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Showerthought: the 24 month recert cycle is too long for anything that actually matters
I was in the hangar last week doing a pitot static check on a King Air and the guy next to me mentioned his shop stretches some bench checks to the full 24 months because 'if it passed last time it'll pass again.' I get why that sounds fine on paper, but I've pulled three air data computers off the shelf in my six years that drifted out of tolerance well before the two year mark, and one of them was reading 180 feet high on the altitude tape. The rule is a floor, not a finish line. A static leak check takes maybe 20 minutes with the right rig, and you catch the small stuff before it turns into a write up in Des Moines at 6am. I'm not saying we need to pull everything apart twice a year, that's a manning nightmare and I know it. But treating the calendar like the only trigger bugs me. What's your shop's take, do you test to the date or test to the flight hours?
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barbara_grant411d ago
Tested to the date for years in my last shop and got burned by it more than once. Had a transponder that sat on the shelf for 18 months, looked clean on the tag, and when it finally went in a plane the squawk was all over the place. Turns out the tray pins had a little corrosion you would never see from the outside. That kind of thing does not show up on a calendar, it shows up when someone finally powers it up. So yeah, I lean toward test to hours and conditions, not just the sticker date. Your mileage may vary but that one stuck with me.
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