$40,000, and he’s not about to sign off
your annual unless you do. So how do you
resolve the deadlock?
Simple: You direct him to complete
the annual inspection without overhauling or replacing the engine and to sign off
the annual with a discrepancy. Once the
annual is finished and you get your airplane out of the shop (with a disapproval
and a discrepancy list), you go find some
other A&P whose views on engine TBO
are compatible with yours, and you ask
him to clear the discrepancy by certifying
that your engine is airworthy. Now you’re
good to go.
In the past four years, my firm
has managed about 700 annual inspec-
tions. Ninety-nine percent of them
went smoothly and concluded with
approvals for return to service. But
in four cases, we wound up directing
the shop to sign off the annual with
discrepancies.
Another reason you might want
to flunk an annual is when you
find yourself disagreeing with
your IA about how to deal with
one or more discrepancies.
In the third case, the shop that
inspected a client’s Cessna P210 estimated
that it would cost at least $70,000 to repair
the aircraft and sign off the annual as
Figure 4—An application for a ferry permit (FAA Form 8130-6).
Figure 3—The discrepancy list.
Figure 5—A ferry permit.
56 Sport Aviation March 2012
