wrote:
A more electrically-oriented example would be if you
wanted to add an ammeter to your voltmeter-equipped plane vs. adding
a voltmeter to
your ammeter-equipped plane. In the former, you need to sever the
charging wire and
put in either the meter or a shunt for the meter. In the latter you
only need a
negligible-current wire to run to a voltmeter. I would argue that
the latter is a
minor alteration, but the former is much more significant. I'm sure
the regs don't
have any way to distinguish between issues that subtle.

No, the regs don't. People do. There is such a thing as judgment. An
A&P is supposed to be able to make a judgment call with respect to what
constitutes a major vs. minor alteration, within certain guidelines.
The guidelines give a fair amount of latitude. In many FSDO's, the
poliy is to make that latitude go away by dramatically restricting what
is allowed as a minor alteration.

Just shows how broken the whole system is.

Well, yes. That's why I don't think it's useful to discuss what the
rules actually are and what constitutes compliance - because it changes
from FSDO to FSDO, and from inspector to inspector, and if an inspector
wants to hang you he will find a way. The only useful things to
discuss are (a) what is actually reasonably safe and (b) what you can
get away with in terms of inspections.

In general, the only reason you need an annual is in the event of an
accident, and then only for insurance purposes. You might argue that
you need it to be 'legal' but that's a false argument. No plane is
ever legal. Any plane can be grounded. Therefore, you're really no
more legal with an annual than without. Unless the plane looks like
crap or has obviously non-aviation stuff installed, a ramp check will
not catch an out-of-annual aircraft - not that ramp checks are common.

I don't recall Jay getting phucked having to remove strobes. That
sounds like
it was an ugly FAA-ism.

No. It was a bad shop. The IA had the option of letting the 337
stand, and nobody would have questioned it. For decades, nobody had.
I believe those strobes are still in a shoebox.

Michael