Plane Conversations

Just like your automobile, aircraft require maintenance to keep them airworthy. Airworthy is an easy aviation term to understand. For once, our industry came up with a term that adequately says what it means! 

Unlike your automobile, aircraft have mandated inspections that are designed by the manufacturer and required by the governing authorities (in our country that would be the Federal Aviation Administration).  I can ignore the oil change due light in my car and keep driving.  I may pay the consequences down the road but no one else really cares.  I may find myself stuck on the roadside and spend more money in the end if I don’t do the preventative maintenance now.

When it comes to aircraft, whether they are large commercial airliners or the smallest private aircraft, the FAA requires those of us who own and operate these aircraft to do the required maintenance.  It makes good sense considering you don’t pull over to the side of the road when your aircraft breaks down.

Without getting into all the technical jargon about aircraft maintenance, there are basically two types of maintenance  inspections you have to do on an aircraft.

The first type is required based on utilization.  In our cars, we change the oil every 5000 miles.  When it comes to maintaining aircraft we perform certain maintenance tasks based on the number of flight hours since these flying machines don’t count the miles.  Time intervals of maintenance vary on different aircraft and even vary for different tasks on the same aircraft, but the essential theory is that utilization causes certain parts of the aircraft to wear.  The stresses of flight create wear on the engines and airframe; so, the purpose of these inspections is to change out components and fluids that deteriorate with use, i.e. oil.  Just as importantly, though, we are looking for signs of wear that would indicate a need for preventative maintenance.  Highly skilled and trained maintenance technicians know what to look for and can detect problems before they become bigger problems.  Put simply, the objective is to fix it before it breaks.

The other type of maintenance inspection is based on calendar time.  An airliner may fly 10 hours per day 365 days per year (3650 hours of annual use).  A small private aircraft may fly only 100  hours in that same year; however, each of these aircraft have aged one year chronologically. A ten- year-old Boeing 737 may have accumulated 36,000 hours of flight time while the 10 year old single engine Cirrus Design personal aircraft may have accumulated 1000 hours.  Each aircraft is the same chronological age; but, they have lived vastly different lives.  Aircraft need to be looked at on a calendar basis for components that deteriorate because of age.  Using the car analogy, think about what happens to a car with age. Under the hood the belts and hoses start to crack from age and tires, even though they may not have been used much, will deteriorate.  The same thing is true for the flying machine.

Like the utilization inspection, the calendar  inspection’s purpose is two-fold - to fix what is broken and to detect and repair problems before they really become a safety issue.

Having worked with some really great maintenance technicians, I can tell you that I rest easy at night knowing that these dedicated, smart, trained and highly-skilled people keep our aircraft safe.  This system of maintenance for aviation continues to advance in skill level, cumulative knowledge, training, and technology to make these flying machines safer each year.  If automobiles were maintained like aircraft, they would never wear out.

The next time you get into an aircraft to go flying, know that the machine is constantly cared for by dedicated professionals that put their name on the line every day when they sign off those inspections.

Safe Flying!

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