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NoLessonLearnedYet
Guest
I'm a long time member on this forum but I don't want to publicly throw anyone under the bus so I'm staying anonymous. I have not yet learned a lesson but would like to avoid learning it if at all possible, if one of you already did learn it. Long story short: I lived in the same place for many years and pretty much throughout my ownership of my current airplane and previous airplane. I have worked with the same A&P/IA for all those years and trust him blindly. I never had any major issues with my planes and I contribute this to good preventive maintenance. At the same time, my previous A&P also stressed to not fix what ain't broken just for the sake of changing things. If something looks like it is failing, we change it. If something failed, we definitely change it. Everything he recommended, he was able to back up, show to me, point out what it is, present my options, give his recommendation among those options and then let me pick.
Fast forward: I moved across the country and as I'm getting closer to my first annual inspection away from my previous home airport, due in 5 months, I started talking with the only A&P/IA at the new airport I'm based at just to look over logbooks, ADs, do an oil change, a short flight together, etc. Here is my experience thus far:
Oil Change: He changed my oil, cut open the spin-on oil filter, we both looked through it and noted no metal. He asked me about oil burn, I told him about a quart every 8 hours and he said good. He then asked me how often I change the oil and I say every 50 hours or six months whichever comes first (usually, it's the six months and about 35ish hours, last oil change was 50 hours at 5 months though that's not the norm) which was also my previous A&P's recommendation. I am on the Phillips Victory Aviation Oil 20W-50. The new A&P then said that he'd recommend to change the oil and filter every 25 hours. I asked him for his reasoning and he said that the engine is getting old (about 1,200 hours SMOH with a 2,000 TBO) so new oil every 25 hours is better.
Magnetos: During our short flight together, as I always do, I did a magneto check during run up. One magneto dropped by just under 150 rpm, the other by just over 100 rpm. My POH says mag drop no more than 175 rpm and no more than 50 rpm difference between the two. After the mag check, he asked how many hours I have on the magnetos. I told him just under 400 hours. He said we would have to get them done next annual. I told him that I was planning on doing them at next year's annual (which would take me to just under 500 hours on the mags) unless I notice anything abnormal before that. He said, that it's abnormal for one of the mags to drop the rpm by nearly 150. I told him that the POH says up to 175 is fine as long as the difference between the two is less than 50 and his comment was that the POH was wrong in that regard, 150 is the absolute max and I'm right at it.
Muffler: The plane is parked on the ramp outside (not by choice - hangar shortage). The other day, he told me he saw the plane and took a peek inside the cowling, noticing a crack in the muffler that we have to fix at the annual. I asked why he'd look into my cowling without me present or prompted in the first place and he said because I asked him a question about my engine and he wanted to confirm something before answering (I asked him a question thinking he could answer based on simply knowing that engine type - not specifically about MY engine). I went to the airport that same day (I live just around the corner) to look at the muffler as well and could not find a crack anywhere. I called him asking where the crack was and he said it's impossible to see with the naked eye - he just saw it because he has very good vision, almost microscopic vision when it comes to airplanes. I said that if there is a crack, I should see some sort of discoloration on the muffler where the gasses escape and he said the crack isn't bad enough for gasses to escape yet but we shouldn't wait to fix this until that happens and then went on to talk about me flying the plane with family and CO poisoning, etc. which I get, I simply don't see the crack and he can't point it out to me because according to him, my mere mortal eyes wouldn't be able to see it.
I'm not crazy for being cautious with that A&P, right? I mean, the oil change interval is an opinion - some may share it, some may not. It didn't raise a red flag, it just showed two different opinions. The magnetos raised a bit of a yellow flag, maybe even orange flag. But the muffler conversation was just weird and raised a double red flag for me. What are you thinking?
Fast forward: I moved across the country and as I'm getting closer to my first annual inspection away from my previous home airport, due in 5 months, I started talking with the only A&P/IA at the new airport I'm based at just to look over logbooks, ADs, do an oil change, a short flight together, etc. Here is my experience thus far:
Oil Change: He changed my oil, cut open the spin-on oil filter, we both looked through it and noted no metal. He asked me about oil burn, I told him about a quart every 8 hours and he said good. He then asked me how often I change the oil and I say every 50 hours or six months whichever comes first (usually, it's the six months and about 35ish hours, last oil change was 50 hours at 5 months though that's not the norm) which was also my previous A&P's recommendation. I am on the Phillips Victory Aviation Oil 20W-50. The new A&P then said that he'd recommend to change the oil and filter every 25 hours. I asked him for his reasoning and he said that the engine is getting old (about 1,200 hours SMOH with a 2,000 TBO) so new oil every 25 hours is better.
Magnetos: During our short flight together, as I always do, I did a magneto check during run up. One magneto dropped by just under 150 rpm, the other by just over 100 rpm. My POH says mag drop no more than 175 rpm and no more than 50 rpm difference between the two. After the mag check, he asked how many hours I have on the magnetos. I told him just under 400 hours. He said we would have to get them done next annual. I told him that I was planning on doing them at next year's annual (which would take me to just under 500 hours on the mags) unless I notice anything abnormal before that. He said, that it's abnormal for one of the mags to drop the rpm by nearly 150. I told him that the POH says up to 175 is fine as long as the difference between the two is less than 50 and his comment was that the POH was wrong in that regard, 150 is the absolute max and I'm right at it.
Muffler: The plane is parked on the ramp outside (not by choice - hangar shortage). The other day, he told me he saw the plane and took a peek inside the cowling, noticing a crack in the muffler that we have to fix at the annual. I asked why he'd look into my cowling without me present or prompted in the first place and he said because I asked him a question about my engine and he wanted to confirm something before answering (I asked him a question thinking he could answer based on simply knowing that engine type - not specifically about MY engine). I went to the airport that same day (I live just around the corner) to look at the muffler as well and could not find a crack anywhere. I called him asking where the crack was and he said it's impossible to see with the naked eye - he just saw it because he has very good vision, almost microscopic vision when it comes to airplanes. I said that if there is a crack, I should see some sort of discoloration on the muffler where the gasses escape and he said the crack isn't bad enough for gasses to escape yet but we shouldn't wait to fix this until that happens and then went on to talk about me flying the plane with family and CO poisoning, etc. which I get, I simply don't see the crack and he can't point it out to me because according to him, my mere mortal eyes wouldn't be able to see it.
I'm not crazy for being cautious with that A&P, right? I mean, the oil change interval is an opinion - some may share it, some may not. It didn't raise a red flag, it just showed two different opinions. The magnetos raised a bit of a yellow flag, maybe even orange flag. But the muffler conversation was just weird and raised a double red flag for me. What are you thinking?
