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FAASTeam
FAASTeam Notice
Type: Airworthiness
Notice Date: Friday, April 18, 2014
Notice Number: NOTC4760
Maintenance Safety Tip
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Aging Aircraft in General Aviation Best Practices
 
Part 2:  Records Research
 
What is your first step in determining the condition of an aging aircraft? It should be records research!  The records will help you determine the degree of inspection necessary, as well as what items may have already been inspected. Your research will help to identify certain maintenance and usage characteristics of a particular aircraft, as well as expose potential areas of attention pertinent to a model type or class.
 
Inspection and overhaul recommendations contained in older GA aircraft maintenance instructions may not provide adequate guidance regarding aging issues. Therefore, assessing the quality of maintenance and inspections during an aircraft’s life is important to determine which parts have been replaced, if corrosion was ever a problem, and other maintenance factors that could lead to a concern with aging.
 
If you are going to work on an older aircraft, ask the owner for all available information so you can establish the maintenance history. Your knowledge and experience will help to reveal if there are voids or missing information. Advise the owner about these discrepancies and offer to assist getting the information.
 
You can compare research from more general model type issues with individual aircraft information to identify similarities and differences. In effect, this helps answer the question: “Does the information I am seeing on this particular aircraft match the history of the aircraft and type, per available records?”
 
Once collected, the information will help you and the owner establish a baseline to determine what maintenance, repairs, and alterations have been done and how well the aircraft has been cared for.
 
Next month’s Maintenance Safety Tip, Aging Aircraft in General Aviation - Part 3 will highlight “Special Attention Inspections.”  We encourage you to review, as well as share with the aircraft owner, the publication titled “Best Practices Guide for Maintaining Aging General Aviation Airplanes” which can be found at:
 
http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/small_airplanes/cos/aging_aircraft/media/aging_aircraft_best_practices.pdf