Oi... Flight Lesson Canceled

Snaggletooth

Snaggletooth

Line Up and Wait
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May 9, 2009
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Dustin
Well this AM I got a call from my CFI saying the Plane was out for it's 100hr inspection and that there would be no lesson today. Crud, it's been a week now since my last lesson and I'm going nuts to fly again. Anyway I just got a call back from him and he said the needle in the VOR indicator was stuck and they are waiting for a new one to come in (maybe tomorrow). So it could be tomorrow or later before I can fly again.
 
Unfortunately, these annoyances will never go away. They're most frustrating at two points:

1) When you're working on a rating (especially when it comes time for your check ride)

2) When you're trying to get somewhere (Gaston's, etc.)

We've all been there (and are there again repeatedly). It sucks. However, this illustrates one of the benefits of owning your own plane. Frequently, you're able to control the downtimes a little better to go in line with your schedules when it's yours. Even if you work out a deal with a friend on a plane, that generally works better than the rentals, whose schedule always seems to revolve around inconveniencing you. With the Aztec, I've so far frequently been able to plan repairs, upgrades, maintenance, etc. to work around my schedule a little better.
 
Yah, owning you airplane makes it all go away. I've never had my aircraft down, missing, or busy when I wanted it. Makes it pretty gosh darn expensive, too.
 
Michael, I didn't say it makes it go away, I said it makes it better. In my experience, that's been the case.

You can plan your annual to a certain extent. The rental company will do the annual when it feels like doing it. You can plan preventative maintenance when you want to do it. The rental company will seemingly plan to do preventative maintenance (if it does it at all) exactly when you want to fly.

There are some things you do have control over. Nobody has control over things breaking.
 
Dah that, I've just been lucky in not having a lot of stuff break. Also, I fly a stone simple airplane, so not much to break. Doesn't hurt that it had a major refurbishment. But I had little trouble with my old airplane, which was a ratty old Cessna 150. I think we had to scrub one flight because of bugs in the pitot. Helps to have a hangar.
 
sorry to hear it snag. there is always tomorrow.
 
Planes break down, it stinks but it happens.

Go out to the airport anyway. You never know what might happen, you could catch a ride with someone, see if the mechanic will let you observe what he/she does for a 100-hour inspection, etc. A lot of good informal learning possibilities.


Trapper John
 
If I could drive I would, but at this point I'm yet to get my LP. rofl
Chances are I'll have my PPL before my DL.
 
Yeah, but when the airport is 35 minutes away by road at 60-70mph a bike is not really an option. :rofl:
 
You need to have a serious discussion with your instructor and the school. First, somebody there should have a rough idea when an airplane is coming up on its 100-hour inspection . . . you don't forego revenue to put an airplane down for an inspection. Second, at your stage in the game, a VOR needle is not going to keep you from flying. This instructor needs to decide whether s/he is interested in YOUR flying or not. Too many instructors out there who are plain lazy and it's all about them. Yeah - when I was instructing in the early few thousand hours, it was about me in the end -- but while I was there, it was about the student learning.

As I told one young Danish fellow, "The more time you spend in a 152, the less time you spend in a 152." I think he may have figured it out one day . . .




Snaggletooth said:
Well this AM I got a call from my CFI saying the Plane was out for it's 100hr inspection and that there would be no lesson today. Crud, it's been a week now since my last lesson and I'm going nuts to fly again. Anyway I just got a call back from him and he said the needle in the VOR indicator was stuck and they are waiting for a new one to come in (maybe tomorrow). So it could be tomorrow or later before I can fly again.
Click to expand...
 
There are also pretty well spelled out guidelines for when 100-hour inspections need to be performed, same with annuals. Someone's likely going to not have use of the aircraft at some point because of that. This is especially the case at FBOs where only one or two aircraft are available for rent. At my FBO, for example, there's only one beat up old 172 for rent. Not defending the FBO as it is annoying, but it's also the way things are. As an owner, I can plan my 100-hour inspections, planned upgrades, and annuals to a certain extent. However the plane is still out of use during that time period, and I've had to turn down reasons to fly for that reason. Since I plan it, though, I don't end up missing the things that are really important to me.

I do agree that for a number of instructors it's too often about them and not about the student. This comes back to one of my standard problems with a lot of instructors. Many just use it to build time, rather than because they enjoy teaching. That would be cause for a talk with the instructor, but I think your reaction is a bit unrealistic in this market, David.
 
You do 100 hour inspections on your Aztec? Are you leasing it out?


Trapper John
 
Snaggle: I'm with those who say you need to take some action here, regarding being alerted to maintenance/inspection issues on a timely basis, and of course the VOR thing... even if the syllabus for the day is all about VOR nav, you should be able to say you still want to fly, and why shouldn't they oblige? Obviously there must be down time while a VOR problem is addressed, but it should be scheduld, and students alerted.

This kind of business is what annoyed me most during my training... hustling out to the field after work or whatever only to find out the plane was off the line or had been booked for someone else, etc. I hardly ever got a call, even when my instructor had to cancel at the last minute. There must have been cobwebs on that phone in the school office, it hardly seemed to get used.

I was a fool to not change schools, and I regret it (I did make a stink,more than one, but nothing changed). Remember the bottom line: they work for you. No students, no school. It's that simple. You don't have to be a jerk about it, but if you are too nice, the might walk all over you. If you're not getting what you're paying for, take your money someplace else.

All that being said, even owners can tell you that show-stopping airplane problems, like weather issues and family/work conflicts, never seem to happen at a convenient time...:D Get used to it... it's part of the game.
 
Trapper John said:
You do 100 hour inspections on your Aztec? Are you leasing it out?
Click to expand...

I more do it for good measure and to catch things before they break. With the number of hours that I've put on the thing (120 hours since January), the standard annual leaves a lot of time for stuff to go wrong in between. The fact that I then get to log it as a 100 hour inspection gives me the option to rent it should I so choose.

I also periodically inspect things that I think need inspection, especially around oil change time. Usually find something. After all, it is a 40 year old plane with 9000 hours on the airframe. Plus the previous owner just didn't care.
 
ted you should just have an IA do your "100 hr" and log it as an annual. You can still rent it for instruction or do commercial work in it and you lower the risk of doing an annual again on it based on calendar time only. Plus as long as you will continue to fly 100 hrs a year (and I suspect you will) then you don't have much risk of ever going out of annual.
 
Ahhh. What are your thoughts on maintenance-induced failure? I read something about that a while ago (can't remember where) and it was an interesting point of view skewed toward the if it ain't broke, don't fix it school of thought.


Trapper John
 
tonycondon said:
ted you should just have an IA do your "100 hr" and log it as an annual. You can still rent it for instruction or do commercial work in it and you lower the risk of doing an annual again on it based on calendar time only. Plus as long as you will continue to fly 100 hrs a year (and I suspect you will) then you don't have much risk of ever going out of annual.
Click to expand...

That's been a thought on the list, but it also depends on what you do for the 100 hour inspection, and how much the plane gets flown. At this point, it's looking like 200 hours per year or so is the number, so the 100 hour would tend to be more of a "6 month check-up." Keeping it on the important stuff and not as thorough as an annual saves time and money.

I'll continue to reevaluate on an ongoing basis. :)

Trapper John said:
Ahhh. What are your thoughts on maintenance-induced failure? I read something about that a while ago (can't remember where) and it was an interesting point of view skewed toward the if it ain't broke, don't fix it school of thought.
Click to expand...

That works for some things. Landing gear isn't one of them. ;)

Seriously, though, it's not a point of overmaintaining the thing so much as keeping an eye out on things that might fail, and seeing little things that the previous owner never bothered to repair. In the case of my plane, it's got a good number of systems, all of which require maintenance and which break, so it makes sense to keep an eye on them. A lot of times you might not notice a simple problem until it turns into a big problem.
 
Owning your own airplane is no guarantee you are going to fly. The flying Gods work in many mysterious ways to keep you from flying when they don't want you to.

The myriad problems keeping your airplane current and working right.

The weather.

Your wife.

Your girlfriend.

Your dog.

Your mom.

Your boss.

Your wallet.

A bad cold.

Just to name a few. Enjoy each day you get to wake up. That famous baseball player, I can't recall his name just now, said it best: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

John
 
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