Flying Club Maintenance Officer?

Guys,

This has all been good information and reading. I really appreciate the
input, keep it coming.

I think the time demands for our MO have stemmed from a number of things:

1. A very poor maintenance officer preceding him
2. Most of the recent squaks have been avionics related and if you go
and check on some of my old posts you'll notice that the local avionics
shop has some issues. Like newly installed Garmin 430s falling out of
the panel on rotation. Transponders not secured or hooked up. The
avionics shop is poorly run and does **** poor work in my book. I don't
get to control where the work is done in this regard.
3. He is a very conscientious guy

I like the concept of having a MO and assistant for each plane. I'd
love to be involved with the maintenance more. I know I don't have the
time to devote those kinds of hours to this every week.

If you've got other ideas please keep them coming. The guy who has
agreed to fill in for our retiring MO is a good friend and a great guy
but he doesn't have the time nor is he even in the Midwest (where the
planes are based) very much so I'm dubious about where things are going
to go.

Chris



Andrew Gideon wrote:

Roger Long wrote:


Thanks for an idea for my fifth aviation article.


So where is it, already???

- Andrew

Chris,

I am the Operations Officer for our club of 4 aircraft,
www.glendaleflying.com. I am not a A&P, so it I had a learning curve.
I think it was a great move. I have learned more about ever system of
our planes than I thought I would. You will discuss issues with
mechanics, research regs, AD, SB and get some hands on experience if
you really get into it. You can get familiar enough to order your own
parts and save money that way as well. I have been very envolved with
the purchase of our 4th plane and buying a new engine for our Skylane.
I could have never done that on my own without the help of a lottery.

I have started to do all of our own preventative mx, which has saved
the club a lot of money. This all does take a lot of my time, but I
feel compensated with education. I feel very comfortable that if I am
stranded at an aiport away from home with a mx issue, I will be able
to have a good idea of what the problem is and the level of
seriousness it brings.

We originally has a crew chief for each aircraft as well, but I soon
found myself managing 4 people as well as 4 aircraft. If your help
isn't deticated things don't get done. I now have an assistant that I
can really count on to help keep thind supplies, make some calls and
ferry some planes.

If you take the position, enjoy it. Feel free to contact me further
if you'd like.

Tony
www.glendaleflying.com


Chris Spierings wrote in message ...
I'm a member of a local flying club which has ~30 members and 3
aircraft. A number of the club's long standing members have moved on in
the last year or so and now its time for some of the other folks to step
up and take the reins.

One of the jobs that is open is the club maintenance officer. 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.

Could anyone share information on the arrangements they've been
associated with in terms of overseeing aircraft maintenance. If its in
a club setting even better.

I hoping the experiences of the group will give us more options than
asking one poor soul to bear the burden of all of this on their own.

Thanks

Chris Spierings

(Read this on your club's website - History. www.glendaleflying.com)

Glendale has always been based at Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky, at
one time the busiest airport in the country.

Really? When? More history please.

Very nice website, BTW. Enjoy looking at the trip photos.

--
Montblack


("Tony" wrote)
I am the Operations Officer for our club of 4 aircraft,
www.glendaleflying.com.

Sure thing.

Here is another link to Louisville Intl's website about Bowman Field:
http://www.louintlairport.com/HtmlFi...man/lia-9d.htm

Tony

"Montblack" wrote in message ...
(Read this on your club's website - History. www.glendaleflying.com)

Glendale has always been based at Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky, at
one time the busiest airport in the country.

Really? When? More history please.

Very nice website, BTW. Enjoy looking at the trip photos.

Nice site, but...

....85$/hr for a wet tach 182?! I have to stop reading non-Bay Area
club web sites I get too depressed.

Chris Spierings wrote in message ...
I'm a member of a local flying club which has ~30 members and 3
aircraft. A number of the club's long standing members have moved on in
the last year or so and now its time for some of the other folks to step
up and take the reins.

One of the jobs that is open is the club maintenance officer. 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.

Yes, I've done this job with just one airplane. It take a ton of time.
Between making sure the IFR cert, the ELT inspection, etc is done you
also are always on the phone making sure you are on the schedule for
annual, ordering small parts to save money, tracking down shipments,
sending off oil analysis, etc ,etc. Add to that any need to move the
plane for maintenance since few fields have all the different types of
maintenance available. I am 100% sure that a club with 3 planes could
take 20 hours a week. Perhaps each plane needs its own guy?
-Robert

Robert M. Gary wrote:

Yes, I've done this job with just one airplane. It take a ton of time.
Between making sure the IFR cert, the ELT inspection, etc is done you
also are always on the phone making sure you are on the schedule for
annual, ordering small parts to save money, tracking down shipments,
sending off oil analysis, etc ,etc. Add to that any need to move the
plane for maintenance since few fields have all the different types of
maintenance available. I am 100% sure that a club with 3 planes could
take 20 hours a week. Perhaps each plane needs its own guy?

The club I just recently joined has a "captain" for each plane, as well as
the club's MO. I've no idea what is involved, but I'm hoping to learn: I
just volunteered as unskilled labor to one of the captains.

With respect to what you wrote above, cannot at least some of these be
simplified with automation? I mean: annual and 24 month inspections just
shouldn't be too tough with one of the many calendar/scheduling tools
floating around.

Those that involve tach time are a little tougher, in that they require
input from "outside" (ie. how much the plane has flown). As I understand
it, in our club we're to send finishing tach times to the plane captain via
email for this purpose. I expect a web application tied into billing in
the not-distant future.

Hmm...anyone know of freeware around supporting these activities?

- Andrew

Our club uses www.myfbo.com for scheduling, billing and mx tracking.
The owner has been great in customizing. And it's not very expensive.

Tony


Andrew Gideon wrote in message ...
Robert M. Gary wrote:

Yes, I've done this job with just one airplane. It take a ton of time.
Between making sure the IFR cert, the ELT inspection, etc is done you
also are always on the phone making sure you are on the schedule for
annual, ordering small parts to save money, tracking down shipments,
sending off oil analysis, etc ,etc. Add to that any need to move the
plane for maintenance since few fields have all the different types of
maintenance available. I am 100% sure that a club with 3 planes could
take 20 hours a week. Perhaps each plane needs its own guy?

The club I just recently joined has a "captain" for each plane, as well as
the club's MO. I've no idea what is involved, but I'm hoping to learn: I
just volunteered as unskilled labor to one of the captains.

With respect to what you wrote above, cannot at least some of these be
simplified with automation? I mean: annual and 24 month inspections just
shouldn't be too tough with one of the many calendar/scheduling tools
floating around.

Those that involve tach time are a little tougher, in that they require
input from "outside" (ie. how much the plane has flown). As I understand
it, in our club we're to send finishing tach times to the plane captain via
email for this purpose. I expect a web application tied into billing in
the not-distant future.

Hmm...anyone know of freeware around supporting these activities?

- Andrew

Tony wrote:

Our club uses www.myfbo.com for scheduling, billing and mx tracking.
The owner has been great in customizing. And it's not very expensive.

Has anyone compared this to schedulemaster.com? My club uses that, but I've
seen a little of myfbo too as a local FBO uses it. I don't know either
well enough to compare, though.

- Andrew

In a previous article, Andrew Gideon said:
Tony wrote:
Our club uses www.myfbo.com for scheduling, billing and mx tracking.
The owner has been great in customizing. And it's not very expensive.

Has anyone compared this to schedulemaster.com? My club uses that, but I've
seen a little of myfbo too as a local FBO uses it. I don't know either
well enough to compare, though.

There appears to be a "unbiased" comparison at
http://myfbo.com/myfbo/comparison.htm
ScheduleMaster is "Online System S". Actually, ScheduleMaster has some
new features that aren't on that list.

One thing I'd have to investigate before we considered moving to myfbo
from ScheduleMaster is how easy it is to use from a touch tone phone. Our
members do a lot of that.




--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Last I checked, it wasn't the power cord for the Clue Generator
that was sticking up your ass.
-- John Novak