I can imagine a time when only higher level people will get offices and the intent will be to suppress everybody else into a machine-like job (software comes to mind) where the employee receives clear inputs and delivers standardized data, while providing their own facility at their own expense. 19th century-style factory workers without even the benefit of ‘home as castle’. No thanks.
BTW, I still don’t know what a 50 hr check is. When my plane needs an oil change I leave the house I own, drive the car I own to the locked hangar I’ve solely occupied since 2006, where my tools and plane reside. I lift the cowling, change the filter, drain the oil and refill. Then I fill out a logbook entry. That I can understand, and none of it involves work 
Silvaire wrote:
My house is my house, not a free rental property for my employer
Companies who expect you to work at home will often compensate you for the use of your property. Others see work from home as a privilege and won’t.
Both have their merit. Where you have the choice like I do, I can go to the office but am not obliged to if I work from home, it is perfectly ok that they do not compensate me as I save enough on not commuting and not being obliged to eat out.
Silvaire wrote:
I lift the cowling, change the filter, drain the oil and refill. Then I fill out a logbook entry. That I can understand, and none of it involves work
For the most, that is what a 50 hours check includes, an oil change and some minor items. They should be laid out in the maintenance manual.
Silvaire wrote:
I can imagine a time when only higher level people will get offices and the intent will be to suppress everybody else into a machine-like job (software comes to mind) where the employee receives clear inputs and delivers standardized data, while providing their own facility at their own expense. 19th century-style factory workers without even the benefit of ‘home as castle’. No thanks.
Quite the opposite in my sector. The more junior you are, the more likely the company is to want you on site where you can be watched. What you’re suggesting might be the case for people who actually make physical objects, and indeed much piecemeal 19th century manufacturing was done in the worker’s home. No-one in a modern WFH arrangement is providing their own ‘facility’, they’re just sitting where is most convenient for them – usually at home.
Silvaire wrote:
BTW, I still don’t know what a 50 hr check is. When my plane needs an oil change I leave the house I own, drive the car I own to the locked hangar I’ve solely occupied since 2006, where my tools and plane reside. I lift the cowling, change the filter, drain the oil and refill. Then I fill out a logbook entry. That I can understand, and none of it involves work
A 50hr check is an unfortunate consequence of of our regulatory regime. It’s basically an oil change, plug clean and a few inspection items – but unfortunately the practical reality is that we need to pay a maintenance firm to do it, and of course the aircraft has to be taken to them. My point was simply that I can take care of this otherwise-burdensome part of aviation easily, without taking a day off or really sacrificing my own time, because of the flexibility that WFH arrangements bring. If my employment required me to attend my employer’s location each day, I would need to take a day off to do this.
I’m not sure what your point is about car and home ownership. That’s the same for me, and it has no bearing on my attitude mixing work and home life, nor maintaining aircraft. On the Vagabond my maintenance experience is much the same as yours, expect the hangar is not sole occupancy (very rare in this country due to lack of space) and I take the tools with me.
I fully appreciate that some people prefer to draw hard boundaries between work and home. Other views are available however. I ‘separate’ work and home by freeing myself of the geographical dependence – I can go and live anywhere I want without having to concern myself about where I’ll work, and conversely can work for any firm in the sector I choose without having to worry about moving house.
Vive la difference…
Work is a side show in my life, not the main program and my employers business isn’t welcome in my house. Blurring the lines between work and personal business is not something I’m willing to do for any reason. Work is done at the office and the money it makes pays for my life and investments. When I don’t need work any more I’ll end it with little fanfare and continue personal business including real estate, investments and all the rest. When I am home that’s what I’m focused on, my business, and I don’t want to be distracted by my employer when I’m doing it. Nor do I want my family (nor anybody else’s) exposed to unpleasant office politics and blunt confrontation – which is a daily occurrence in my business, part of the reason I get paid.
I’ve had the same job (albeit in 13 different offices) for 32 years… I don’t need flexibility, I need about $135 plus bene’s for every hour I’m in the office, and in the fullness of time I won’t need an office either 
Nobody here would have any idea what you meant by a 50 hr Check, although obviously we change oil and clean plugs every so often. I think the only good part about somebody else doing your oil changes is that you don’t have to take the used oil to the auto parts store to dispose of it. I tend to end up with 15 gallons of the stuff in my hangar, then have to deal with it. Otherwise oil changes on my plane are so simple that you can do them after flying, before heading home. You don’t even need to remove the cowling.
Silvaire wrote:
Nobody here would have any idea what you meant by a 50 hr Check
Everyone flying an European registered aircraft would. This being a European forum by definition I’d think the majority here know what that is.
Silvaire wrote:
Work is a side show in my life, not the main program
Nice if you can put it like that. Most people need to work to make ends meet and many have huge problems making enough money, so in a household with children both parents work. WFH is a huge advantage in that scenario, as you can coordinate your work with your family much easier. Frankly, if we did not have it, our family could not manage, one of us would have to stay home full time or pay viciously expensive child care. The way it works out now, I can work in my home office while my kid is at school and am there when she comes home, so my wife can do her job too (which, as a flight attendant obviously can’t be done from home). When I used to have a side job as an author for a flight sim mag, all that was done at home too.
To clarify, what I meant by “here” was in the US, where I am, and which is incidentally where most of the aircraft flown by participants in EuroGA were manufactured. Most people here fly similar planes, in the country where they were manufactured, under the regulations they were meant to be flown under. And as I mentioned, few if any would have any idea what ‘50 hr check’ means, as the concept has no regulatory or customary basis in this country, where most GA worldwide is conducted on those types. The regulations under which the aircraft were certified include a 100 hr inspection for commercial and flight training use only and an annual inspection for everybody else. Nothing else.
Nor incidentally does my European manufactured aircraft have any such 50 hr check assumed in its non-legally binding FAA TCDS referenced documentation, at least not that I remember. I’ll have to take a look at the MM, it’s a badly done document that I use mainly to look up part numbers – it’s good for that but of little use otherwise. If I remember correctly it has a two page checklist for Annual inspections but after twelve years my own experience with the details of the type, plus non-type specific Lycoming, Cleveland etc practice is much better than the factory checklist, and improving more as time goes on. The factory list for Annuals was written before they’d even finalized the aircraft configuration, and is riddled with errors. Also, the entire MM and Parts Book is in German and despite my understanding of FAA certification requirements no English language version was published.
Otherwise, sounds like a tough situation. Good luck with it. Not a lifestyle I would have chosen.
Silvaire wrote:
Otherwise, sounds like a tough situation. Good luck with it.
Well, other than people who spend their time away from home, I actually get to see my daughter grow up. That alone is a blessing I value above everything else.
Silvaire wrote:
Not a lifestyle I would have chosen.
That is obvious.
Silvaire wrote:
BTW, I still don’t know what a 50 hr check is. When my plane needs an oil change I leave the house I own, drive the car I own to the locked hangar I’ve solely occupied since 2006, where my tools and plane reside. I lift the cowling, change the filter, drain the oil and refill. Then I fill out a logbook entry. That I can understand, and none of it involves work
That is precisely my 50 hour check: I go to my solely owned hangar, pull the plane out, give it a run, and do the 50 hour maintenance things (the bulk of which is lubrication/filters). It’s actually done at less than a 50 hour interval, because unfortunately I don’t usually get to do 50 hours every 6 months these days, but that’s another subject.
Silvaire wrote:
To clarify, what I meant by “here” was in the US, where I am, and which is incidentally where most of the aircraft flown by participants in EuroGA were manufactured. Most people here fly similar planes, in the country where they were manufactured, under the regulations they were meant to be flown under. And as I mentioned, few if any would have any idea what ‘50 hr check’ means, as the concept has no regulatory or customary basis in this country, where most GA worldwide is conducted on those types. The regulations under which the aircraft were certified include a 100 hr inspection for commercial and flight training use only and an annual inspection for everybody else. Nothing else.
I have in front of me a copy of ‘Piper Classic Airplanes Inspection Report’ – a manufacturer-published document that looks like it’s being doing the rounds for many decades and would doubtless be very familiar to those who own and fly these aeroplanes in their country of origin. It covers most of the Cub family as well as the Vagabond and Clipper, and gives a manufacturer-suggested schedule of work and inspections at various intervals, of which 50 hours is one. Thus it describes a 50 hour inspection. 50hr check isn’t too far removed?
