Wait, or F'ing new guy?

James331

James331

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James331
:dunno: I got a pickle,

My friend and APIA, who I very much trust and like, who has a ton of knowledge on type, is away for a few months.

The plane is now out of annual, there's a local APIA offered to annual her, no real snags, but I'm a little hesitant to let someone new, who also doesn't have really any experience with amphibs or skywagons touch my plane or logs.

Weather wise I'm up north, we've had a few flyable days, not a ton, I do miss having the plane ready to rock, as she normally sits ready to roll with 3hrs fuel, just debating waiting on my guy to get back, a known good commodity, or using this other guy to get the plane back on the flight line sooner.
 
I think most APs are good, but few are my kind of “good enough for me”. If it were me in such a “pickle”, I’d pickle that engine to sit for a few months and wait it out. Plus, there’s an upside: you are postponing an annual expense during a time you don’t fly much anyway.
 
I’d be a little reluctant to have a guy with no amphib experience or model experience do an annual.
 
Thoughts:
-Think longer term, may not be worth it to rush. Don't be impatient. Wait. Rent.
-Screw it, go for it. Maybe he'll find something new that needed attention, second set of eyes and all that. As long as he doesn't hamfist and mess something up.

Flip a coin.
 
Flip of a coin. On the one hand, your guy knows your plane. That is both a good thing because he DOES know your plane or a bad thing because he knows it TOO well. He might overlook something because “There was nothing wrong with it last year.”

On the other hand, the new guy might not know the weak points of amphibs. I wouldn’t be too concerned about the airframe because a Cessna is pretty much a Cessna regardless of the model number.

I personally could go either way.
 
How bad do you want to fly,sometimes it’s good to have a different mechanic look it over.
 
I used to take my plane to a shop that understood the type for annual, and let the local mechanics take care of it the rest of the time. I always wanted a second set of eyes on it.

The other consideration is getting someone else experienced on the type is never a bad thing - it gives you more options.
 
Fly it out of annual? I hear that’s popular in some parts.
 
I don't care if the new guy knows the type or not. Way more important is if I know the guy or not.
 
I've seen you encourage owner assists in several posts. Not sure if that works with your lifestyle or not, but would an owner assist with the new guy maybe be an idea? That way you can "supervise" him to make sure he doesn't miss something. Also, he learns something, and if he's good, next year you have another mechanic to get you through a bind.
 
The plane is on floats, you live up north, and it's winter. Just wait for the guy who normally does the inspection. It's unlikely you'll have too many missed opportunities for flying before you get it done.
 
Whenever you use a mechanic the first time it's an unknown. I generally prefer to build a relationship on aircraft maintenance by starting off with smaller jobs and then working up to bigger jobs. It works well on both sides. You get to know eachother and know what to expect so you don't get a surprise at sticker shock or how nit picky the person is.

That said, I haven't always been successful at that and many of my first encounters with shops have been bigger jobs, and it can work out reasonably well. The Cessna airframe itself is pretty straightforward and I wouldn't be too concerned on that part. On the amphibs, if you have technical knowledge is he likely to believe what you tell him? In the Twin Cessna world I have a lot of type specific knowledge and have been able to augment what my A&Ps don't know in many cases. They recognize my knowledge and I haven't had any problems with that. But, some A&Ps aren't going to believe what an owner tells them, so that's a consideration.

Not knowing what your potential flying would be like over the missed period, I don't know. Personally I'd have someone else do the annual with your normal guy unavailable, but the airplanes I fly have jobs to do. I think yours is just for fun so I'd be more inclined to wait on that if it was bad weather season.
 
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