When I handed Tecnam Bravo 24-5300 over to the MRO for its periodic inspection, I thought it would be back in a couple of days after a quick health check. The aircraft was in great condition and flew magnificently even hands-off. This was the first time in my flying career that I was sending my own aircraft in for a periodic.
The exercise would prove to be one of the largest and most complex lessons I would learn in my aviation career, a lesson which wiped out the last vestige of naivety I had left.
Also known as the 100-hourly or the annual inspection, a periodic must be done for the maintenance release to be renewed, and as the common names suggest, has to be done every 100 hours or every 12 months.
Having spent my 38 years of aviation in the GA stream, I understood well that only a maintenance engineer could perform a periodic inspection. But 5300 is not a GA plane; it’s an LSA registered with Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus), and one of the main points of differential is that you can do your own maintenance on an RAAus aeroplane.
But it’s not that simple. Periodic inspections take time, skill and a touch of knowing what the hell you're doing to make the aeroplane safe and airworthy again. Just
