Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Maintenance Airframe; Maintenance Powerplant
Maintenance Technician 30
Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification; Confusion
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors; Incorrect / Not Installed / Unavailable Part; Procedure
I own a Cessna 172N that I lease to a flying club here. The club president and I agreed we would comply with 100hr inspections for reasons of safety due to the amount of flying the aircraft did. We did not think the 100hr was a requirement and did get clarification from the FSDO about this but still had them accomplished but with the thought that they were not required. This led to 2 overfly events for AD Date. I did not keep the logbook nor did I pour over it until just recently. It was kept in a locked closet where the club operates. I have changed a main ship's battery and a tire and some oil changes prior to Year but overall I wanted an Inspection Authority to work on the aircraft and wanted to stay out of the maintenance side. I had always thought it's better to get an unaffiliated outside person to perform the maintenance and annuals instead of someone that actively flys the plane and is the owner and club member. I think that the focus was on completing the 100hrs as an added safety measure but we did not notice that the seat rail AD was a 100hr requirement. Because of this if the Inspection Authority was not available or we were unable to move the aircraft for some reason it kept flying. I really did not know much of what was going on with the day to day schedule especially at the end of Year and on into Year/Year until now. I could not obtain my Class 3 MED due to a [medical issue] and quit flying all together for over X years. I kind of left it up to the club. Just recently I've taken advantage of Basic MED and am flying again. I had installed a broken piece of plastic on the elevator and while signing it off went back through the book. This is where I found the errors. On 2 occasions we flew past the seat rail AD once by 53hr and once by 11.6hr. The seat rail has now current with 6 hours remaining; we have scheduled the AD to be accomplished this week and will be well within the 100hr time limit. Going forward we have a clear plastic book onboard with all the inspections and their due dates and times. The club president is now aware that the 100hr is hard time and will schedule early going forward. We are prepared to ground the aircraft if we are unable to schedule with the Inspection Authority and I'm working on gaining access to the locked closet area where the logbooks are kept. At this time the seat rail is in compliance with the AD and will not overfly ever again. Thank you.
Reporter described AD overflights due to errors and incorrect data entry into a commercial maintenance tracking program.