Flying Club Maintenance Officer?

I'm a member of a local flying club which has ~30 members and 3
aircraft. A number of the club's long standing members have moved on in
the last year or so and now its time for some of the other folks to step
up and take the reins.

One of the jobs that is open is the club maintenance officer. The last
guy to do it, did an outstanding job but spent 20-30 hours a week some
weeks riding herd on things and verifying that the fbo and its
maintenance folks did what they said they did and then did it properly.

Could anyone share information on the arrangements they've been
associated with in terms of overseeing aircraft maintenance. If its in
a club setting even better.

I hoping the experiences of the group will give us more options than
asking one poor soul to bear the burden of all of this on their own.

Thanks

Chris Spierings

3 planes? You could easily spend that much time doing the job right.

I would urge you to take this job. You might want to suggest to the club
that each plane have a M.O. or "crew chief" if time is a problem. This
would spread the load around and provide backup.

Flying a plane you manage will make you a better and safer pilot and enrich
your flying experience enormously. There is a certain comfort in knowing a
plane's innards and history intimately when you are really depending on it.
I put a lot of time in for our one plane club. It isn't a lot more time
though than I would spend if I owned it individually and it makes it "my"
plane in a way it could never be otherwise.

If you take the job, I'll be glad to give you advice and help, both
mechanical and political. I'm interested in promoting contact and
information sharing among flying clubs.

Check out our web site and email me privately:

http://baldeagleflyingclub.org

--
Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:

If you take the job, I'll be glad to give you advice and help, both
mechanical and political. I'm interested in promoting contact and
information sharing among flying clubs.

What's a good source of information (ie. what makes good reading material)
for someone interested in participating on the maintenance side of a club?

Andrew

I haven't found much. Stuff is scattered all over and I can' think of any
specific and comprehensive source.

A lot has changed with the advent of the net. You can research and read all
the AD's and most of the service bulletins yourself.

Thanks for an idea for my fifth aviation article.

--
Roger Long
Andrew Gideon wrote in message
...
Roger Long wrote:

If you take the job, I'll be glad to give you advice and help, both
mechanical and political. I'm interested in promoting contact and
information sharing among flying clubs.

What's a good source of information (ie. what makes good reading material)
for someone interested in participating on the maintenance side of a club?

Andrew

Roger Long wrote:

Thanks for an idea for my fifth aviation article.

So where is it, already???

- Andrew

Guys,

This has all been good information and reading. I really appreciate the
input, keep it coming.

I think the time demands for our MO have stemmed from a number of things:

1. A very poor maintenance officer preceding him
2. Most of the recent squaks have been avionics related and if you go
and check on some of my old posts you'll notice that the local avionics
shop has some issues. Like newly installed Garmin 430s falling out of
the panel on rotation. Transponders not secured or hooked up. The
avionics shop is poorly run and does **** poor work in my book. I don't
get to control where the work is done in this regard.
3. He is a very conscientious guy

I like the concept of having a MO and assistant for each plane. I'd
love to be involved with the maintenance more. I know I don't have the
time to devote those kinds of hours to this every week.

If you've got other ideas please keep them coming. The guy who has
agreed to fill in for our retiring MO is a good friend and a great guy
but he doesn't have the time nor is he even in the Midwest (where the
planes are based) very much so I'm dubious about where things are going
to go.

Chris



Andrew Gideon wrote:

Roger Long wrote:


Thanks for an idea for my fifth aviation article.


So where is it, already???

- Andrew

In a previous article, Chris Spierings said:
One of the jobs that is open is the club maintenance officer. The last
guy to do it, did an outstanding job but spent 20-30 hours a week some
weeks riding herd on things and verifying that the fbo and its
maintenance folks did what they said they did and then did it properly.

Our club has a "V.P. of Maintenance" (VPM), but each plane has a
Maintenance Coordinator (MC) and Assistant MC. When there is a squawk on
the plane, the member who notices it must write it up on the squawk sheet
in our line shack, and phone the MC, and if he can't reach the MC he's
then supposed to try the AMC, then the VPM. As well, we enourage people
to also post the squawk to the club mailing list.

The MC is responsible for deciding if the squawk is something that needs
immediate attention or should be deferred to the next oil change or
annual. He also will make sure the scheduled maintenance is done on time
(like watching the tach hours to see if an oil change is needed, etc). He
is "compensated" for his time by getting to fly the plane out to the
airport where we get the maintenance done (which also warms up the oil for
the oil change). Some of the MCs are pretty pro-active and help to
organize log books and paper work, as well as organizing wash and wax
parties and installing and removing oil cooler winterization plates.

The VPM is responsible for approving high cost maintenance items, and for
reviewing all the bills that come back. He also is the single point of
contact for ADs and SBs, since we're an all-Piper fleet and most things
apply to more than one of our planes.

Our club, unlike many, doesn't do any of our own maintenance, mostly for
liability reasons, but also because we're a pretty lazy bunch. 50
members, but you only see the same 10 people rotating between the officer,
MC, AMC and Board of Director positions, and participating in wash and wax
parties.

http://www.rochesterflyingclub.com/

--
Paul Tomblin,
Remembering Julie Zipper and the other 3030. 09/11/01
http://xcski.com/~ptomblin/3031_Flags.html

I hear you Paul. With our club, it is always the same 6-8 people that
do everything. Everyone else benefits in a club of 70.

BTW, How do you like your Lance? We have the same model and year.
Have you all ever considered any speed mods or a 3-blade for it? I
have just started looking into it and was wondering if you had any
experience with that stuff.

Tony
www.glendaleflying.com

(Paul Tomblin) wrote in message ...
In a previous article, Chris Spierings said:
One of the jobs that is open is the club maintenance officer. The last
guy to do it, did an outstanding job but spent 20-30 hours a week some
weeks riding herd on things and verifying that the fbo and its
maintenance folks did what they said they did and then did it properly.

Our club has a "V.P. of Maintenance" (VPM), but each plane has a
Maintenance Coordinator (MC) and Assistant MC. When there is a squawk on
the plane, the member who notices it must write it up on the squawk sheet
in our line shack, and phone the MC, and if he can't reach the MC he's
then supposed to try the AMC, then the VPM. As well, we enourage people
to also post the squawk to the club mailing list.

The MC is responsible for deciding if the squawk is something that needs
immediate attention or should be deferred to the next oil change or
annual. He also will make sure the scheduled maintenance is done on time
(like watching the tach hours to see if an oil change is needed, etc). He
is "compensated" for his time by getting to fly the plane out to the
airport where we get the maintenance done (which also warms up the oil for
the oil change). Some of the MCs are pretty pro-active and help to
organize log books and paper work, as well as organizing wash and wax
parties and installing and removing oil cooler winterization plates.

The VPM is responsible for approving high cost maintenance items, and for
reviewing all the bills that come back. He also is the single point of
contact for ADs and SBs, since we're an all-Piper fleet and most things
apply to more than one of our planes.

Our club, unlike many, doesn't do any of our own maintenance, mostly for
liability reasons, but also because we're a pretty lazy bunch. 50
members, but you only see the same 10 people rotating between the officer,
MC, AMC and Board of Director positions, and participating in wash and wax
parties.

http://www.rochesterflyingclub.com/

In a previous article, (Tony Aldi) said:
BTW, How do you like your Lance? We have the same model and year.
Have you all ever considered any speed mods or a 3-blade for it? I
have just started looking into it and was wondering if you had any
experience with that stuff.

The founder of the club and former head Maintenance Officer has been
agitating for a LoPresti Howl Cowl for the last 10 years, but the club
never went for it. Now he's agitating for a twin, but there is no
insurance company in the country that will insure a twin in a flying club
(except maybe for clubs that already have a twin and are grandfathered in,
but I wouldn't bet on it).


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"The surreality of the universe tends towards a maximum" -- Skud's Law
"Never formulate a law or axiom that you're not prepared to live with
the consequences of." -- Skud's Meta-Law

(Paul Tomblin) writes:

The founder of the club and former head Maintenance Officer has been
agitating for a LoPresti Howl Cowl for the last 10 years, but the club
never went for it. Now he's agitating for a twin, but there is no
insurance company in the country that will insure a twin in a flying club
(except maybe for clubs that already have a twin and are grandfathered in,
but I wouldn't bet on it).

The Canadian flying clubs I'm familiar with seem to have at least one
twin for ME training, but I more and more get the impression that
"flying club" means something entirely different on the two sides of
the border.

In Canada, a flying club (at least in my part of the country) is
essentially a non-profit FBO, and some of them date back to the 1920's
to 1940's (in the late 1920's, for example, our flying club founded
what later became Ottawa's international airport). Flying clubs
generally have a clubhouse, one or more employees, a few hundred
members, and a member-elected board, much like a country club (only
more fun and much cheaper to belong -- maybe USD 100/year in dues, and
typically no initiation fee).

In the U.S., it sounds like a flying club is more like a big
partnership.


All the best,


David