Damage on plane, would you fly it?

Ah c'mon, let's be real. Who wouldn't want the chance to fly that SPLIFR in moderate icing?
 
Thanks for all of the input. As an update, the aircraft is 30 hours out out from overhaul, so it'll most likely continue to fly like that for a few more weeks. As a lot of you mentioned though, while I was there and at the airport, I wanted to defer to the mechanic as the person with more knowledge and experience than myself, but that unfortunately was going to steer me down the wrong path. I'm sure that its pretty obvious, but the instructors and other students are more than likely content on flying it as well in its current state.

As a few of you said, this somewhat reveals what the attitude and culture of the school is and may reflect on the rest of the aircraft and maintenance overall. Might need to consider changing.
 
Would I you ask?

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mojo6911 said:
Right, but I meant bigger picture sort of deal. Flying for a living, you absolutely HAVE to trust your crews (ground, mx, whatever). You always have the authority to turn down a flight (obviously).
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No, you don't. Again, you can choose to trust them but nobody ever says you have to trust them.
 
Vflyer said:
Thanks for all of the input. As an update, the aircraft is 30 hours out out from overhaul, so it'll most likely continue to fly like that for a few more weeks. As a lot of you mentioned though, while I was there and at the airport, I wanted to defer to the mechanic as the person with more knowledge and experience than myself, but that unfortunately was going to steer me down the wrong path. I'm sure that its pretty obvious, but the instructors and other students are more than likely content on flying it as well in its current state.

As a few of you said, this somewhat reveals what the attitude and culture of the school is and may reflect on the rest of the aircraft and maintenance overall. Might need to consider changing.
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It's your life and the lives of your family at stake, not theirs. To hell with what they think constitutes an airworthy (or not, in this case) airplane.
 
In the 70's I ferried a few crop dusters in for repair at the end of the season. I didn't even want to know what was under the duct tape... Rolls on duct tape.

That one doesn't look bad to me.
 
Vflyer said:
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If you walked out to your car in a parking lot and saw a hole through the sheet metal and down into the structure would you just hop in it and go? What if it was a rental?

Does your car rely on a safe structure to defy the laws of gravity?

It's not the scratches on the surface. It's the potential damage underneath to be concerned with.

I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole until it had a substantial inspection of the structure of the tail, and wouldn't give a dime of business to the school that keeps that on the line.
 
Nope and not because of the actual damage but more or less the MX dude's reluctance to repair it and tell you its good to go. What else has he possibly not repaired or half assed that you cant see? I wouldn't take the chance. You could run into ice and who knows what sudden changes in temperature at different altitudes would do. We arent talking about titanium here.
 
I take the plane was a rental. Many of planes are probably leaseback. The owner doesn't wan the downtime, so figures he'll wait for hundred hour. Mechanics hands are tied.
 
comfortablynumb said:
I take the plane was a rental. Many of planes are probably leaseback. The owner doesn't wan the downtime, so figures he'll wait for hundred hour. Mechanics hands are tied.
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Hopefully he will lose more money as pilots will find others planes to use and if only 20 hrs out is just go ahead and do the 100hr. Fix it and get it flying again.

You don't own a plane to make money. You hope to just break even.....
 
I'd write that one up. Then when they are like, "Oh ya, that's fine." I hand them the book and say, "Good. Then you can sign it off!" Nobody in their right mind would sign that off. Sometimes you gotta put it in the book and force somebody to address a problem.

When I worked my second CFI job, one of the best things I did was NOT tell people I was also an A&P. It saved me a lot of BS and I was able to focus more on my student. (My first gig was a disaster. I was soldering PTT switches while debriefing one student and having the next one preflight, other instructors constantly coming to me because screws were missing in the cowling, etc.) "Oh you have a screw missing? Write it up, I'll fix it when I get back from my flight in two hours!" Anyway, it was on my resume for the second CFI job, but keeping it on the DL made life much easier for myself and my students. Also, I was surprised at the amount of BS mechanics would try to feed me- One time I found the nose-strut really low with red hydraulic fluid dripping all over the nose wheel. The mechanic tried to tell me that it was OK, just some spilled oil from when the line guy serviced the engine oil. He cleaned it up and drove away in his golf-cart. I went inside and wrote it up. He spent the afternoon rebuilding the nose strut.

That's the worst tail strike I've ever seen. They just about crashed that plane. And somebody at that school said it would be OK till the 100 hour? Was it written up? Inspected at all? Either way, it certainly doesn't meet the type certificate. If it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, I've tightened the bolts that hold the tail on a Cessna because I found them loose on a pre-flight. If I recall, they were a little thicker than your average #2 pencil! Find another place to rent brother. Run far... far, far away.
 
Vflyer said:
This damage recently occurred on the elevator and rudder on a plane I planned to take with the family on a fairly long trip (10+ hours). I've already decided to cancel it due to the weather that's being forecasted, but I'm curious what some of you more experienced guys would do in this situation when presented with this on preflight. I discussed it with the mechanic and he said it was fine until the next 100 hour, but it doesn't quite feel right. Let me hear what you think as I'm always trying to learn.

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Holy crap! Did whoever cause that say what happened?? Or is this one of those times where nobody claims to know how the damage occurred or who caused it?
 
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