By Clark Morawetz, EAA 1002105, Canadian Council
It was a sunny late spring day in southern Ontario. My student and I had just completed 17 continuous touch-and-go circuits when we decided that we had enough and finished our lesson by taxiing back to his T-hangar. As we were shutting down, a vehicle with “Transport Canada” on the side of it pulled up along our wingtip. The inspector hopped out of their car, and I popped my door open so that we could talk. They introduced themselves and advised me that, “…this is a ramp inspection. I need to see all of your documents.”
I was shocked. Stunned even.
Was I seeing things (after too many trips around the circuit)?
Did I do something wrong?
How could this be happening to me?!
We get out of the airplane and I head for the baggage compartment, praying that all the documents that I know are there, somewhere, can be found in a timely matter to satisfy the inspector. Fortunately for me, the aircraft I was flying was a brand-new Cirrus SR22T, so I knew that all of the documentation would be there, I would just have to find it.
The inspector permitted us to push the aircraft back into the hangar, and we got the documents out and laid them all out on a desk for his review. After reviewing the documents and asking us some questions about my instruction and the ownership of the aircraft, we were good to go. He gave us his business card and away he went. The whole process took about 20 minutes or so to complete.
In retelling this story, I’ve been asked a bunch, “What were they looking for?”
For most inspections, they are looking for the same documents that you would present a flight test examiner if you were doing a flight test in your aircraft.
These are:
- Certificate of Airworthiness
- Certificate of Registration
- Insurance Certificate
- Weight and Balance
- Pilot Operating Handbook
- Journey Logbook
- Intercept Orders (located in the CFS or your favourite EFB app)
- Pilot’s License and Medical
In my case, as I was instructing at the time, I was asked for my student’s pilot training record and any of their documents (if they had any).
As a result of our organization and due diligence, our ramp inspection was relatively painless. One member of our local airport community was not so lucky. His unlucky day turned from bad to worse when he was “ramped” and was found missing documentation and had an incomplete maintenance record of his aircraft.
What can we learn from this?
Before flying your aircraft next, take some time to go through your documents, organize them for easy inspection, and verify that everything is up to date and valid. This is likely already the case, especially if you fly trans-border, but even if you don’t, you never know when it’ll be your unlucky day to get “ramped.”