A couple of weeks ago I had the Grob in for a 1000 hour inspection, and I took the opportunity to get my borescope into the engine’s cylinders and have a look at the state of the exhaust valves, and take some pictures of them. The valves sit in the cylinder head and are pushed… Read more »
Every student pilot learns what to do if they discover a problem with an airplane they’ve flown or are about to fly – they write the defect in the journey log, and then – the airplane is grounded until an Aviation Maintenance Engineer fixes the defect and signs a release to say the aircraft is returned to service. Right? Well…
In this post I want to talk about the aircraft electrical system, and some basic knowledge that a pilot should have about it. A student pilot entrusted with responsibility for a single engine piston-powered training aircraft such as the Grob should know it has two sources of electrical power: the alternator, which is driven by… Read more »
Yesterday, my attention was drawn to a recent legal judgement detailing how Transport Canada had wrongly interpreted its own regulations and handing a small but significant victory to aircraft owners and operators. If you’re one, or if you’re planning on taking a flight test any time soon you’ll want to read this.
On 21 January this year (2019) footballer Emiliano Sala was killed when the Piper Malibu aircraft in which he was flying (from Nantes, France to Cardiff) crashed into the English Channel. The accident was widely reported at the time, along with all sorts of speculation about the cause. There has also been a lot of press about the licencing status of the pilot, David Ibbotson, who was also killed.
Those aircraft owners who are involved (as much as is permitted) in the maintenance of their own aircraft might be interested in a case that came before the Transport Appeal Tribunal of Canada (TATC) in June 2018.
Every aircraft owner has bits of equipment on their aircraft that stop working on occasions. And few aircraft owners have the resources, time, or availability always to be able to fix whatever isn’t working before the next time they want to fly. How then can an aircraft owner tell if their aircraft is legal to fly when they know some piece of equipment isn’t working?