Rental aircraft logs

Peter Duniho wrote:
Of course, there's a possibility the aircraft might be unairworthy, and you
might be called out on it by the FAA. But I've never heard of a case where
the FAA went aggressively after a pilot who flew a rental that turned out to
not have its logbooks in order.


An article in the Sept. 2000 issue of AOPA Pilot ("Aircraft inspection and
the renter pilot," pg 136) describes how the FAA suspended a renter pilot's
certificate for 30 days after it was discovered that the annual inspection
of the Cessna 152 the pilot had rented had expired 12 days before the
pilot's flight. The pilot appealed to the NTSB, which upheld the FAA's
suspension. According to the article, this decision created new precedent
establishing that renter pilots cannot rely on the FBO to assure aicraft
airworthiness.

Now whenever I go to a new FBO to rent from, I insist on seeing the aircraft
logs, and present a copy of this article if there is any question. If the
FBO still refuses, I will not rent from them.


Ross Oliver

"Ross Oliver" wrote in message
...
An article in the Sept. 2000 issue of AOPA Pilot ("Aircraft inspection and
the renter pilot," pg 136) describes how the FAA suspended a renter
pilot's
certificate for 30 days after it was discovered that the annual inspection
of the Cessna 152 the pilot had rented had expired 12 days before the
pilot's flight.

I don't consider that to be an "aggressive" action. I didn't mean to imply
that the FAA never goes after renters for stuff like this. Just that they
don't consider it a major violation, AFAIK.

For what it's worth, I may not check the logbooks every flight, but I do
expect any FBO from which I rent to have some sort of record-keeping and
dispatch procedure that keeps me apprised of when the annual is due, so that
I can avoid flying an airplane that's out of annual. The renter in the case
you mention would have done well to follow a similar policy.

Pete