In my early days as an aircraft owner in the late 1960s and 1970s, taking my airplane in for its annual inspection was not much different from taking my car in for 10,000-mile service. I'd make an appointment with the shop, taxi the plane over to the maintenance hangar, hand over the keys and maintenance logs, sign a couple of forms, and ask the shop to call me when the airplane was ready. A week or two later, I'd get a phone call, drive over to the shop, be handed an invoice, write a check, get my keys and logs back, and taxi off into the sunset.It wasn't until the late 1980s that I participated in my first owner-assisted annual. That turned out to be a watershed event in my 35-year career as an aircraft owner. For reasons I can't exactly recall anymore, I decided to take two weeks off from work to watch and help during the annual inspection of my 1979 Cessna T310R.Wow, what a fascinating experience! In those two weeks, I learned more about my airplane than I ever thought possible, became fascinated with the mechanical aspects of the airplane, and much to my surprise found myself starting down the path to ever-increasing involvement with and expertise about my machine that ultimately led to me earning my A&P (mechanic) certificate more than a decade later.I fully appreciate that most aircraft owners are too busy to devote two weeks a year to swinging wrenches on their airplane, and few have any real interest in the maintenance side of aircraft ownership. Heck, I felt the same way myself back then. Nevertheless, an owner-assisted annual is such a valuable learning experience that I strongly urge every aircraft owner to go through the process at least once as an essential part of his aviation education. Even if you never do it again, you'll have learned a tremendous amount about your aircraft, and you'll be far better equipped to talk intelligently with your mechanic and make well-informed maintenance decisions.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/ownership/the-savvy-aviator-5-owner-assisted-annuals