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Almost all hassle in GA comes down to airfield politics

We had a little debate on this on the Tuesday Zoom meetup recently.

If you ask pilots privately where their main aircraft operating hassles are, it seems to always come down to “ground politics” e.g.

  • the maintenance company is the only one for many miles and if they want to spend a month on your Annual, there is nothing you can do
  • the maintenance company owns the whole site and if you use another one, they will make your life hard
  • the airport has a deal running with a maintenance company and if you are seen using a freelance EASA66 the maint co. will complain
  • etc

Basically the whole Part-ML freelance maintenance concession is wasted, via the application of “ground politics”. And of course almost nobody can post this stuff openly. But this is why people on the N-reg, using a freelance A&P/IA, are unlikely to ever move to a local reg.

I think one could have a valuable debate on how to deal with this stuff.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

From past experience discussing this topic it seems to vary wildly depending on location.

It is sad that one needs a strong personal Contact network to get things done in light GA maintenance wise.

I can just say that in my experience between Austria, Germany and Holland there are sufficient opportunities to work proactively with shops as well as freelancers applying Part-ML.

always learning
LO__, Austria

I think the crux of this is that getting your maintenance done anywhere except your home base works fine until it doesn’t.

I’m aware of two aeroplanes at present (one being one of my shared ones) which have just suffered a maintenance-induced failure. In each case the remedy is “bring it back to us”, at considerable cost in time, money and hassle to fix someone else’s mistakes. In the case of our aeroplane, their mistake could easily have killed someone.

Last Edited by Graham at 02 Nov 15:29
EGLM & EGTN

Snoopy wrote:

From past experience discussing this topic it seems to vary wildly depending on location.

Absolutely. Maintenance wise my experience is totally different. There is plenty of choice in Switzerland and nobody I know is gonna let you sit on an annual for weeks without a very good reason (mostly parts availability).

A big problem currently however is lead time of components, aggravated by the international shipping crisis i suppose. My new prop, ordered from the manufacturer, is due to be delivered in February…. some parts are difficult to source and deliver.

Snoopy wrote:

It is sad that one needs a strong personal Contact network to get things done in light GA maintenance wise

In my experience this is essential with just about everything. Or at the very least it is very helpful to have a personal contact network within the people you work with.
In Aviation I know almost all the people who work on my plane personally. The same goes for the service stations of our cars. The same goes for people who regularly work on our house.

Having a personal network helps tremendously because people know you, know the asset you need work done on and therefore can work pretty fast, as they don’t have to put themselfs into the situation first. My maintenance company of 11 years by now works very well in this regard, they know me, they know my plane and they know how I like things done.

Last Edited by Mooney_Driver at 02 Nov 15:28
LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Snoopy wrote:

I can just say that in my experience between Austria, Germany and Holland there are sufficient opportunities to work proactively with shops as well as freelancers applying Part-ML.

Well although there are possibilities, yes, this sounds a bit too optimistic for what I know. Part-ML is just in its infancy, and Corona added a lot to that it’s starting much slower than it could be. Examiners don’t get necessary approvals at the moment. So yes it is possible, but you still have to have a personal network and it involves a lot of personal interest and time at the moment to get it started.

Germany

Having a “personal contact network” is the story of life, not just aviation, unless you want to pay a higher price.

Retail business, particularly for planes, cars, houses and the like operates on the principle of “extract top prices from the unknowing who won’t likely come back anyway, and use the remaining time to service knowledgeable and reliable customers at a more reasonable price”. That’s life, and step one in owning and maintaining anything is to figure out who to become acquainted with, and how.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 02 Nov 16:53

Having a “personal contact network” is the story of life, not just aviation, unless you want to pay a higher price. Retail business, particularly for planes, cars, houses and the like operates on the principle of “extract top prices from the unknowing who won’t likely come back anyway, and use the remaining time to service knowledgeable and reliable customers at a more reasonable price”. That’s life, and step one in owning and maintaining anything is to figure out who to become acquainted with, and how.

Added this to my „parenting notes“ list 👍

Last Edited by Snoopy at 02 Nov 17:56
always learning
LO__, Austria

Silvaire wrote:

Having a “personal contact network” is the story of life, not just aviation, unless you want to pay a higher price.

Exactly, I could not agree more. Goes for any business and life in general. Well said.

I probably should’ve said “retail service business” as opposed to retail businesses in general. Obviously the internet has changed how we buy products, including aircraft hardware, which I buy almost exclusively on the net. But I think it’s an issue when people think local services can be purchased at reasonable cost by the ‘spreadsheet and internet mouse clicking’ method or anything like that, without human contacts.

Get off my lawn

Last Edited by Silvaire at 02 Nov 18:38

Snoopy wrote:

Added this to my „parenting notes“ list 👍

LOL, well, it looks like my 5 year old was born with that gene. She’s networking like a pro. Proud of her.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland
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