Maintenance Matters

I read with interest your article “Trust, But Verify” (Accident Probe, March 2012) and the tragic story about the owner of the Cirrus to whom the airplane was released by the maintenance shop before its annual inspection had been completed. I took my Cessna 210 to the largest GA maintenance facility at one of the busiest airports in Southern California for an annual inspection. Three weeks later, the airplane was released to me, together with the logbooks showing that the annual inspection had been completed and the airplane had been returned to service. On the first flight after the annual inspection, I took off, flew for a few minutes and then lost all oil pressure. Fortunately, I was able to make a dead-stick landing with no serious injuries or damage to the airplane, except for an engine that had seized as the result of the loss of all of its oil.

Key Takeaways:

• Aircraft owners must thoroughly verify maintenance, including the certification of the specific mechanics performing the work, as critical errors like unsecured oil drain plugs can occur even in reputable facilities due to insufficient supervision of uncertificated staff.
• The inconvenient placement of backup (steam) gauges in G1000-equipped Mooneys and other aircraft can make them difficult and disorienting to use in an emergency.
• To mitigate the challenge of poorly placed backup gauges, pilots are advised to practice flying from the right seat or delegate control to a qualified right-seat occupant during a primary display failure.

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