As a pilot how extensive should your maintenance knowledge be?

FloridaPilot

FloridaPilot

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Maybe this should be in the Maintenance forum but I just wanted to know if you purchase lets say a Mooney to fly around. How much should you know about maintenance? How many of you are involved in the maintenance of your airplane?



As always thanks for your input!
 
If you own, the more you know the more affordable it is. If you're renting, the more you know the better you'll be at identifying issues as critical vs. non-life-threatening.
 
JoeSelch said:
How much do you value your hide?
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Very much!

But the purpose of this tread is to get an understanding of how extensive your maintenance knowledge has to be in order to own an airplane. I don't think I could fix my airplane better than a person who has been fixing airplanes for many years. Do your own annuals as well?
 
I have the factory Maintenance Manual and Parts Manual for my airplane.

At Annual time, I also open up all the inspection plates, remove the seats, carpet, floorboards, yada yada, lube the landing gear, replace filters and batteries, ect., so the AI simply inspects.

I enjoy it, helps keep me informed, and saves money. Whatever details I can look up saves mechanic's time.

Aircraft maintenance should never have an adversarial attitude- The mechanic and I are on the same side- Both of us want a safe airplane!
 
FloridaPilot said:
... how extensive your maintenance knowledge has to be in order to own an airplane.
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You don't have to have any knowledge at all. You just need a big checkbook so you can say "fix it" without offering any help diagnosing issues. The mechanic will spend far more time troubleshooting than if you have some very basic knowledge, and can offer suggestions of what may be causing problems.

Informed owner + expert mechanic on your specific type = less dollars required for maintenance.
 
I don't know how you could effectively quantify "extensive" but let's just say that you could never get to a point where you would say to yourself "I know WAY too much about this airplane"
 
Non Compos Mentis said:
You don't have to have any knowledge at all. You just need a big checkbook so you can say "fix it" without offering any help diagnosing issues. The mechanic will spend far more time troubleshooting than if you have some very basic knowledge, and can offer suggestions of what may be causing problems.

Informed owner + expert mechanic on your specific type = less dollars required for maintenance.
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It's good to have a big checkbook and all but would you trust someone you don't know personally/And sometimes personally to fix everything that is broken correctly. I believe no one is going to care about your airplane more than you do!
 
Silvaire said:
I don't know how you could effectively quantify "extensive" but let's just say that you could never get to a point where you would say to yourself "I know WAY too much about this airplane"
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That is true,

But does everyone on this forum know how to overhaul an engine?
 
FloridaPilot said:
That is true,

But does everyone on this forum know how to overhaul an engine?
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No, the vast majority of owners(non A&P) do not know how to overhaul an engine.

As with all things, a little knowledge is good, but a little more knowledge can be a bad thing. Then, even more knowledge is once again a good thing.

I think it's important to have a working knowledge of each system. The fuel system and it's operation, the electrical system, the gear system, etc. You don't need to know the details of how to fix them, but you should should know when something is not right. Also how to describe the fault to the A&P you engage.

As you gain more experience with the systems of the plane, you begin to understand how and why things are put together the way they are. (gah - dangling participle)


The knowledge of various bits of the plane run the gamut from basically clueless, to full Inspection Authority for the type. I know a lot about my particular plane, and also a fair amount about aircraft in general. But, I would not do an engine overhaul without a qualified A&P watching, helping, and testing.
 
I know enough to get myself hurt.. :D

I eventually want to know the complete ins and out.
 
I have always been involved with the maintenance of the airplanes I fly. I have also built two homebuilts and restored a couple of airplanes. I just got my King A&P course today and will start studying for the A&P exams. After over 30 years of aircraft work its about time. Don
 
FloridaPilot said:
That is true,

But does everyone on this forum know how to overhaul an engine?
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No they don't, I'm simply pointing out that you have asked for a quantity as in "how much" should one know about their airplane and there is no way to answer that. For one thing, it's a moving target because "how much" you know about your aircraft is always going to be increasing the longer you own it. If you ever get to the point where you think you know "everything" well, that is the time to quit flying.
 
FloridaPilot said:
Maybe this should be in the Maintenance forum but I just wanted to know if you purchase lets say a Mooney to fly around. How much should you know about maintenance? How many of you are involved in the maintenance of your airplane?



As always thanks for your input!
Click to expand...

Knowledge is never a negative, ignorance is always more expensive be it in money or skin. If you don't know, then you are at the mercy of those who profess to know and you have no way to determine what they actually know, nor if they are ripping you off or not. The level of knowledge you acquire is your choice, the level of actual work you perform is also your choice. I do as much of my own work as time allows for.
 
You should know your systems for sure, not necessarily how to fix them, but how they work. Then you need to be able to communicate with your mechanic on what problems you have and what the mechanic has done to your plane. Failure to do this will result in problems in the long run.

Of course, your education is enhanced with a little supervised work on your plane. My mechanic divided her customers into two groups: those who will turn a wrench on their planes and "just pilots."
 
I have built an airplane and flew it for 250 hours. I fly homebuilt experimental aircraft exclusively. I work on them constantly, yet I am always looking to learn new things and keep up with maintenance and SBs.
 
It helps if you can accurately reproduce noises as well. Sounds like a joke, but seriously, it helps.
 
FloridaPilot said:
I don't think I could fix my airplane better than a person who has been fixing airplanes for many years. Do your own annuals as well?
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Henning touched on it. You could probably fix a lot of things as well as an experienced person (under their supervision) but not nearly as efficiently. Like yesterday: was timing my magnetos, spent an hour trying to figure out why one magneto suddenly went bad, per a light on the buzz box that would not light. Finally walked over to consult with the professional. "Did you switch leads to see if maybe you have a bad light?" :mad2:
 
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The better you understand the systems and the problem it is having, the better you will be able to articulate the symptoms that would lead a competent A&P to quickly find and fix the problem.

Saying "The airplane is making a funny noise" is not helpful. "The hydraulic pump is whining when I retract the gear" gets the guy / guyette started looking in the right area.

It also helps to be knowledgeable enough to recognize that a particular A&P is a moron that shouldn't be trusted to fix a bicycle.
 
The Navion hydraulic system is a little involved. The emergency gear extension procedure is like 13 steps. However these 13 steps cover all the things that might go wrong. The key is once the three green lights come on STOP SCREWING WITH IT AND LAND. I had a very senior CFI and aviation safety counselor (for what that's worth) learn this the hard way. One failure is that the control valve can fail causing the gear to be held up by the hydraulics. The emergency procedure is to turn OFF the hydraulics and then release the uplocks (either with the regular gear handle, which may be hard to do, or the emergency gear handle which is just a longer handle on the same cable). Once you do that the gear should free fall into the locked down position. What you DON'T want to do at that point is turn the hydraulics back on (let's say to move the flaps). The gear will come right back up!

Also, knowing how the gear horn worked (really) caused me to figure out why my XM Radio kept going off whenever the gear was up which had both the avionics shop and the mechanics scratching their heads.
 
You should know when something doesn't look right, doesn't smell right, doesn't sound right, and doesn't feel right before your A&P/IA finds it at annual/inspection. You don't necessarily need to know how to fix the problem, but you should be able to diagnose it.
 
flyingron said:
Also, knowing how the gear horn worked (really) caused me to figure out why my XM Radio kept going off whenever the gear was up which had both the avionics shop and the mechanics scratching their heads.
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Shared wires?
 
Non Compos Mentis said:
I have the factory Maintenance Manual and Parts Manual for my airplane.

At Annual time, I also open up all the inspection plates, remove the seats, carpet, floorboards, yada yada, lube the landing gear, replace filters and batteries, ect., so the AI simply inspects.

I enjoy it, helps keep me informed, and saves money. Whatever details I can look up saves mechanic's time.

Aircraft maintenance should never have an adversarial attitude- The mechanic and I are on the same side- Both of us want a safe airplane!
Click to expand...

This is how I learn about my plane.
In addition I have all the manuals for the instruments and occasionally pulling it out of the hangar as far as the extension cord will go, turning on the master and just trying out all the things the GPS can do and getting comfortable with them. Same with the clock, the intercom/recorder and everything else.
 
Henning said:
Knowledge is never a negative, ignorance is always more expensive be it in money or skin. If you don't know, then you are at the mercy of those who profess to know and you have no way to determine what they actually know, nor if they are ripping you off or not. The level of knowledge you acquire is your choice, the level of actual work you perform is also your choice. I do as much of my own work as time allows for.
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I'm with Henning, and have always encouraged my customers to learn about their plane. Makes my job easier when they can properly describe a squawk. Also give them a leg up when they are away from home and something goes wrong.

That said, I don't expect a neurosurgeon to be cleaning the spark plugs. :wink2:
 
Norman said:
I'm with Henning, and have always encouraged my customers to learn about their plane. Makes my job easier when they can properly describe a squawk. Also give them a leg up when they are away from home and something goes wrong.

That said, I don't expect a neurosurgeon to be cleaning the spark plugs. :wink2:
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If someone is a neurosurgeon, they probably just buy new ones instead of cleaning them. :)
 
EdFred said:
Shared wires?
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No, incorrect wiring of the gear horn to the mute circuitry on the GDL89A. The Navion gear horn is wired from the + bus through the fuse (shared with the starter in my case) to the throttle switch to the horn to the gear switch to ground.

In fact, there's no real way to wire the GDL69A to that circuit. An active low input will mute the radio when the gear is up. An active high will mute the radio whenever the throttle is set to a low power setting. I just cut the dang wire. I can hear the gear horn fine over the radio.
 
I have a very basic understanding of how things should work. I do know enough to get on forums and ask questions. Between this site and mooneyspace, I know tons more than I did 2 years ago.
 
I do all my own mx on everything I own. On the airplane I have someone smarter than me do the condition inspection (as required by the regs) and then I fix whatever discrepancies they find.
 
Q (paraphrased) How much should you know about maintenance of airplanes you fly?

A As much as you can tolerate without disrupting your other priorities.

Don't worry, you cannot know too much or know it all.
 
EdFred said:
If someone is a neurosurgeon, they probably just buy new ones instead of cleaning them. :)
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NO! lol, they will pick that sucker clean, adjust it, and use it until the electrode is worn out. Pilots are cheap regardless their occupation.
 
FloridaPilot said:
Maybe this should be in the Maintenance forum but I just wanted to know if you purchase lets say a Mooney to fly around. How much should you know about maintenance? How many of you are involved in the maintenance of your airplane?



As always thanks for your input!
Click to expand...

The more you know, the better informed you are regarding maintenance and operating decisions. I would say it would be a benefit to you to become a subject matter expert on your airplane.
 
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