- 28 Apr 2021
- Mario Pierobon
- Aircraft MRO
Aircraft Maintenance? Common Mistakes to Avoid
What are the things to avoid, saving you time and money when your aircraft goes into the maintenance shop? Bill Reeves, Director of Maintenance Services, Elliott Aviation, lists his top five, offering practical explanations.
Back to Articles
Bill Reeves
Bill Reeves, Director of Maintenance Services, currently manages the entire maintenance team at Elliott...
What are the things to avoid, saving you time and money when your aircraft goes into the maintenance shop? Bill Reeves, Director of Maintenance Services, Elliott Aviation, lists his top five items…
For many aircraft operators, planning a maintenance event can be difficult. You often need to juggle calendar, cycle-based, and one-time events (like engines, APU, airworthiness directives (ADs) and service bulletins).
Warranty requirements or power-by-the-hour programs can sometimes further complicate your schedule. By combining your events, you will ensure your items are taken care of in one shop visit.
As we approach the deadline for the ADS-B mandate, many shops across the industry are seeing a heavy backlog of work, which can add to the complexity of scheduling and tracking your maintenance. (You may find your preferred shop location may not have availability for several months.)
Nevertheless, taking the following common mistakes into consideration when planning your next event will help save you time and money.
5. Misunderstanding Current & Future Maintenance Status
A full understanding of your aircraft’s current and future maintenance status can save an operator a lot of extra time and expense, including avoiding additional unnecessary downtime.
A thorough logbook review is critical to not only understand what is overdue and what is due, but also what’s coming due.
If you are purchasing an aircraft and adding a large work scope (i.e. paint and interior), it may be in the shop for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.
To minimize your downtime, it can help to look past your scheduled ‘out’ date to see if anything else is coming due that can be taken care of while your aircraft is out of action.
This could also include upcoming inspections, engine overhauls, service bulletins and ADs.
Tip: Some operators subscribe to maintenance tracking systems to help them schedule all their due and upcoming maintenance items. Programs like CAMP and Traxxall can help an operator set up tracking information that will alert them to all items they need to consider when scheduling major or routine inspections.
4. Untimeliness of Approvals
During a major inspection a maintenance facility can shorten your downtime by working discrepancies in conjunction with your inspections. For instance, if you provide the shop with discrepancy approvals as they are discovered rather than waiting until later in the process it will save you valuable days at the end of the event.
In addition to working discrepancies in parallel with your inspection, more manpower is typically available to devote to your aircraft during the initial inspection.
Manpower can be allocated in advance of your aircraft’s arrival to ensure a faster turn-around on work completed. It will also allow for parts to be ordered sooner, which further reduces overall aircraft downtime and cost.
3. Not Planning an Incoming Debrief
An incoming debrief is essential to save time and money on an inspection. This gives you the opportunity to run through every item face-to-face with the team that is going to be working on your airplane.
Typically, during a debrief, your maintenance facility will help set mutually agreed expectations of communication throughout the project. This includes how they will communicate discrepancies for your approval.
In addition, incoming debriefs allow for thorough reviews between each department head/team-lead and you. For instance, if you are experiencing weak pressurization, the mechanic working on the issue can help identify the problem directly by asking second- and third-level questions. (Is the problem happening at higher altitudes? Lower altitudes? In manual or auto mode?)
This type of trouble-shooting provides an avenue to work the identified discrepancies in parallel with incoming runs and inspections, allowing parts to be ordered much earlier in the process.
2. Poor Communication Throughout the Inspection
Open communication throughout the process will help keep your inspection moving. Make sure that your project manager fully understands your communication preferences so you can be alerted in a way that is most convenient for you.
Even if you are unsure or would like to request additional information, accurate and efficient communication is in an operator’s best interest, as it helps move each maintenance event forward.
In this connected world, a project manager/team-lead can send you high-quality photos or a short video of a discrepancy to help discuss your options.
Your maintenance facility might also be able to source less-expensive parts, like non-OEM or aftermarket airframe or avionics parts.
In addition, several maintenance facilities have online and app-based systems that can provide you the most up-to-date status on your aircraft while it is in for an inspection.
These programs can help share photos of discrepancies, give you faster access to the individuals that are working on your aircraft, help you electronically approve, deny or request more information on discrepancies, manage and understand your bill and more.
1. Failing to Understand a Shop’s In-House Capabilities
A maintenance facility will rarely have 100% capabilities in-house and will often have items it needs to outsource to other companies. Outsourcing any components of your event adds an additional level of uncertainty to your downtime.
While a one-stop-shop may not be necessary for a minor maintenance event, selecting a company that can help repair any additional items will save you having to reposition the airplane and put it down again for additional maintenance.
As many aircraft owners are rushing to meet the ADS-B deadline, take the time to review all other items that are due. Many operators are taking this opportunity to bundle their major inspections and other items like Wi-Fi, paint and interior.
Putting it All Together
In this environment, don’t wait until your inspection is due to try and book your next event. Shop demand is incredibly high and is typically booked several months in advance.
Start your process early and fully understand all maintenance you would like to have completed to include items coming due in the next three to six months. This will prevent you from having to schedule additional down time shortly after completing a major event and will alleviate the cost of repositioning your aircraft.
MI:
www.elliottaviation.com
www.elliottaviation.com
Read more on Business Aircraft MRO on our new hub.
Do you have a specific aircraft maintenance, upgrade or repair need?
Use Advantage to outline your maintenance requirements by completing our quick form, and your enquiry will be passed to qualified service providers. Receive the feedback you need to help you choose the right partner and the best deal.Start now
Related Articles
- 23 Apr 2021
- David Wyndham
- Aircraft MRO
- 09 Feb 2021
- AvBuyer
- Aircraft MRO
Bill Reeves
Bill Reeves, Director of Maintenance Services, currently manages the entire maintenance team at Elliott Aviation’s headquarters in Moline, IL, including the King Air Service team and the Jet Service team. He offers vast experience in leading maintenance teams and managing highly-complex maintenance projects throughout his career in aviation.
