EASA register or UK register are going to be broadly similar outside of their own regions – zero piston engine infrastructure, so you’d fudge the paperwork or just skip it and maybe fix it later. Who is going to know? 50 hr ‘checks’ have always confused me, completely ‘off the reservation’, maybe something regulated in the time of Tiger Moths with Dripsy Gipsies requiring frequent valve adjustment. No US manufacturer would anticipate them, and you change the oil when you get a chance… hopefully well before 50 hrs, dummy.
If I were living in UK or EU I’d be very happy to have a US passport or green card and pilot certificates for any flying in certified planes, no way I’d own anything on local registry or get local licenses, 10 times more hassle than I’d tolerate. My wife and I have been talking about the possibility of spending summers in the Südtirol, across the Brenner from her family which by then will be based full time in Austria. That would be 5-10 years from now and if it were to happen and if I wanted to fly, I think I’d go for an Italian National UL license to fly applicable planes within Italy only. In the future I’ll otherwise be motorcycling a lot across Europe (as long as it’s still allowed!), not hassling with national border issues while doing it, and continuing my flying in the US.
Silvaire wrote:
50 hr ‘checks’ have always confused me, completely ‘off the reservation’, maybe something regulated in the time of Tiger Moths with Dripsy Gipsies requiring frequent valve adjustment. No US manufacturer would anticipate them, and you change the oil when you get a chance… hopefully well before 50 hrs, dummy.
Really? Then why do even the POH for e.g. the PA28 or C172 mention them. I quote from a 1979 PA28-181 POH: “The [brake system] fluid level should be checked periodically or at every 50 hr inspection and replenished as necessary.”
A very different thing is that the FAA does not mandate 50 hr inspections. Actually, EASA does not mandate 50 hr inspections either! But if you’re using a CAMO, then the CAMO will use the aircraft MM as basis and it will include 50 hr inspections for sure.
Huge country dependence there…
The 50hr check is normal because everybody agrees the aviation oils don’t last much longer.
Silvaire wrote:
If I were living in UK or EU I’d be very happy to have a US passport or green card and pilot certificates for any flying in certified planes, no way I’d own anything on local registry or get local licenses, 10 times more hassle than I’d tolerate
100% agreement. I would never own a certified plane that wasn’t N-reg.
G-reg non-certified, however, isn’t really an issue, especially as you can fly these on any ICAO PPL.
Personally, the thing I would lose the least amount of sleep over ever, would be to launch on a 51hr long cross country on a G-reg. Go, do the inspection after. Who the hell is gonna know or say anything about it?
I look at everything on my plane periodically. The period is ‘all the time’, before and after I fly it. After my most recent flight I tightened a loose parking brake knob (after conferring with an A&P buddy about various ways to stop it coming loose), I lubed the nose wheel steering linkages and bushings because they tell me when they need it by creaking slightly, I checked the oil to verify about 12 hrs per quart consumption and so on. I usually top up every three hours or so.
I shoot for 25 hrs between oil changes, that way whenever I get to them it’s done well before it’s necessary. My logbook entries list an oil and filter change.
I don’t do ‘50 hr checks’, don’t know anybody who does in any scheduled or formal sense, and have no idea whether it’s in the maintenance manual for my plane.
would be to launch on a 51hr long cross country on a G-reg
51hrs is ok. You can get a 10% extension with a phone call to the CAMO. 55hrs would be a problem though; no way around that, other than to (in effect) forge logbook entries by logging less time than actually flown. Of course, nobody would do that 
Peter wrote:
Huge country dependence there…
Do you mean within Europe? How come? Part-ML does not in any way mandate 50 hr inspections when you have an owner-declared maintenance programme – only 100 hr inspections. If you’re using a CAMO then it is different but again it depends on what is in the MM.
What % of GA owners in Europe are on SDMP and able to delete the 50hr services?
Most maintenance companies won’t touch SDMP-operating owners with a bargepole.
51hrs is ok. You can get a 10% extension with a phone call to the CAMO. 55hrs would be a problem though.
If you get a 10% extension with a phone call, why would 55 hours be a problem?
