How often does the FAA inspect planes?

Question

How often does the FAA inspect planes?

Answer 1

The FAA does not actually "inspect" planes. Mechanical inspections are performed by certified Airframe and Powerplant mechanics who sign off on their work. General aviation aircraft are required to be inspected at least annually by an A&P; more often if they are used as rentals or other requirements.

The FAA may perform "ramp checks." An inspector may walk up to any aircraft parked on the ramp of an airport and request the crew to produce their licenses, medical certificates, log books, aircraft airworthiness certificates, registration,etc.These occur rarely as the FAA has very few inspectors to perform these checks.

Answer 2

Inspections are usually done by qualified people in the private sector.  Each company will employ its own set of mechanics that can perform required inspections, repair anything that needs to be repaired, sign the maintenance logs and return the aircraft to service.  Those logs are then audited by the FAA to ensure that aircraft are being maintained correctly.

As for the inspections themselves, typically in the airline world they are run through an entire inspection cycle about once every 5 days.

Answer 3

Depends.  If you are a certificated carrier, they check you often.  Like a previous poster said, they often check paperwork.  However, we have certain cities where maintenance inspectors show up almost every time we arrive.  They also have safety inspectors that check out pilots, but I'm assuming you were asking about mechanical checks of the aircraft.  They also have dispatch inspectors, but that's a fairly new thing.

Answer 4

Every time they crash.

Answer 5

Not as often as they have checked my shoes.

Answer 6

As the others have said, the actual technical inspections required by the maintenance program are done by qualified technicians.

FAA inspectors randomly select aircraft to inspect both in service, and occasionally while undergoing the technical inspections in the hangar.

Answer 7

Does it matter?  If the inspectors are bribed it doesn't matter if they're duck-taped to the wings.