Every 100 hours, it was the same-old, same-old. I could barely keep my eyes open while doing yet another 100-hour inspection on the same trainer I had just inspected a month ago and the month before that and on and on. Each time I did the inspection, I had to play a game where I figured that if I looked hard enough, I’d find something wrong. But in the dozens of times I inspected those airplanes, I never found a broken wing bolt or spar or other major structural damage.
What I did find was that I spent 90 percent of my time looking in inspection holes and checking those bolts and spars and by the time I was nearly done and ready to fix all the discrepancies (squawks) that were on my list, the front desk was desperate for the airplane to get back on the line so it could resume making money.
Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.
More In Maintenance and Modifications
