100 HR Inspections

[lymanm]

My flight school's 2 172s happened to run up to their 100 HR inspections at the same time; beautiful weekend, fully booked, so there are alot of disappointed students (and instructors!). Yeah, it was poor planning on our part, but the airplanes flew about twice as much as they normally do over the past 2 days. Now my question is this:

According to 91.409, "...no person may operate an aircraft carrying any person (other than a crewmember) for hire, and no person may give flight instruction for hire in an aircraft which that person provides, unless within the preceding 100 hours of time in service the aircraft has received an annual or 100-hour inspection and been approved for return to service in accordance with part 43 of this chapter or has received an inspection for the issuance of a airworthiness certificate in accordance with part 21 of this chapter."

My flight school is claiming that renters can still rent the aircraft past its 100 hour inspection due date because renters are not "carrying any person for hire". I've never heard of this, but from the reg above, it seems it's the case. The AI here says he's never heard of this practice, but a rival flight school does this all the time. Anyone with any insight info to prove this one way or another? I'm inclined to say that renters, by paying the flight school to rent the aircraft, are engaging in a commercial transaction...

 

[CDVdriver]

Interpretation of 91.409

As the school and therefore the owner(operator), if we rent out an airplane we "operate" it.
Our operations allows flight training and rentals.
Back to 91.409(b) : ..." no person may operate an aircraft carrying any person ( other than a crewmember)
for hire...."
By renting it out we are by definition operating it. SO NO YOU CAN NOT
Crewmember= ( part 1.1 page 3 FARAIM 2004) means a person assigned to perform duty in an aircraft during flight time.
This argument may be a little shaky but to me a renter is not a crewmember by this definition.
A renter chooses to fly a particular airplane and is not assigned as an employee would be.
So the exemption for crewmembers goes out the window IMHO.

My advice: Do not get caught renting out airplanes past their 100hr.
However with 0.1 to go the plane can still go on a flight, however no landing is to be made at any other airports but the home airport. 91.409 ..." may be exceeded by not more than 10 hrs while enroute to a place where the inspections can be made "... so your home airport where the plane is based

 

[de727ups]

100 hours

100 hours aren't required to rent. Only if the flight school (or CFI) is providing the aircraft for the instruction do you need it. A CFI can do instruction in an aircraft he doesn't provide and there is no need for a 100 hour inspection. The "for hire" references don't apply to aircraft rental. I've known several flight schools that rent beyond the 100 hour inspection. In fact, if you were renting only and not doing any instruction, there would be no need for 100 hour inspections (other than that they are a good maintenance practice)

 

[BWatz]

I agree with the above. The 100 hour is not required for rentals.

 

[Alchemy]

I've been making it clear to my students that the 100hr inspection is not required for aicraft rental. The FSDO and local DPE's agree on this issue.

I've also had to make a deliberate effort to make sure my students know that the 100 hr goes in both the engine and airframe logbooks, while the annual will only show up in the airframe logbook. Had one guy almost trip himself up on that during the oral.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I'm inclined to say that renters, by paying the flight school to rent the aircraft, are engaging in a commercial transaction...

But they are not "carrying passengers for hire", which is what triggers the 100 hour inspection requirement if it's not being used for flight training. In other words, the requirement is triggered by using the airplane in order to carry passengers who pay a fee for a flight, not for paying a fee to use the airplane. The folks who said that you may rent airplanes without 100 hour inspections is correct.

Only one thing. I've looked at a number of situations in which recurring ADs were timed to coincide with 100 inspections to reduce down time, so you might want to check those out also.

 

[avbug]

During a rental, a flight school or FBO is not operating the airplane unless they send a paid employee to pilot the airplane, or employ the renter to perform a function in the airplane for the school or FBO.

A rental airplane does not require 100 hour inspections. Only an annual inspection, or phase inspections or other Approved Aircraft Inspection Program (AAIP), as applicable.

In this case, the airplane may be flown over the 100 hour in order to be rented, or 10 hours over for the purpose of repositioning the airplane (those 10 hours must be taken off the next subsequent 100 hour inspection interval).

However, before the aircraft may be used for carrying passengers for hire, or flight instruction, it must be reinspected to place it within 100 hours of an inspection meeting the scope and detail of a Part 43.

If the aircraft is used for other purposes at other times, however, such as Part 135 operations, it cannot be allowed to go beyond the inspection intervals. If this airplane, for example, is used for 135 charter as well as flight instruction and rental, it must still always operate within the inspection intervals established for that 135 operation...regardless of what it may be doing at any given time. In other words, if it's used for a program (such as Part 135) part of the time, it must be maintained under that program and to that standard all of the time, even if it's used on the side for rental, flight instruction, or inflight orgy fests.

It's legal to rent the airplane. However, 100 hour inspections serve a purpose. Many pilots don't realize that there is no difference between a 100 hour inspection and an annual inspection; they are identical, except for the wording of the signature of the individual signing it off, and the qualification of the individual. A 100 hour inspection may be performed by an A&P mechanic, but an annual requires an inspection authorization (IA) signoff. That's the only difference.

I've found a lot of things during 100 hour inspections that should not and could not have waited for a later time. You may be losing some revenue in rentals to do the inspections, but you should do them. Get your mechanic in there and get those inspections done. Trying to skate by on loopholes is at best a fools errand, and serves little purpose. Do the inspections.