Participants found some maintenance and airworthiness issues affecting the recreational aviation sector.
Key concerns included ageing aircraft, ongoing maintenance challenges and differences in maintenance oversight for owner-maintained aircraft. Participants also discussed differences in the engineering support available across the sector.
What you can do
Operators and maintainers can support continuing airworthiness by:
- keeping accurate maintenance records
- reporting and tracking defects
- following approved maintenance procedures and manufacturer instructions
- monitoring corrosion, fatigue and component life limits
- maintaining maintenance skills and independent oversight where appropriate
- encouraging pilots to report defects and unusual aircraft behaviour.
Regular reviews of aircraft use, storage conditions and maintenance history can also help find potential issues. This is especially important for older aircraft and those operating in coastal environments.
What we have done
We support continuing airworthiness through:
- surveillance and audit activities
- maintenance education and safety promotion
- engagement with ASAOs and maintainers
- monitoring occurrence data and defect trends
- providing airworthiness guidance.
We also promote occurrence reporting to help identify maintenance and engineering issues early.