Role of Type Clubs
It is in the airplane owner’s best interest to perform the records research and special inspections for his or her airplane. The appendices are provided to aid the owner in that effort. However, much of the model-specific information may already reside with the type clubs. Owners or mechanics may find the job of developing a special inspection checklist easier if they use the information type clubs have.
Type clubs typically have much expertise regarding the maintenance of a particular model and keep up-to-date on service difficulties. They usually have data pertaining to the best inspection and maintenance techniques. They also have data regarding field approvals for modifications and alterations. This may be especially helpful if the airplane needs to be modified to gain access for a difficult inspection. Some type clubs maintain databases of service difficulties and use that to determine trends specific to demographics such as airplane location, flight hours, etc. This collective knowledge within a type club could easily be used to develop special inspection guidelines for a model type. When shared with its members, this knowledge is enhanced with feedback from individual airplane inspections.
When type clubs provide easy access to all available data on a particular model to its members, the probability that an owner or their mechanic will use it increases. Compiling and making all data available to mechanics and owners should result in the improvement (over time) in maintenance efficiency, operating safety, and cost of operation. Mechanics will have more time to spend doing maintenance on the airplane rather than spending time trying to figure out the best way to inspect, maintain, or repair the airplane. This will result in an overall improvement in the airworthiness of the airplane. This increase in maintenance efficiency would also benefit the owner of the airplane by lowering the total cost of aircraft ownership.
Ideally, this information would be accessible at a type club’s Internet website. A checklist form, such as Appendix 1, tailored to the model would be a useful resource to airplane owners and mechanics. A method for receiving feedback from inspection results would provide for needed adjustments to the checklist form. The checklist would be a “living” document where information would be added or revised as necessary based on feedback.
Information about specific type clubs can be obtained from the websites listed below. AOPA, AAA, and EAA maintain current contact information for more than 100 type clubs. Many type clubs maintain their own websites that contain much information that would be useful when performing an age-related special inspection.
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