Did you know...About annual inspections?

We recently received an interesting e-mail from a COPA member who owns an early model Cessna 150:
“Briefly and to the point: the present Annual Inspection causes unnecessary financial hardship and inconvenience to owners with aircraft that have very low or zero flight hours since the last inspection. Such inspection cannot be justified by the typical safety arguments of Transport Canada (TC) or AME.
“I suggest strongly that any inspection must also be based on factors related to usage of the aircraft. Please give this your consideration.”
This question actually brings up some interesting points and the answer probably contains factors some COPA members may not have considered:
We have recently had some regulatory conversations with TC on just this subject - or a variation of it. Our proposal at that time was annual inspections should be able to be done anytime during the month due, just like medicals are. In other words if your last annual was May 15, 2005 then your next one would be due May 31, 2006.
TC totally rejected the request for a number of reasons. Firstly it would violate international agreements.
Under ICAO rules no normal category aircraft can be flown more than 365 days after its last annual inspection.
Secondly, TC was concerned that some aircraft could go up to 13 months between an annual which is unacceptable to them.
The annual inspections are there for two reasons - to find things which wear out from use and also to find things which corrode from lack-of-use, and so, TC feels that even if the plane doesn’t fly it still needs the annual inspection.
Suggesting to TC they should do away with annual inspections for small aircraft and replace it with a timed inspection of say, 100 hours, would fail to fly with them. Besides, those members who fly more than 100 hours a year would be unhappy as they would have to have two or more annual inspections per year!
If you are still interested in having the CAR 605.86 changed so it doesn’t require an annual inspection, then I suggest you have a look at the article we have on how to change the CARs in the COPA Did You Knows on our website www.copanational.org.
If you can come up with data and a risk assessment that shows an equivalent level of safety could be maintained, then there may be a case to proceed!
There are also some other possible ways of getting what seems to be savings in the cost of an annual inspection.
1. You could apply for your own custom maintenance inspection schedule and have that approved by TC under CAR 625.86. However I doubt they will approve a schedule that doesn’t include the same items over a year as an annual inspection - although you could design it as a “progressive” inspection program, so it isn’t all done at once.
2. You could apply for an exemption to CAR 625.86, but you would have to show that you can propose something that gives an “equivalent level of safety” and “is in the public interest.” Application fee for an exemption is $450.
3. If you own an early model C-150, you could simply put it in the Owner-Maintenance category, since it is eligible. You are still required to have an annual inspection, but you can do all the work yourself which could save you a substantial amount of money.
4. You could always buy an amateur-built aircraft. This would give you the same benefits as the O-M category - you can do your own annual inspection.
5. You could buy an advanced ultralight aircraft instead. These do not have an annual inspection requirement, but you must maintain them in accordance with the manufacturer’s maintenance program, which is TC approved. TC does not approve them unless they have an annual inspection included or the equivalent in a progressive fashion.
Again in this category you can do your own annual inspection. Most AULAs these days are less expensive to run than a C-150 and quite a number, like the CT2K will outperform the 150 by quite a margin on the same or less horsepower.
6. You can always buy a basic ultralight. These truly have no annual inspection or any other maintenance requirements, which is why you cannot carry passengers in them.
7. You can always work with your AME and do much of the labour on the annual inspection yourself. Many AMEs are happy to let owners remove the seats and open all the panels, do the lubing and other tasks. That makes the job easier and should save you money similarly to the O-M category.
8. Of course, the best answer I can come up with is you should just fly your airplane a lot more to get more value from your annual inspection. Airplanes rust if they sit - it is better to get out and fly them!