You've got that MORE than right. I was doubly involved with an aircraft
that was destroyed in an emergency landing in 1989. I was the PIC, but also
the A&P on that aircraft. Neither the FAA nor the NTSB ever asked for
copies of the maintenance logbooks which clearly reflected the overhaul and
service bulletins performed on that aircraft.

The proximate cause of the accident was double ignition failure -- one
magneto failed and leaded up the other set of plugs. After the accident,
one set of plugs (the ones on the failed magneto) were white-clean and the
other set of plugs were loaded with lead. It can be easily shown how this
can happen.

The NTSB (which galls me to this day) laid the cause of the accident to
"improper maintenance". Yet the magneto overhaul times and bulletin times
were complied with to the letter and spirit of the mag company. The plugs
had less than 25 hours since cleaning. THe failure mode (open coil)
couldn't have been detected even with a full-bore overhaul, much less the
service bulletin inspections.

Gospel, my tiny hiney.

Jim



"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 05:49:11 GMT, "Capt.Doug"
wrote in
::

I also don't believe NTSB accident reports to be gospel.

You've got that right.