No matter how you slice it, aircraft ownership is expensive. Required inspections, airworthiness directive compliance and just regular replacement of wear items can gang up on us to make the total cost of ownership a somewhat breathtaking experience. There are almost as many ways to manage these expenses as there are people flying, but one of the consistent recommendations for any pilot/owner looking to reduce costs is to do many rather mundane tasks yourself.
The FAA’s FAR 43.3 says “the holder of a pilot certificate [other than a sport pilot certificate] issued under Part 61 may perform preventive maintenance on any aircraft owned or operated by that pilot which is not used under Part 121, 129, or 135….” Appendix A of FAR 43, meanwhile, details what tasks are considered “preventive maintenance.” Everything we’re suggesting in this article flows from Part 43’s definition of what constitutes preventive maintenance (PM). If you’re not afraid of getting some grease under your fingers, you can save a lot of time and money performing regular maintenance tasks yourself. Here are our top five projects you may consider performing.
