The Annual Condition Inspection is a two phase process of determining
the condition of your airplane and completing specific maintenance activities
on systems that require routine maintenance. Its purpose is to establish
the condition of your airplane and return it to service in a safe and
legal condition.
The first phase is the actual inspection process which is followed by the maintenance phase.
What's Involved?
The Inspection Phase for the RV series normally takes two full days. It starts with a full aircraft record audit. This includes an Airworthiness Directive and Service Bulletin search, followed by a comprehensive inspection and maintenance action.
But you say, “Just a minute here, I didn't think that AD's apply to my Experimental!” Certainly the debate on this issue is ongoing and often very heated. But while the debate goes on, the highest level of safety must be maintained for those of us who fly as well as the people and property we fly over. The EAA has published two position papers on this subject.
Click HERE to read the EAA's position papers on ADs.
Firebird Aviation’s policy is to comply with ADs’ not necessarily from a legal standpoint, but from a safety standpoint; our highest standard. Airworthiness Directives are issued solely to identify and repair conditions that render aircraft unsafe to operate. Certainly an Annual Condition Inspection can not be signed off in good conscience knowing an unsafe condition may exist. When it comes to resale, an aircraft that has complied with ADs will be of higher quality and therefore demand a higher price.
Firebird Aviation maintains an extensive technical library so that we can ferret out the details. We look for AD’s that apply to parts that may be in non-certificated assemblies. A good example is Lycoming’s bad crankshaft AD, AD 98-17-11. Your engine may have been built using parts from various engines, which is perfectly legal. But wouldn’t you like to know if your crankshaft is a good one?
Phase 2
Next,
all of the access panels are removed to allow for a rigorous visual inspection.
Naturally we want to find any major problems but, in this phase, we also
want to find any minor discrepancies that are easily corrected before
they become expensive repairs, or worse, cause some sort of in-flight
problem. Everything under the cowl is thoroughly inspected. During the
oil change, the filter and screens are closely examined for tell-tale
signs of distress. The air filter is either cleaned, if it is a K&N,
or replaced. Fuel filters and screens are examined and cleaned. Fuel injectors
are inspected and cleaned. The ignition system is inspected and a Differential
Compression Test is performed on each cylinder with the proper up-to-date
test equipment. Included is a thorough boroscope inspection of the interior
of each cylinder.
Click HERE to see a SAMPLE Checklist.