Aircraft Annual Inspections in Northampton

Aircraft annual inspections

An annual inspection is the scheduled airworthiness check your aircraft needs every twelve months. Swift Aero carries out annual and scheduled inspections on general aviation aircraft at Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton, as a UK CAA-approved Combined Airworthiness Organisation (Part-CAO, ref UK.CAO.1051).

What an annual inspection covers

An annual is a full look at the aircraft against the manufacturer's inspection schedule, not a walk round with a torch. Panels and cowlings come off, the airframe and the engine are inspected, and what is found is written up before the aircraft goes back into service.

Across UK general aviation, an annual normally takes in:

Airframe and engine inspection to the manufacturer's schedule for the type
Flying control checks, cable tensions and rigging
Cylinder compression readings and an oil filter inspection
A corrosion survey, weighted towards the areas the type is known for
A review of airworthiness directives and service bulletins for compliance
Logbooks, worksheets and the paperwork that goes with the aircraft

What yours needs depends on the type, its age and the maintenance programme it is on. Work that goes beyond the inspection itself is quoted separately: engine overhaul, structural repairs, corrosion treatment and the rest of our maintenance services.

Scheduled checks between annuals

Not everything falls due once a year. Most maintenance programmes carry hours-based checks in between, and where a type's programme uses 50-hour and 100-hour intervals those cover oil and filter changes, a shorter look at the engine and airframe, and any item the manufacturer has put on an hours limit.

Life-limited parts, hoses and instrument checks are tracked separately again, each on its own hours or calendar limit. Send us your programme and current hours and we will tell you what is coming up.

Airworthiness review

An airworthiness review is a separate process, run on its own cycle, covering the aircraft's records as well as the aircraft. Passing an annual does not by itself deal with it, and the two are easy to conflate.

An annual inspection and an airworthiness review are two different things. Tell us where your aircraft is in its ARC cycle and we will confirm what we handle in-house and what we co-ordinate for you.

What to send us

To give you a sensible answer we need the basics up front:

Registration and aircraft type
Airframe, engine and propeller hours
The date of the last annual, and who carried it out
Defects you already know about, and anything deferred at the last check

The more of that we have before the aircraft arrives, the fewer surprises there are once the panels are off.

Common questions about annual inspections

Is an annual due by calendar date or by flying hours?

By calendar. An annual falls due twelve months after the last one, whether the aircraft has flown two hundred hours in that time or twenty. Hours-based checks run alongside it on their own intervals, which is why two aircraft of the same type can sit on quite different schedules.

What happens if a defect turns up during the inspection?

You hear about it before anything is done. The finding gets written up with what it will take to put right, and nothing beyond the inspection itself goes ahead without your agreement. Some defects have to be cleared before the aircraft flies again, others can be deferred and recorded properly. We will tell you which is which.

My aircraft has been parked for a long time. Does that change anything?

It changes what we look for. Aircraft that sit still suffer differently from aircraft that fly: internal engine corrosion, perished hoses and seals, flat-spotted tyres, battery and instrument trouble, and directives that fell due while it was standing. Say how long it has been out of use when you get in touch.