� Q: I am attending a small flight school that has a professional pilot program. I am annoyed by the many maintenance problems we have with the fleet of old steam-gauge-equipped Skyhawks, causing lots of cancellations. Do most schools and academies have these kinds of problems?—Dave from Daytona
� A: Many schools use vintage equipment for basic flight training to keep expenses and training costs down, rather than invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in new glass-equipped machines that require higher rental rates. Older airplanes just break down more often. You do know that not everything needs to be working for an airplane to be airworthy for a particular flight, don’t you? Those items that must be functioning for day VFR are listed in FAR 91.205, such as fuel gauges, compass, tachometer, altimeter, et cetera.
Things get tricky when you get into FAR 91.213. The basic rule of thumb is that everything, down to the cigarette lighter and the cabin dome light, must be operational. But, unless the broken item is one of the must items in FAR 91.205, the pilot can defer the repair or replacement if it is deemed nonessential to the safety of flight. The item must be properly deactivated by the airman and recorded in the aircraft maintenance records (a private pilot or above can do that), and the failed unit placarded Inoperative until the repair or replacement is made. If the broken part is to be removed, only a certificated airframe and powerplant mechanic can perform the work. However, there is additional relief for operators using an approved minimum equipment list (MEL) that provides detailed FAA guidance on what equipment can be inoperative but the flight can continue with certain limitations and procedures
It is somewhat amazing that the majority of flight schools do not employ MELs for their fleets. MELs can keep the airplanes flying and the cash register ringing. All professional pilots flying everything from regional jets up to Boeing 777s routinely use MELs to make go/no-go decisions. Students might as well get familiar with using one early on.
Take a look at the single-engine master minimum equipment list (MMEL) at http://fsims.faa.gov. Click on Publications, then MMEL. An operator’s MEL is developed based upon the FAA’s MMEL. For example, if one fuel gauge has quit on your Cessna, you are dead in the water without an MEL. And, no, you cannot placard it INOP. But, if you have an approved MEL, it says such may be inoperative provided “a) A reliable means is established to determine that fuel quantity on board meets the regulatory requirements for flight, and b) Procedures are established to ensure fuel balance.” So, top off the tanks and use your watch to switch tanks every 30 minutes.
Many training flights can be launched with certain mechanical glitches using the deferral process in hopes that a timely repair can be made overnight. Spread these ideas at the school, tell the honchos to contact the local flight standards district office for MEL approval, and keep ’em flying.
