AMTonline Blogs

I was in Minnesota earlier this week to get my eight hours of training for my IA. Even though I wrote the test in AMT that readers can use for four hours of credit, and AMTonline.com has more than nine hours of virtual IA seminars available, I didn’t want there to be any perception of conflict of interest, so I sat in on the two-day seminar put on by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

I’m glad I did. There were a lot of good presentations. One that stood out was a one-hour presentation by Greg Reigel, an aviation attorney, on legal issues of concern to aircraft mechanics. In the presentation, he brought up FAA vs. Law — the case that came out last year where the NTSB ruled that complying with manufacturer’s service bulletins is mandatory. The ruling created a storm of controversy, since FAA had always said that service bulletins are only mandatory if they are referenced in an AD. In the end, FAA clarified their stand and again said that service bulletins, even though referenced in the maintenance manual, were not mandatory for Part 91 operations unless specifically referenced in an AD.

Problem solved, right?

Maybe not. Mr. Reigel warned the room full of IA’s that they may be setting themselves up for a civil lawsuit in regards to logbook signoffs. Apparently, the NTSB ruling created a trend of OEM’s incorporating statements in their maintenance manuals such as, “All service bulletins are considered part of this maintenance manual, and compliance with them is mandatory.” Reigel warns about the possible implications of signing off a logbook entry with the words “Performed an annual inspection in accordance with manufacturer’s maintenance manual.” If that maintenance manual happens to have that wording making service bulletins “mandatory,” that IA could be in an attorney’s sights in the case of an accident. After all, in a legal sense the IA really didn’t do it “in accordance with the manufacturer’s maintenance manual” if that manual says all service bulletins are mandatory, and the service bulletins were not done.

Reigel offered two tips. One, don’t sign off the logbook referencing the maintenance manual. Instead use Appendix D of part 43 for the annual inspection checklist. The second tip was to make a list of all service bulletins that are not incorporated. Have the owner sign this list saying he or she is aware of the service bulletins not complied with. Then keep a copy for your records. Make a logbook entry stating that a list of all service bulletins not complied with was presented to owner for corrective action. That puts the burden on the owner.

Needless to say, Mr. Reigel’s presentation raised a lot of questions. If the session was two hours long, I still don’t think there would have been enough time to get through all the questions the IAs in the room had.

What do you think about the Mr. Reigel’s warning about logbook signoffs? If we try not to refer to maintenance manuals in our signoffs, are we sacrificing safety and thoroughness in fear of possible legal action down the road? Is it even an issue?

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar

Today is the last day of Aviation Industry Expo. It has been another great show. I thought I’d go ahead and update my blog before heading to the show floor this morning.

The big news of the day yesterday was the announcement of the winners of the PAMA Olympics. It was an exciting competition, with four maintenance teams competing for the coveted championship trophy. There were two A&P schools in the competition, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Aviation Institute of Maintenance. There were also two returning teams, returning champions Midcoast Aviation and the team from Southwest Airlines. Even though the two student teams were made up of students currently studying to become A&Ps, I must say they held their own against the two veteran teams. It was great to see everyone in the competition.

Midcoast had their eyes set on winning the championship for the fourth year in a row. But they had a hungry team from Southwest determined to stop the winning streak and take the trophy back with them to Dallas. In the final round, it was Midcoast and Southwest competing for the gold. It was a close finish, but the team from Southwest came out victorious and became the 2007 PAMA Olympics champions. Congratulations Southwest!

Even though Southwest won the championship and took the gold, it wouldn’t be fair to say they were the winners of the competition. You see, everybody that competed in the Olympics over the last several days were winners. The professionalism and skills displayed by the teams throughout the competition, and the friendships they made both on and off the Olympic arena floor, showed all of us what it means to be true aircraft maintenance professionals.

In closing, I’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to a huge aviation buff. Noah Neiser had a birthday yesterday. I was able to take a few minutes away from the show floor to call him and wish him a Happy Birthday. Noah has a passion for aviation, and has goals of becoming a pilot. I had the opportunity to take a few minutes to walk around the show floor with Noah for last year at the HeliExpo tradeshow in Dallas. He enjoyed seeing all of the helicopters on display and even got to try his hands piloting a helicopter at one of the simulators. Happy Birthday Noah!

Oh yeah, Noah is my nephew and just turned eight. If anyone would like to wish this future aviator a Happy Birthday, fell free to leave a comment.

Time to head for the show floor. Thanks for reading, and thanks for letting me make my nephew’s day!

Joe Escobar

The first day of Aviation Industry Expo is over, and what a busy day it has been. As I announced in my blog last week, today was my first day stepping into the world of video broadcasting. It is now late in the evening. The cameras have stopped rolling, the video production crew is holed up in their room editing all of my video interviews, and we are on track to have our first video highlights of Aviation Industry Expo posted tomorrow morning (hopefully by the time you read this).

Overall, I must say it has been a humbling experience. I thought the world of magazine publishing was hectic, but little did I realize how it paled in comparison to video production. My whole day was busy scheduling interviews, sitting in on conferences, and doing my wrap-up session at the end of the day. All of that for a final product of about 6 minutes of video.

Be sure to check out the video on AMTonline.com. And stay tuned for coverage of the second day of Aviation Industry Expo.

Thanks for reading (and watching)!

Joe Escobar

When I first joined Aircraft Maintenance Technology almost seven years ago, I was excited and at the same time a little nervous. As an A&P and IA who had been reading AMT magazine for years, I was looking forward to working with the AMT team. However, you might imagine how difficult it was to write that first article knowing that more than 41,000 of my peers would be reading it. But once I got through that first issue, my nervousness quickly faded as I became more familiar with the job. Thanks to the encouragement and feedback from AMT readers, the transition from a QA inspector to magazine editor was fairly painless.

I think a little of that “rookie” nervousness may re-appear next week. I will be venturing into new territory as I step into the fringes of broadcast journalism. AMT will have video coverage of Aviation Industry Expo next week from sunny Orlando, with daily video updates the first two days of the show. I will be interviewing people at the show and doing daily video wrap-ups.

If you tune in next week, don’t expect to see someone in a stuffy suit with makeup trying to pretend he is a big-time news broadcaster like Tom Brokaw. Instead, you’ll see an A&P and IA with scars on his hands from safety wire pigtails and cotter pins who will be roaming the show floor looking for news items that will be informative and entertaining. Like the magazine, it will be produced by aircraft maintenance professionals for aircraft maintenance professionals.

So be sure to check AMTonline.com next week for my coverage of Aviation Industry Expo.

Thanks for reading.

Joe Escobar

A couple of weeks ago, I used the headline It’s Not Easy Being Green for my blog. I talked about buying carbon credits to offset the effects hydrocarbons have on the environment. A news item I read this morning begged for the same headline, so here it goes — It’s Not Easy Being Green part two.

The Stars and Stripes reports that a staff sergeant in the Air Force’s 35th aircraft maintenance unit was sentenced to three months in jail and received a bad conduct discharge for his part in an incident where a frog was thrown into a an F-16 engine.

A running F-16 engine.

It appears someone wanted to spice up his myspace.com web page and decided filming a frog being thrown into a running jet engine would be a cool way to do that. So the frog assassins entered a hush house (where high power engine runs are done to help reduce noise) on June 26, 2006. Since engines are being operated at high power settings, a hush house is a no-FOD area, and maintenance personnel are instructed not to bring any foreign objects into the area. I guess these guys didn’t think some frogs and a video camera counted as FOD. So they began their amateur film career by filming the frog being tossed into the engine. The video was posted on a myspace.com web page where it remained for nine days.

Maybe it’s just me, but if you are going to do something illegal or against the regulations, isn’t is pretty stupid to post evidence of your shenanigans on the internet? I guess these guys didn’t think so, since the video contained the F-16’s tail markings identifying it as part of the 8th Fighter Wing.

All 41 aircraft in the Wing were grounded following discovery of the incident. Seems the Air Force doesn’t look favorably on foreign objects being intentionally thrown into jet engines. The resulting inspection of the fleet involved 400 mechanics having to work over the weekend to inspect the fleet to ensure no other engines were used as frog atomization devices.

By the way, the mechanic who filmed the incident and another who attempted to throw a frog into the engine but missed have been sentenced. The actual frog tosser caught on film is still awaiting trial.

You can click here to read the full story.

Thanks for reading,

Joe Escobar