When I sit back and look at the world, I find it a fascinating place. For me, the most interesting details relate to people. Specifically, their actions and reactions.
If we slow down enough, there are a great many lessons to be learned from our fellow citizens of earth.
Mark Howell is a pilot, mechanic, and all-around creative guy from North Carolina. He also owns Cardinal Aviation with his wife Donna. A few months back, Mark sent me “a few rants” that I think make for interesting reading and an opportunity to learn (or re-learn) a few things.
Dripping Fuel
“Pay attention. I had a customer fly in and pick up a towbar. When we walked out to his Cessna 177, I noticed fuel dripping from the cowling area at a pretty good rate. When he had sumped his quick drain it had not resealed. Note: After sumping take a minute to make sure it is resealed.”
I fly a friend’s 1946 Piper J-3 Cub that has a quick drain at the base of the header tank. While I believe I take the time to confirm the quick drain has resealed, Mark’s rant is a great reminder. Those precious seconds could make all the difference during a flight.
Where Are The Log Books?
Mark has a customer who has not seen – or asked to see – his aircraft logs in four years. He asks, “Why do aircraft owners do this? The records can be 15%-45% of the value of the aircraft. Why not trust and verify? Before your next annual I would suggest the owner review the records (log books) for Airworthiness Directives (AD), typos, past ADs, ELT test and battery due dates, Altimeter/Static checks and other time critical items. Sometimes they get missed. Especially in this cut and paste world.”
Mark suggests:
- Keep all records in a safe, dry, fireproof place. “I have found them in the back of an aircraft with mold on them from a leaky window.”
- Audit and know what is being stored with your log books. “I have seen logs from other aircraft get mixed in the wrong folder, box or whatever.”
- When the work is complete, confirm log book accuracy. “In this cut and paste world it is easy to miss dates, times and calculations.”
Habits – both good and bad – can take on a life of their own. Unless we actively debrief our activities, we can find ourselves far down the road – or airway – and wonder, “How did I get here?”
How did I run out of fuel so quickly? By not making it a habit to follow the checklist, we failed to notice the quick drain didn’t re-seal. How did I miss that Airworthiness Directive? I didn’t have – or follow – a process to regularly review the maintenance records for my airplane.
While I fully trusted the mechanics who maintained our aircraft over the years, I realize after reading Mark’s rant that I had far less knowledge of the myriad compliance items than I should have at the time.
I wish you a happy end to 2017 and better 2018.
I have a better idea. Check out PlanelogiX. They completely digitize your log books. I never worry because I have a complete set of logs in the cloud plus stored on a thumb drive. Also very easy way for a prospective buyer to view the log books when you sell. And they are great people to work with!
Another good practice. Use your iPhone or iPad to photograph each page of your logbooks. Takes just a few minutes to back up the copies to your PC.
I keep a logbook of flight time in my plane. After each flight. I take a quick photo of the current page so I never remove the logbook, just refer to the photo when I enter flight times in my personal plot log kept at home. Before I used this trick, I took the plane logbook home and sometimes forgot to put it back.