Pre-flight check

It is easy to trust a plane is ready to fly if one thinks it is well maintained. We pilots build up practices to do a thorough inspection of the plane using a checklist as part of the pre-flight procedures. This includes things like checking the surface and controls, looking for water and contaminants in the gas, checking the oil, inspecting the propeller, tires, struts, brakes, lights, static port, and air-inlets, including the pitot tube and fuel air inlet.

Is this enough? NO. The PIC must validate that the plane is airworthy. This means the airplane is in a safe condition for flight and in compliance with approved data or approved altered state. Approved data includes the POH associate with the aircraft, any logged approved and logged alterations to the aircraft including equipment and any Airworthiness Directives (A/D). An A/D can be met either by complying with the A/D in one of the ways described in the A/D or through a specific approved request sent to the FAA administrator for an alternative (such as complete removal of the faulty equipment).

Prior to each flight, the PIC needs to verify that the plane is compliance. Included in this validation process is checking the engine log for 100 hour inspections, propeller log for 100 hour inspection and the airframe log for the annual. These are usual all done as part of the annual along with the ELT inspection (battery 50% of life or used more than an hour. Other things to check include the 24 month inspection of the transponder and pitot static system. These go together since Mode C transponder report altimeter readings.

Lastly, the oil changes are required to be compliant with manufacturer recommendations. This can be as often as every 20 hours.

Seems like alot to do. It is not if you familiar with the aircraft. For any aircraft new to you as a pilot, it is worth going through all this with the maintenance log books. It is good practice and, if something were to go wrong, you, as a PIC, can say that you completed a thorough inspection. Your passengers will thank you as well!