John Lennon once said “The more I see the less I know for sure.” I thought about this quote as I was working on my aircraft last week. Over the past 15 years I have built one aircraft from the ground up and rebuilt another. I have rebuilt an aircraft engine; wired a glass panel including a full coupled autopilot as well as all the other trimmings that go with building a kit airplane. I have spent my professional career as a biomedical electronics engineer with primary attention on electromechanical systems, and at the end of the day one would think that I should be pretty knowledgeable as a mechanic. After 40 plus years turning a wrench all I can say is that I have learned to be a pretty good trouble shooter,
but as a mechanic, I am only a beginner. The more I work around airplanes, I realize that it is the little thing that will take you down in a very big way. Because I believe that I am a better troubleshooter than a mechanic, I have begun to approach aviation maintenance as a trouble shooter first. By changing my approach, I have started to establish a few checks and balances in my work. After all, we all know that it’s not what you know that will hurt you; it’s what you don’t know that will. Here are a few examples of a trouble shooting approach to maintenance.
- Routine maintenance will get you. Example, if you have been doing your own oil changes for years, it’s time you did your next one with an A&P or someone with experience of their own. You will learn something from someone new. Are you cutting open your oil filter and inspecting the filter element? If there is material in the element, what is okay and what is not? Are you sending an oil sample in for analysis and tracking the results? If you are now working on a larger engine than you have had in the past, are you aware that your leak down test might require a different bypass aperture? Proper belt tensioning and use of torque seal and anti seize are important. I could go on but these are a few things that will be helpful when a second set of eyes are working with you. As a mater of fact, in Part 135 maintenance, a second A&P must follow the first A&P to verify that everything was done and done properly (assured Maintenance program).
- If you have never done it, don’t do it alone. Read, internet search, and research thoroughly every thing you can and then proceed with someone that has qualification to perform the work. You will learn more and feel safer.
- Resources: What are your resources? Do you have the proper maintenance manual(s). If your work is not covered in a manual you might find what you need in the FAA document AC43.13-1B, Acceptable Methods, Techniques, and Practices –Aircraft Inspection and Repair. This can be very helpful information in guiding you through such things as wood construction, metal construction, fiberglass and plastic construction and many more subjects.
- If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Sometimes this is true, sometimes it’s not. Who do you talk to to know what’s right? Before I pick up a wrench, I ask myself: what do I want to accomplish and what might be the best way to achieve it? The simplest way to say this might be, “think it over BEFORE you start.” We have all heard “it’s too bad I can’t be 18 again, because back then I knew everything!” In my many years of “fixing stuff” I have found that the person that displays the attitude that their way is the only way is the person to avoid. The person that is always learning is the one that does the most listening and thinking. These days I spend time to think about it first and I do a lot more listening.
Ron Wright
President
EAA 1541