Flying Club Maintenance Officer?

On 11-Sep-2003, Chris Spierings wrote:

The last
guy to do it, did an outstanding job but spent 20-30 hours a week some
weeks riding herd on things and verifying that the fbo and its
maintenance folks did what they said they did and then did it properly.


Unless this time includes some "owner-operator" maintenance like oil
changes, or your fleet includes something exotic, 20-30 hrs per week to
"ride herd on things" seems really excessive. I doubt that my co-owners and
I collectively spend more than 1 hr per week on average to see to it that
routine and unanticipated maintenance gets done on our Arrow. Maybe the
problem is the FBO that is doing your maintenance. In our case, when we
need maintenance we call the chief mechanic at our FBO and he sees to it
that the plane is serviced as requested. Squawks are communicated between
the owners by e-mail, but we could also do it by postings to the plane's web
site.
--
-Elliott Drucker

It isn't just the maintenance. In a typical club, just about everything
that happens on the ramp will fall into the MO's lap. With a few co-owners
communication is easy. With 20 - 30 members there is a lot more
communication required. The PIC has a very high level of responsibility for
the condition of the aircraft when the wheels leave the ground. It isn't
practical to let 30 members go through the logbooks so keeping them informed
and up to date on AD's and other maintenance issues so they have a basis for
fulfilling their responsibility is a big part of the job.

Owner's are also far more responsible for the maintenance of the aircraft
than many (or most) realize. It isn't sufficient to just call the shop and
tell them to do whatever needs to be done and put the plane back on line.
The MO should be up to date on things like AD's, independently verifying
that the shop is doing what is required, checking logbook entries, etc.
This takes some time.

The owner / operator is responsible for the maintenance. The shop works for
the owner / operator. The owner / operator is required to supervise the
shop.
--
Roger Long

"Roger Long" om writes:

It isn't practical to let 30 members go through the logbooks so
keeping them informed and up to date on AD's and other maintenance
issues so they have a basis for fulfilling their responsibility is a
big part of the job.

That's an interesting national difference -- in Canada, the first step
of every flying lesson I took, from my intro flight on, was going
through the journey log to check for airworthiness. The big items
were compass swing, ELT check, and last inspection, but we also had to
look for snags, deferred defects, etc. They didn't have us check for
AD's. When you sign out a plane from the dispatch desk at my flying
club, you always get the Hobbs board and the big blue journey log
(usually falling apart to some degree).

Nowadays, I just keep my Warrior's journey log in the flight bag.


All the best,


David

It isn't really a national difference. Strictly speaking, every club member
here should read through the logs also. In the real world, it wouldn't mean
much to them though.

The words "Maintenance Officer" don't appear in the regulations. The fact
that there is one does not change the PIC's responsibility one whit. The
PIC is delegating part of the job to the MO but remains just as responsible.
The PIC better trust the MO and be sure he is doing the job. If there is an
incident or a ramp check, telling the inspector "Oh, we have a maintenance
officer and he takes care of all that stuff." isn't going to demonstrate
that the PIC was able to fulfil his responsibility. Being able to pull out
a book carried in the plane and show summaries of AD compliance, next
required maintenance times, etc. may not meet the strictest interpretation
of the regs but should usually be sufficient in the real world. If it's
backed up by evidence that the owner's supervise and verify that the MO is
doing his job and the MO supervises and verifies that the shop is doing
theirs, they will probably be satisfied that there is not a pattern of
disregard for the regulations. They'll still nail you on some obscure
little point that you missed if the want to. If they think you are trying,
they'll be less likely to want to.

--
Roger Long
David Megginson wrote in message
...
"Roger Long" om writes:

It isn't practical to let 30 members go through the logbooks so
keeping them informed and up to date on AD's and other maintenance
issues so they have a basis for fulfilling their responsibility is a
big part of the job.

That's an interesting national difference -- in Canada, the first step
of every flying lesson I took, from my intro flight on, was going
through the journey log to check for airworthiness. The big items
were compass swing, ELT check, and last inspection, but we also had to
look for snags, deferred defects, etc. They didn't have us check for
AD's. When you sign out a plane from the dispatch desk at my flying
club, you always get the Hobbs board and the big blue journey log
(usually falling apart to some degree).

Nowadays, I just keep my Warrior's journey log in the flight bag.


All the best,


David