Appendix VIII Limited Pilot-owner Maintenance

In addition to the requirements laid down in Annex I (Part-M), the following basic principles are to be complied with before any maintenance task is carried out under the terms of Pilot-owner maintenance:

(a)Competence and responsibility

1.The Pilot-owner is always responsible for any maintenance that he performs.

2.Before carrying out any Pilot-owner maintenance tasks, the Pilot-owner must satisfy himself that he is competent to do the task. It is the responsibility of Pilot-owners to familiarize themselves with the standard maintenance practices for their aircraft and with the aircraft maintenance programme. If the Pilot-owner is not competent for the task to be carried out, the task cannot be released by the Pilot-owner.

3.The Pilot-owner (or his contracted CAMO or CAO) is responsible for identifying the Pilot-owner tasks according to these basic principles in the maintenance programme and for ensuring that the document is updated in a timely manner.

4.The approval of the maintenance programme has to be carried out in accordance with point M.A.302.

(b)Tasks The Pilot-owner may carry out simple visual inspections or operations to check for general condition and obvious damage and normal operation of the airframe, engines, systems and components. Maintenance tasks shall not be carried out by the Pilot-owner when the task:

1.is a critical maintenance task;

2.requires the removal of major components or major assembly and/or;

3.is carried out in compliance with an Airworthiness Directive or an Airworthiness Limitation Item, unless specifically allowed in the AD or the ALI and/or;

4.requires the use of special tools, calibrated tools (except torque wrench and crimping tool) and/or;

5.requires the use of test equipments or special testing (e.g. NDT, system tests or operational checks for avionic equipment) and/or;

6.is composed of any unscheduled special inspections (e.g. heavy landing check) and/or;

7.is effecting systems essential for the IFR operations and/or;

8.is listed in Appendix VII to this Annex or is a component maintenance task in accordance with points M.A.502(a), (b), (c) or (d). The criteria 1 to 8 cannot be overridden by less restrictive instructions issued in accordance with ‘M.A.302(d) Maintenance Programme’. Any task described in the aircraft flight manual as preparing the aircraft for flight (Example: assembling the glider wings or pre-flight), is considered to be a pilot task and is not considered a Pilot-owner maintenance task and therefore does not require a Certificate of Release to Service.

(c)Performance of the maintenance Pilot-owner tasks and records The maintenance data as specified in point M.A.401 must be always available during the conduct of Pilot-owner maintenance and must be complied with. Details of the data referred to in the conduct of Pilot-owner maintenance must be included in the Certificate of Release to Service in accordance with point M.A.803(d). The Pilot-owner must inform the approved continuing airworthiness management organisation responsible for the continuing airworthiness of the aircraft (if applicable) not later than 30 days after completion of the Pilot-owner maintenance task in accordance with point M.A.305(a).