In aircraft maintenance, the line between preventative and unscheduled maintenance can often blur.
MAINTAINING YOUR AIRPLANE Testing the Hardware After a USM Retrofit A Cessna 172 takes its first flight after an avionics panel upgrade with used-serviceable material (USM).
by Richard Scarbrough
I t is springtime, and that means a return to the skies. Recently, we cheered on Stephen Mercer as Gardner Lowe Aviation Ser- vices in Peachtree City, Georgia, put the finishing touches on his family’s 1982 Piper PA-32R-301T Saratoga. Now, it is time for the pull-offs from that job to find a new life in Corey Samp- son’s Cessna 172. We have been tracking this story from the beginning with Sampson’s decision to incorporate used-ser- viceable material (USM) in his retrofit. It is one thing to pull out the Garmin catalog and order up everything new and quite another to retrofit using USM. One must decide what to keep and what to jettison. The situation is not always cut and dried. What if you install all this stuff, and it doesn’t work? Thankfully, Sampson is an A&P and can do much of his own work. Avionics Equipment Installation Planning for a major maintenance event comes down to one key element: attention to detail. I have seen more than one maintenance evolution derailed by the small- est detail. I once found myself stalled on a job—a major engine overhaul—for one
bolt. Guess what? The airplane needs all of the parts to fly, not just some of them. I caught up with Sampson recently to follow up on the installation. He said that although routing was challenging, he didn’t hit any real snags along the way. Sampson mapped out his maintenance, and FLYING was there during the ini- tial phases of this evolution. He ensured a clean, comfortable space in which to ac- complish his work. The environment is everything in aircraft maintenance. Why do you think line maintenance aircraft mechanics receive a premium? Other fac- tors to consider are tooling and technical data. Sampson had each of these lined up before removing a single component. Sampson said the downtime for his 172 during maintenance was five weeks for the removal and installation, and one week for pitot-static recertification. He also removed the automatic direction finder (ADF), as it is now obsolete, and there- fore, he could save some weight. Fitment and Operational Check Once Sampson finished everything, it was time for Oasis Aviation Avionics & Maintenance to do the pitot-static and transponder check. The company also built up the harness and mapped everything to assist him during installation. Once Sampson installed everything, it was time to button her up and func- tionally test the new hardware. To keep from running the engine in the hangar,
10 Aircraft For Sale | August 2024
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