Setting Up Maintenance Items to be Tracked

To track aircraft maintenance status, you must first set up the items to be tracked and then record the last time those maintenance items were performed. MyFBO supports an unlimited number of maintenance items (e.g., 100 hours, annuals, ADs, etc.). 

To create or update maintenance items, the aircraft must first be included in your online system as a resource. (If you need help adding a resource, please watch How to Add a Resource.) Then you will be able to add maintenance items for tracking:

1. Click the Manage Tab.
2. Click Maintenance.
3. Scroll down to the Set Up Maintenance Item Tracking section.
4. Locate Update Maintenance Items. 
5. Select the aircraft, and click Go.
6. The resulting Maintenance Items screen, pictured below, will show all the current maintenance items for the aircraft selected.

Maintenance Items

Understanding the Maintenance Items Screen

The maintenance items screen shown above is divided into six basic sections:

1. Base Data includes current meter readings used for calculating when maintenance is next due. For aircraft where a meter has been changed out, prior hours from the previous meter are added to the current hours on the new meter to result in total hours for maintenance tracking purposes. In the example above, a tachometer has just been replaced, so prior hours are 905.30, while current hours on the new meter are still 0.
2. Maintenance Plan is a list of all the maintenance items you wish to track. The Edit button allows you to go back into the definition of that maintenance item and make changes to how that item is tracked.
3. Maintenance Dates / Hours / Cycles section shows when maintenance items were last completed and when they are next due. As a general rule, the Edit button should only be used to enter the initial information when setting up a maintenance item. After setup, these numbers are calculated by the system via the entry of Maintenance Tickets when maintenance is performed.
4. Records of Meter Change Outs are included on this page when a maintenance ticket has been entered when a meter is replaced. The gold corner fields allow the reading to be changed if a mistake was made on the maintenance ticket.
5. Copy Maintenance Plan allows you to copy an existing maintenance plan from the same type aircraft already in your system to the newly entered aircraft.
6. Add New Maintenance Item allows you to add a new maintenance item to the maintenance plan.
7. Add Multiple in Category appears once a pre-defined category such as "Inspection" has been selected and allows for entry of up to ten maintenance items at once in a particular category.

Creating a Maintenance Plan / Maintenance Items

An aircraft's maintenance plan is the sum of its maintenance items. As noted above, the plan can be copied from another similar aircraft, or created for an aircraft individually.  

Maintenance Items are divided into the following categories for your convenience:

• Inspection
• Special Inspection
• Overhaul/Life Limited
• Airworthiness Directives
• Service Bulletin
• Engine
• Equipment
• Database
• High Frequency
• Other

There are also a number of predefined maintenance items for convenience:

• Annual Inspection
• Periodic Inspection
• Oil Change
• Pilot-Static Inspection
• Transponder Check
• ELT Check
• VOR Check
• Engine Overhaul
• Propeller Overhaul

When creating new maintenance items, you can choose from one of the Predefined Items or create your own item as follows:  

1. On the Maintenance Items screen, scroll down to the Add New Maintenance Item section.
2. Select a Category and Name the item. Click Go. 
3. The resulting Create Maintenance Item screen, pictured below, is where you will define the maintenance item.

   Create Maintenance Item
   

4. Enter the Date and/or Operating References or triggers. An item can be triggered by BOTH date and usage if needed. A maintenance item usually follows itself by some number of days, months, years, or hours. However, you can specify that one maintenance item follows some other item, such as an oil change following a 100-hour inspection by 50 hours.
• For date-triggered items

  "Years" means on the last day of the same month "x" years later; "Months" means on the same day of the month "x" months later; "EOM" means on the last day of the month "x" months later; "Days" means "x" days later. For maintenance items with an absolute expiration date use "Days" with a duration of zero. This will prompt the online system to request an expiration date on maintenance completion. 

• For Database category items (e.g., CD-ROM navigation data):  

  Maintenance items that fall into the Database category can be triggered with special keywords. When these keywords are included in the Maintenance Name of the maintenance item (and Date Reference is set to "Days" and Duration to "0"), completion of a maintenance ticket will automatically include a suggested next expiration based on the manufacturer's published update cycle.  

  

  For keywords "GPS", "G P S", "MFD", "M F D", "NAVDATA" or "JEPP ", the system will propose an expiration date based on the Jeppesen schedule of Fridays on a 28 day cycle.
  
  For keywords "CMAX", "JEPPVIEW" or "JEPPCHART", the system will propose an expiration date on Fridays based on a 14 day cycle.
  
  For keywords "OBSTACLE", "SAFETAXI" or "AIRPORTDIRECTORY", the system will propose an expiration date on Thursdays based on a 56 day cycle.
  
  The correct expiration date will be calculated automatically, provided you do not update more than seven days in advance.

• For usage-triggered items 

   "Usage" can be tracked by a number of different measures. These include tach time, Hobbs time, additional meter time, air time, gear operations, airframe cycles, appliance hours, engine starts, and engine hours. The items that will be available for any aircraft will depend on the Aircraft Information Resource Data for that aircraft. You can specify an initial usage for new aircraft if this is recommended by the manufacturer. Otherwise, specify a normal interval (e.g., 100 hours for a periodic inspection) and/or a one-time absolute meter reading.

  For additional information in setting Aircraft Information from the Resource Management Menu, please see Aircraft / Device Information.

  Note: If you wish to properly track airtime or cycles based maintenance, the option to "Include Basic Log Information on Check-in" MUST be enabled by an Administrator in the Dispatch and Check-in Parameters.

• For multi-engine aircraft  

  Maintenance items can be set up to be tracked on either engine. The number of engines for an aircraft is set up in the Aircraft Information Resource Data. For more information, please see Aircraft / Device Information. The Aircraft Information Resource Data allows for tracking of three 'named' meters: Tach, Hobbs, and a specially named third meter (Meter, Hobbs2, VDO2, Tach2, MxMtr, FltHobs, Heater).

  

  If your aircraft has two tachometers, you can select Tach2 as the extra meter label and will be able to trigger maintenance items based on Tach2. This is the preferred option.

  

  If your aircraft has two tachometers, but you need to use the extra meter label for another purpose, such as tracking a heater meter, you can indicate 2 tachometers. If you use this option, to track a maintenance item on the right engine, you will need to enter a "#2" in the maintenance item name. 

  

5. Specify whether the aircraft can be dispatched with the item due, the estimated shop hours for the repair, and the reserve (used for operating cost calculations) if any.

Note: The Qualification and Limitation Parameters related to Aircraft Maintenance MUST be set for aircraft dispatch to be blocked based on maintenance due and/or squawks.

The Comments section can hold links to reference materials. The links must be entered in the format of http://www such as http://www.myfbo.com, and when viewing the maintenance plan, these links will automatically open in a new browser window or tab when clicked.

Comments Link


6. Click Update.
7. Once the maintenance item is created, you can return to the Maintenance Items screen and navigate to the right side of the screen, Maintenance Dates / Hours / Cycles section. Click the Edit button in the far right column next to the item you just created. This will allow you to enter the last date and/or time the item was carried out (if any). For maintenance items with an absolute expiration (e.g., CD-ROM navigation data), enter the date of next issue rather than the last issue or installation date.

Deleting Maintenance Items

There is a provision provided for deleting a maintenance item. This is meant to be used if an item has been entered in error.  

Caution:  Delete is not a "return to service" but rather a removal of the maintenance item. This action is not reversible. 

For information on returning an aircraft to service, please see Finish Maintenance.

04/11/12 cli