The Upholstery Forum

Not to get too technical here but when doing aviation work, what is required from a legality stand point. I realize that it is necessary to have the burn certs but is anything else required to document the completed work?

Is there any requirement by the upholstery shop or local A&P to sign the aircraft Maintenance logbooks verifying what work was done and/or changes to the weight and balance in addition to the burn certs?

-sew on-

I only have a small amount of experience with airplane upholstery so all of this could be totally wrong. My understanding is that on smaller personal airplanes its really not that strict or important. The last plane I did had the interior done years ago buy someone else and they used all automotive materials that were not aviation tested and that airplane passed it yearly inspection every year no problems. When I redid this plane I used all aviation grade materials that came with burn certs just to be on the safe side. I recommend doing that as well.

Its when you get in to the bigger planes and jets where proving you used the proper materials becomes very important.

Excellent, thanks for the response. That’s on par with what I thought as well. Nice to have the reassurance!!

The main thing to look for is that someone documents that it does not adversely affect performance and configuration so as to change how the plane operates compared to when it was certified—if changes have occurred, it is considered a major alteration and requires filing paper work with the FAA and getting Inspectors Authorization sign off. Having a repair station make entry or A&P/AI sign-off as a minor alteration will be suffice if major changes have not been made. The A&P/AI or repair station should basically make sure original structure, performance, and operation of plane has not changed.

An example of a major change would be adding an additional seat you made or modifying the door to accommodate a camera stand. An example of a minor change would be replacing fabric material with something lighter or of equal weight without structural changes or modifications to original plane. It's always a good idea to amend the weight and balance because modern materials may be lighter and you could improve your payload, but you would have to weigh the original items first to calculate difference. If there is no change to weight the A&P/repair station would state no changes.

Like John said, it's not something that industry pays close attention to but it's always a good idea to think of the safety of next owner operator and it will help with the resale value of the aircraft.

Good luck on project!

Thanks for the advice everyone