That's worth knowing. So be it.Originally Posted by martymayes
That's worth knowing. So be it.
Well if nothing else I'm getting an education from this.
Which is the best kind!Well if nothing else I'm getting a ["hands on"] education from this.
True - I actually like working on my own projects. I find that it inspires confidence when I've done my own inspection and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of the parts that I've held in my own hands. It's not that I necessarily don't trust others to do my work... but, yeah, I don't. Besides, I'm enjoying working on this 0-320.
I bought an airplane from a guy who swears that the engine was rebuilt and all the ADs were complied with. He lied. Repeatedly. I spent a lot of money on an annual and then found a potentially life threatening oversight on the part of the shop that did the work. You probably see why I'm strongly motivated to be able to legally do my own work. Once this is out of my shop I'm going to start assembling the fuel tanks for my RV-6. I'm looking forward to the day that she flies.
What they more than likely will do is inspect the aircraft, see that it is un-airworthy, and remove the airworthiness certificate until it passes their inspection to re-issue the airworthiness certificate.
Actually, the FAA does not do anything like that. They are not in the business of inspecting partially disassembled airplanes. Once your airplane has been issued an airworthiness certificate, it has one forever unless you request a new one for any one of a number of reasons. More than one airworthiness certificate and data plate has been repaired into a legally flying airplane.
What the FAA DOES do is require that you have a current annual inspection. To get that log book entry an A&P IA has to look at the airframe and engine and sign off that all of the AD's are current and the ship is airworthy, of which one criteria is that it meets factory specs and has paperwork for any alterations. So the violation that they write up is that the pilot was flying an unairworthy aircraft, and maybe careless and reckless.
So the original poster needs to have a really good relationship with an AI before starting to put stuff back together, and plan on regular consultations along the way. With that working relationship anyone can turn a pile of rust flakes back into a flying and legal airplane. After all, Sport Aviation has regular articles about folks who do that.
Patience is advised though. In a project you have to enjoy the journey as the destination is never as close as you would like.
Best of luck,
Wes
N78PS
Hopefully you had the logs signed with exceptions listed. If you choose not to have all the repairs done by the shop doing the annual inspection and the inspection was completed, the IA is still obliged to sign the logs for the annual, then list the items that need to be repaired or addressed. Those items listed can be signed off by an A&P. That way you at least have something for the money you spent and whatever local A&P you are working with can sign for the repairs as well as reassembly of the aircraft. I know you're gripe seems to be with the $5000 bill, but you haven't really listed what they did that was unnecessary or you were unhappy with other than a cotter pin.
You should take advantage of this and make it educational for yourself (and others). A better pre-buy inspection would have found the engine issues. The AD research is something that had to be done if it wasn't already in the logs. Again, that would have been found during a competent pre-buy inspection. If you're a decent mechanic, you can do the pre-buy inspection your self. Don't just take the guy's word that all the ADs are up to date. Or, you could have done the AD search yourself and compared it to the logs, then questioned the owner before you bought. This year you could have done the research and presented the data to the shop. Those guys aren't having a lot of fun at your expense doing the AD searches and I don't know of any aircraft mechanic that is getting rich in this market.
[Soap Box Mode On]
I hear lots of pilots gripe about the cost of the mechanics and how they want to build their own planes so they won't have to pay a mechanic. However, those same pilots won't take the initiative to do the simple research and work for themselves on the planes they are flying. They don't seem to realize that they are paying for the mechanic's knowledge and experience. Building a plane doesn't relieve you from the responsibility of doing proper maintenance. You still need to do AD and SB research on your engine, carb, mags, etc. And owning a certificated aircraft doesn't prevent you from being involved and knowledgeable about your plane. I know many mechanics don't want to do owner assisted annuals. If that's the case, find a mechanic you can work with. Personally, I don't work on planes where the owner isn't involved. When I owned certificated aircraft and didn't have my A&P license, I always found a mechanic I could work with and was always involved in the maintenance on my planes. Consequently, I never had a high $$ annual.
[Soap Box Mode Off]
I'm really not just going off on you about your experience. I am sympathetic to having a big unexpected bill presented to you. I do understand your frustration. However, there is so much that you could have done to prevent it. Hopefully you can take what you have learned from this experience and apply it moving forward. You sound like you've got a lot of engine and mechanical experience. You just need to partner with an A&P as a mentor to help you stay within legal and safety bounds while you learn the differences between you drag engines and the incredibly simple engines we have on our aircraft. Annual Inspections do not have to be a bank account bending experience.
-CubBuilder
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