Asking FBO maintenance Questions

[evapilotaz]

The Airplane I have been renting was down for Maintenance and I was unable to fly it on my scheduled day. All I was told that the airplane was "not airworthy" and no ETA when it could be rented again. As a frequent renter I think it would be ok to ask maintenance questions of any of their airplanes. Is it out of line to ask to review maintenance logs for any of their airplanes? Being told an airplane was not airworthy kind of making me nervous to fly it again when it becomes airworthy again without knowing the real reason.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Lets take the 100 hour maintenance requirements for this airplane for an example because its a rental. If its past 100 hours and haven't gone through maintenance is it deemed not airworthy? I would have to review the logs to make sure this maintenance was performed because I'm the PIC and I determined if the aircraft is airworthy.

Again the airplane was grounded for unknown reasons to me. How would I know its airworthy without seeing the logs. I just take the FBO Dispatchers word for it?

If you review 91.409(b) you'll see that it is perfectly legal to rent and fly an airplane that has flown more than 100 hours since the last inspection. You just can't do flight training in it with a CFI or carry any paying passengers. You'd be fine to fly yourself on a PPL with non-paying passengers like family or friends.

 

[Jim Logajan]

OK, what if its out of annual?

That wouldn't seem to change the state of airworthiness per 91.7.
But it couldn't be flown because of 91.409(a).
Of course if one includes the legal paperwork as part of what makes an aircraft airworthy then being out of annual would make it unairworthy. I think a narrower definition as indicated by 91.7 is more useful.