In the midst of my condition inspection and once again I’m pondering a few things that others could weigh in on. So, if you don’t mind …
Either I’m painfully slow, too thorough, or unprepared for the task at hand. It seems to take me a few days to get my inspection completed. I read of those that can do it in a day and I just can’t make that happen. Too much to do. How long does it take you?
After it’s all done and buttoned up … how long before you trust it again? A few laps around the field, or a couple of short local flights? I generally like a short ground runup and then shutdown & look things over. A few laps near the field and if all is well I’ll break away to a nearby airport.
How much time after condition inspection before you are ready to do that five hour cross country?
The good news is that I haven’t found anything really surprising but there were a couple of things that I’m glad I found now rather than later. Overall this engine and airframe have been relatively easy to maintain.
It takes me a couple weeks, assuming I don’t find anything bad. I’ll start and knock off items on my checklist. Maybe pull all the covers and do that one day. Pull out the seats and clean the floors another day, and inspect the flap & rudder stuff while I’m under there. Tackle the head torque & valve adjustment on another day. Air & fuel filter on another. So I might fly too, between these items. After it’s all done and signed off, I’ll typically want 30-60 minutes of local flying and patterns before I declare it good. Then I’m fine with the 5-hour XC.
I’ve not had the pleasure of a CI yet but have always done owner assisted annuals. I tend to think(hope) the people that can do them in a couple days are the ones that were just looking deep into the airplane as squawks came up recently and other items might have been done progressively through the month like Bryan mentioned he sometimes does above.
Afterward, I’ve always felt better about a plane I just personally put back together. Nobody cares more about your wellbeing than you. Run up, good test flight and if its good, it’s good, if it’s not, fix it for good. I feel like if you have trepidation, someone other than you must have put it back together, or too many new parts say “made in china” on them.
In most cases, it would take me 1-2 weeks to complete the condition inspection on my Waiex. I had an order of tasks I would accomplish to be as efficient as practical, but I also didn’t want to get complacent and miss things. The airframe tasks were normally fairly simple (once covers and interior was removed) but it always took extra time to really go over the engine.
After the inspection was complete, I’d do a 30-minute check flight to ensure everything was in order, then it was good to go for any local or long distance flying I was planning.
I take a week off work and typically get it done unless I run into an issue.
After everything is buttoned back up I take it outside for a good run up. Check for leaks and do circuits around the airport for a 1/2 hour or so. Then call it a day.
Next time out , do a good walk around, run up and all’s good I’ll go for a local flight. After that I’m comfortable to go cross country.
I too have heard of 1 day condition inspections. One here by a local Sonex flier. Sorry I just can’t keep up or feel comfortable with that.
Dale, I usually take my time, and mostly just over a week. sometimes time is money, but for my inspections, its my butt in the seat! dont worry how long it takes, must be thouro, complete, accurate, andpaperwork complete, but this is just my opinion of course!
Good to know that others take the time needed to do a real condition inspection. I like me, and want to keep me alive but I do carry a few passengers and lately these have been Young Eagles. I certainly pray to never have any incident, accident, or injury when folks are in the plane with me.
I don’t have great concern or trepidation as my plane has been a reliable and good performer from day one. I was just curious as to the extent that others go to for the condition inspection and the follow up flights after maintenance.
I don’t run things to the ragged edge and that’s why I change tires before the cords show, replace the battery every three years (electrically dependent ignition), and send oil samples for analysis. Some may see me as a bit overcautious but I don’t mind spending a few extra dollars for reliability and piece of mind.
As an experienced A&P IA I would plan on 2-3 days to complete an inspection like this. It usually takes me a week though becuse I’m still working my day job and can’t work on it full time. One big factor for me is getting all of the preparation done ahead of time. If I have all my ducks in a row I can get a lot done in one full day.
I make my own checklists that contain most of the information I need (parts, torques, specs, tools, service bulliten, etc.). The inspection goes a lot quicker if I don’t to go and look for all of this stuff. I continually update my checklists.
As far as trusting the plane after the inspection it depends on how intrusive the inspection was. Many of the needed checks (leakage, engine operation, etc.) can be checked on ground run ups. As a bare minimum I always do a local post inspection flight. In most cases that should be all you need and the aircraft should be ready for normal use or a long cross country after the post inspection flight. The real question might be, “how much do you trust yourself/work”.
Good post! I finally got my conditional done today. Post maintenance flight was about 20 minutes after a ground run and all went very well. She’s ready for the big time.
I don’t know if any other Sonex pilots are using CamGuard but I’ve been quite impressed with this stuff. I don’t have the oil analysis back yet for this sample but the last one was pretty amazing. When I cut open the filter this year I found one tiny little speck in all the pleats of the filter. I’ve never witnessed a filter this clean.
Only concern I have is brakes. I have Tracy O’Brien and they work pretty well. But it appears he is out of business so if/when I need replacement parts I will be in a bit of a bind. The good news is that it’s a tailwheel and given enough runway I just let it roll the speed off until I need a touch of brakes to slow down or stop.
Wanting to make Indiana and I will … if the Good Lord’s willing, the weather cooperates, the airplane behaves, and nothing catches me unawares in the meantime.
