AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2016 - 12

LETTERS

FROM OUR OCTOBER 2016 ISSUE

Tales of woe
Mike Busch's story on inspection gotchas struck a nerve with many readers.

Rick Adler
AOPA 675290
Clarksville, Virginia

12 | AOPA PILOT December 2016

P&E

SAVVY MAINTENANCE

OPINION

|

Savvy Maintenance coverage sponsored by AIRCRAFT SPRUCE

Tales of woe
Whoa! This isn't an inspection!
BY MIKE BUSCH

AIRFRAME AND POWERPLANT MECHANICS are trained
to find things wrong with your aircraft. But there's a
time and place for that, and it comes once a year.
It was the week before EAA AirVenture 2016.
Normally, I would never perform any maintenance on
my trusty Cessna 310 immediately before departing on
an important trip, for fear I might break something.
But this time I had no choice.
The FAA had issued airworthiness directive 20167-24 on April 26, 2016, requiring replacement of the
attach hardware at both ends of the elevator trim tab
push-pullrod within 90 days. As soon as the AD hit
the streets, I'd ordered the required hardware, but
it took a while before I received it. Once it arrived
I drove to my hangar with the intention of replacing the hardware in compliance with the AD. But I
was surprised to discover that there was not adequate
maintenance access to the nut and bolt at the forward end of the pushrod. I couldn't figure out how
the hardware could be changed without removing the
whole elevator.
I checked with Paul and Phil, two A&P colleagues
who I knew did a lot of Cessna maintenance, but neither had ever had occasion to perform this particular
operation on a Cessna 310. Then I emailed my friend
Tony Saxton, arguably the world's top expert on twin
Cessna maintenance, and he replied that he'd performed this procedure nearly 100 times and gave me
a detailed explanation about how he did it.
Turns out that it's necessary to unscrew the arm
from the trim tab actuator in the horizontal stabilizer, carefully withdraw the push-pullrod from the
elevator with the disconnected actuator arm still
attached, change the hardware, then reverse the
procedure by threading the assembly back through
the elevator, screwing the arm back into the actuator, and then adjusting it to restore the proper trim
tab travel. Clever!

By now, it was less than a week before my departure to Oshkosh. The 90-day AD compliance deadline
would arrive during AirVenture week, so it was now or
never to perform this minor surgery. Tony's procedure
struck me as being a little scary; what if I unscrewed
the arm-and-rod assembly and then couldn't get it back
together?
I decided to email Tony's instructions to Phil
(who owns a shop on my home field) and ask whether
he was willing to help make sure I didn't do anything
stupid. I explained to Phil that it was absolutely, positively essential not to break the airplane, because I
had to fly it to Oshkosh on Saturday. Phil responded,
"Sure, no problem, looks like a piece of cake." So I taxied the airplane to Phil's shop that afternoon, and one
of Phil's senior technicians volunteered to perform

DANIEL HERTZBERG

I enjoy Mike Busch's articles;
however, this one is beyond
enjoyment. It is a call to action.
That aircraft owner was the victim of extortion. Even a casual
reading of the legal definition
shows this person was extorted
out of thousands of dollars by a
person using their FAA-granted
authority as leverage.
The aircraft owner should
contact the U.S. Attorney's
office and ask for an inquiry as
to criminal activity being conducted under the authority of
the FAA. He should also file civil
suit for damages in both federal
and state courts.
I believe some of the ADs
that are created fall under this
category as well. Collusion (also
a crime) between the manufacturers and the FAA, resulting in
use of authority to take property
and enrichen the manufacturers by forcing the replacement
or repair of perfectly serviceable
items is wrong.
In the bad old days of gas
station attendants convincing
the unwitting driver their franastat was leaking and "good thing
I saw it before you had an accident; only $500 to fix while you
wait" caused consumer protection laws to be enacted. Perhaps
it is time we aircraft owners were protected from those
stealing from us under color of
authority. We may not need a
new law, but an investigation
under criminal statutes would
send a clear message to knock
it off.

88 | AOPA PILOT October 2016

"Mike Busch's
approach to
troubleshooting is
textbook of what a
good mechanic is
supposed to do.
Thank you for
sharing his expertise." 
Jose Moreno
AOPA 926110
Riverside, California

I agree with almost everything
Mike Busch said. I would like
to add one thought. He wrote
about keeping mechanics on a
short leash so they don't find
additional squawks. I think
he's right, to a certain point.
However, there is legal precedence for finding additional
squawks. There have been judgments against mechanics who
perform a maintenance task and
shortly afterward the aircraft
crashes because of unrelated
mechanical problems.

The mechanic was held
responsible because he should
have  known and informed
the pilot of the unairworthy item.  I don't agree with
those judgments because the
owner/operator is ultimately
responsible to determine the
airworthiness of the aircraft.
The lawyers just needed someone to pay. At what point does
a mechanic's prudence become
snooping? I don't know. I used
to think that an aircraft owner
would appreciate a cursory
inspection. Not so.
I u s e d t o wo r k a t a
busy FBO. Across the ramp
was another FBO that was
notorious for snagging owners. There were a few instances
when  the other FBO would
write a bunch of squawks in
the logbooks, grounding the
airplane, and threaten FAA
action. The owner would
then taxi over to our FBO.
The director of maintenance,
whom I think had a great deal
of savvy and common sense,
would address the squawks
for next to nothing costwise.
One grounding item was the
tachometer on a 1974 Cessna
182. It was 75 rpm low at 2,500
rpm indicated. The other FBO
said the tachometer had to
be sent out for recalibration.
There is no requirement for
tach accuracy that I know of.
We made a placard stating the
error. In a few months, that
owner came back and let us
perform his annual.
Paul Cotrufo
AOPA 898618
Apex, North Carolina

Flameout!

As a Boeing 727 engineer
at the time, with 10 years at
United Airlines, I remember
this much-discussed DC-8
disaster well and the lessons
learned from it. Shortly after
this avoidable event, United
developed a course focusing
on crew discipline and team
effort for all flight officers. It
emphasized the importance
of crewmembers speaking up
when disagreeing with a captain's (or anyone's) decision,
or lack thereof. The course was
titled "Command Leadership
Resources" or CLR and was
the forerunner of CRM. It
involved the recounting and
study of several situations
made worse, and often resulting in accidents, by wrong or no
decisions made by captains and
worsened by "shy" crewmembers. It was a good course and
one left knowing it was OK to
question decisions and offer
one's input.
Later in my career as
a 767/757 check pilot and
instructor I wrote an article for
our safety bulletin titled, "What
Do You Think?" It was a technique I used while flying the
line as a captain: When a sticky
situation developed requiring good decisions I would
consider a possible solution,
present it, then ask the first
officer: "What do you think?"
He/she would either agree,
sometimes adding good supplemental info, or would suggest
an altogether better solution.
This same process can be used



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2016

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202404
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202212
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202209
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202207
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202206
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202205
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202202
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202111
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202110
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202109
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202108
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202106
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202104
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202103
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202101
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202009
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202007
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202006
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202005
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202004
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202003
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202002
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202001
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201912
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201911
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201909
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201908
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201907
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201906
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201905
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201904
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201902
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201901
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201812
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201108
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201106
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201104
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201103
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_201011demo
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