2005-08-13 07:27 | fche blog flying on the ground
Two weeks ago today, that troubled magneto has started to disintegrate during a series of flights.
When the problem became obvious, I grounded the plane. There it has stayed since, waiting for overhaul of that one and inspections of the three others. In one week, the airplane must go down for a few-week annual inspection also. So, it looks like 4-6 weeks of the summer flying season will be lost this year.
These airplanes are down a lot in any year. Some of the time is voluntary – a month on some voluntary upgrade, but the rest is for scheduled inspections and unscheduled (emergency) repairs. Of the first 12 months after buying GXRP, I think it was under maintenance for at least 4 of them in total – bringing it up to a higher level of snuff than its previous owner would. We still managed to put around 200 hours into the logbook. This second 12 months has been better, but this current repair may push it from 2 to 3 months in total downtime. With the avionics stack now finished to dreamy specifications, I anticipate no voluntary (upgrade-oriented) downtime next year, so hope to get the total downtime closer to one month.