On Tuesday, November 26, 2013 9:40:22 AM UTC-5, JJ Sinclair wrote:

Lets inject some common sense here,

Not sure if it is common sense, but it is a fact that A&Ps (being human) make mistakes. It is the pilot's job to find the A&P's mistakes before they cause a problem. Practically speaking, only the glider owner/pilot has the time, expertise, motivation, and diligence over time to find the A&P's mistakes.

I have had a seatbelt come loose in flight....A log entry might have caught these improper installations.

The previous owner of my glider replaced the original Polish style belts in 2000. The owner needed to squeeze into the seat pan and so for comfort, he put the buckles that "wrap" the belt to the anchors underneath the seat pan. The glider had had 10 subsequent annual inspections. In 2013 (unfortunately after my first flight), I pulled on the lap belt and it detached (on the ground). The strap had worked it's way free of the buckle (the owner had only pulled the very tip of the strap through the buckle in order to accommodate his girth. There should be a few "extra" inches pulled through the buckle so that slippage can be detected by inspection before failure occurs.)

Another A&P had replaced the main tire on the glider a few years ago and the glider had not been flown much before I got it. After a few landings, the main wheel partially self-disassembled during a landing (fortunately no accident, just noise). The A&P had forgotten to put a new retaining wire on the assembly and he did not find his own mistake on subsequent inspections..

So if a previous owner or an A&P has put an entry in the log book, it behooves the new owner to review (or have a qualified A&P review)that the work was done properly. I had mistakenly assumed that A&Ps were gods that never made mistakes on straight-forward modifications like a tire change, and I had assumed that modifications that had lasted for ten years were not defective.

Put this one in that list of things that new glider pilots need to learn the hard way.