the only reason it was holding air during my preflight is because they serviced it immediately before my arrival.  Strike 4, I guess.Here's the thing... old aircraft break. The Cherokee was built in the 60's and has had a hard life. I have never flown an aircraft that was newer than 20 years old at the time of my flight. I don't expect perfection. I expect old airplanes to have cosmetic issues, old avionics, dings, dents, bumps, crazed windows, an inop thing or two, but I would never have signed off on any one of those things in my A&P days. (Lord knows the C172M I flew a few weeks ago was anything but pristine.) The thing that really really bothers me is the absolutely flippant attitude of the maintenance staff. Their instructors (and most of their customers) are from a local 141 school and are all very nice people, competent, but all relatively low time. Not one of them pushed back on any of the maintenance issues that we saw last night and that leads me to believe that the maintenance guy's word is considered gospel. I have another lesson scheduled in a different Cherokee 140 this Sunday and I will be going through that a/c with a fine toothed comb. If I see more of this sort of thing, I'm going to find a different flight school. I'm just super worried that some of these low-time instructors and students are going to get hurt.  Even though I'm rusty, I have the wherewithal and knowledge base to recognize a problem and push back against it. They don't and it just worries me that they may get hurt. Am I crazy? Am I overreacting?
Chuck_D fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 21:42
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 22:33 |
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Arson Daily posted:Hey Chuck, its Jeff and nope, not overreacting. If you can, take your money elsewhere since they've proven, in one preflight, that their maintenance isn't capable of maintaining the aircraft and don't seem to care that they're not either. I think, unfortunately, that small town aviation is gonna be pretty tricky since most flight instructors are going to want to be in the large college or pilot mill programs, because that is what's going to get them to the majors the fastest, while instructing the dad with a full time job at the local uncontrolled field isn't. If time and money allow it, I'd suggest looking at one of the larger pilot programs near you. West Michigan isn't too far from Chicago or even Detroit so those might be options. I trained back when you did, and the aviation landscape has changed so drastically it's hard to put into words. It's not even the pre 9/11 hiring boom, its bigger than that, and there is an absolute frenzy to get people through training and on to the regionals and majors, which is leaves people like you with a much harder task of finding a place where you can achieve more modest goals like instructing on the weekends or teaching your son. Good luck! Unbelievable. I've missed you, my friend. I absolutely read that in your voice.  You still using the same gmail address from the last time we talked? Mine hasn't changed. I'd really like to catch up with you.Glad I'm not entirely crazy then. I got the exact same vibes last night as I got from my days flying and working line at Brooks Aero. "You're fine, don't worry about it," drat near got me killed back when I was a teenager and didn't have the gumption to push back on the chief mechanic. Dead sticking a Maule into a downwind landing at the busiest uncontrolled airport in the state when the ink is still drying your PPL cert tends to make one squeamish about that dismissive maintenance attitude. I think that's at least part of why I posted - validation that I'm not just being a chickenshit based on past experiences. I don't know as the Chicago/Detroit schtick would be an option for me. I've got a full time gig at our alma mater these days and I don't want to be away from family for anything like an extended period. At this point, I've got a couple options. I'll see how the other aircraft looks this weekend, assuming weather doesn't hose me. If it's a bust, I may be able to look at a small operation in AZO. If that doesn't pan out, there are a couple flying clubs around here that are worth exploring. And lastly, I have a couple computer nerd friends that have also gotten into aviation and we've had some conversations around going partners on a plane. I wouldn't mind getting my A&P current to work on whatever airplane I owned; I think I still have enough connections to make that happen.
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Oct 19, 2023 00:40
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Arson Daily posted:Flew with a 74 guy who was an ffdo. Couldn't take it with him like, ever. What's the point then? Could you even carry your SKS? 
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Nov 1, 2023 20:56
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I told the instructor I've started working with to get current that I have a half hour in a Beech 18 and she just kinda cocked her head and moved on. I don't think she has any idea what a Beech 18 is.
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Nov 5, 2023 11:35
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Salami Surgeon posted:And you can train in a Beech 18? BADASS Ah poo poo. Guess I'm going to be in San Diego for the next few months. I absolutely adore that airframe for some dumb reason. There's a derelict one rotting on the ramp at my local airport that I used to gas up and push around when it was used as a jump plane back in the 90s. I have a fool's dream of restoring it someday, but it's pretty far gone.
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Dec 7, 2023 10:58
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the milk machine posted:i'm just rolling an idea around in my head, but are there any a&p mechanics here? what's that like for work? how intense is the training? I did my training at a 141 school from 99 to 2003. Graduated with a bachelor's degree and an A&P. I am now in infosec, so draw your own conclusions. There's a pretty active subreddit for aviation maintenance. If you ask there, you'll get a good look at the current job market. Questions like this come up often there.
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Dec 8, 2023 10:46
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An old A&P I used to work with never wore skin protection of any kind and would routinely pour MEK on his hands while holding a part so that he could clean it. Same with 5606 hydraulic fluid. I lost touch with him 20 years ago, but I'd bet he's not alive anymore.
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Dec 24, 2023 21:46
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 22:33 |
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Congratulations! How was the ride?
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Apr 11, 2024 17:49
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