Preventative Maintenance on Your Aircraft

If you’re in flight training, you will, at some point, need to discuss the type of preventative maintenance you can perform on an aircraft you own or operate with your examiner. But if it’s been some time or if you rent your aircraft and preventative maintenance is taken care of by the mechanics, it’s important to remember what pilots are allowed to do regarding preventative maintenance.

Preventative Maintenance

The FAA defines preventative maintenance as “simple or minor preservation operations and the replacement of small standard parts not involving complex assembly operations.” Once the work is complete, it is required that you make a logbook entry that includes the following information:

• A description of the work performed and how it was accomplished, referencing documents acceptable to the FAA.
• The date that maintenance was performed.
• Signature, certificate number, and type of certificate held by whoever approves the work.

Types of Preventative Maintenance that Can be Performed

The following is a partial list of what a certified pilot (as defined in 14 CFR Part 43) can do:

• Service landing gear wheel bearings (cleaning, greasing, etc.)
• Service landing gear shock struts (adding oil, air, or both)
• Replace defective safety wires or cotter keys
• Install, remove, and repair landing gear tires
• Replace safety belts
• Lubricate items that do not require disassembly (cowling, fairings, cover plates, etc.)
• Replenish hydraulic fluid in the hydraulic reservoir
• Replace bulbs, reflectors, and lenses of position and landing lights
• Clean or replace spark plugs and set spark plug gap clearance
• Service and replace batteries
• Replace any hose connections, with the exception of hydraulic connections

Now that you know the type of maintenance that you are legally allowed to perform as a pilot, you may see your aircraft differently during preflight! To learn more about performing preventative maintenance on your aircraft, please contact CW Flight here in Salt Lake City, Utah.