{"podcast":{"title":"Ask the A&Ps","slug":"ask-the-a-ps-1305830","podcast_index_feed_id":1305830,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/AOPA5756489272","website_url":"https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/podcasts/podcasts","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/6e2600a8-253c-11ec-b966-2b649faa65d2/image/3f2c3945c28a4e8805acbc7f7e374954.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"AOPA","episode_count":108,"summary":"Experts Mike Busch, Paul New, and Colleen Sterling answer your toughest aviation maintenance questions. Submit questions to podcasts@aopa.org. New episodes are released the first and fifteenth of every month.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-02T04:20:46.276342+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-the-a-ps-1305830"},"episode":{"title":"\"Being an aircraft owner is the hardest job in aviation\"","slug":"being-an-aircraft-owner-is-the-hardest-job-in-aviation","published_at":"2025-11-01T10:12:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-the-a-ps-1305830/being-an-aircraft-owner-is-the-hardest-job-in-aviation","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-the-a-ps-1305830","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/AOPA3392660430.mp3?updated=1762185117","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/AOPA3392660430.mp3?updated=1762185117","summary":"From maintaining aircraft records to dealing with bad advice and sub-standard parts, Mike, Paul, and Colleen say being an aircraft owner is one of the hardest jobs in aviation. Email your questions to podcasts@aopa.org for a chance to get on the show. Join the world's largest aviation community at aopa.org/join Full notes below: Randy wants to know if circuit breakers have a life limit. He has a Mooney with about 3,000 hours. He had one that was acting up, and was wondering if he should intentionally exercise or change them on some interval. Paul said he recommends to all his clients that they exercise their breakers every few years, since they do tend to corrode. Just tripping it breaks oxidation off the contacts, he said. If you check the resistance before and after the resistance often goes down. Colleen said she replaces a few breakers during each annual. Gary owns a Lake Amphibian with a IO-360 and he runs with fine wire plugs. At the last annual he found four of his Champion plugs had infinite resistance. They otherwise seemed to function normally. He’s wondering what the implications are? Paul said he has boxes old boxes of new Champion plugs that he can’t force himself to throw away, but he refuses to give them away either because he doesn’t trust them. The hosts said they’ve seen many problems with Champion fire wire plugs and the insulators. So they’ve stopped using them and suggest others do as well. They all endorse the massive electrode Champions are just fine, however. Chris helps clients establish aircraft logbooks after they buy their first airplane. Paul said: You should keep as much of the maintenance records as possible for value. Old invoices he puts in a bag and sets them aside. He keeps weight and balance history and it’s nice to have a 337 record…","meta_description":"From maintaining aircraft records to dealing with bad advice and sub-standard parts, Mike, Paul, and Colleen say being an aircraft owner is one of the har…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3061,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ask-the-a-ps-1305830/episodes/being-an-aircraft-owner-is-the-hardest-job-in-aviation/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ask-the-a-ps-1305830/being-an-aircraft-owner-is-the-hardest-job-in-aviation.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}