How to get started
How to get started
To get started having SAMM professionally manage your aircraft maintenance, there are several things than need to be accomplished. Your first step (unless you've done so already) is to review the following key documents:
You may have some questions after reading them, so please contact us so that we can clarify anything you don't find crystal clear.
When you read through the SAMM Service Agreement, you'll note that there are a few important prerequisites before we can get started:
- You need to be a member in good standing of the type association applicable to your aircraft (e.g., American Bonanza Society, Cessna Pilots Association, Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association). Here's why we require this.
- You need to arrange with your aircraft insurance broker to have Savvy Aircraft Maintenance Management, Inc. added to your aircraft liability policy (or policies) as an "additional insured" and for your insurance company to issue an appropriate certificate of insurance to SAMM. Here's why we require this. Almost all aircraft insurance companies will do this at no additional cost. Here's how to get SAMM added to your policy. (If you run into any difficulty obtaining the necessary certificate of insurance, let us know and we'll help.)
- You need to complete and sign the SAMM Service Agreement and fax the signed agreement to us at 1-646-607-0144.
- You need to pay our flat-rate annual fee either by check or credit card. Payment by credit card is preferred, and there's a credit card information form at the end of the SAMM Service Agreement that you can fill out and fax to SAMM at 1-646-607-0144.
Once these steps have been completed, we will assign an Account Manager who will be your primary point of contact with SAMM and will have primary responsibility for overseeing your aircraft maintenance. We'll also assign a backup just in case your Account Manager is unavailable for any reason. We will also email you a username and password that gives you access to the SAMM database and ticket system which we use as our primary means of communications related to your aircraft.
We will ask you to have your aircraft maintenance records scanned into a PDF computer file that we can review and make available to the various service facilities and personnel who perform maintenance on your aircraft. Perhaps the easiest way to accomplish this is to take your records to your nearest FedEx Kinko's store, where you can have them scanned to a PDF file for 99 cents per page. We feel strongly that your original maintenance records should be kept continuously in your personal custody (preferably locked up in a fireproof safe). The originals should never be given to maintenance personnel, and should never be carried in the aircraft. We will direct maintenance personnel to make their maintenance record entries on self-adhesive stickers that can be scanned and then pasted into the original logbooks that you maintain in your custody.
Prior to your next scheduled annual inspection, you and your Account Manager will need to discuss where to have the inspection done. We'll want to know the details of where you've had your maintenance done in the past, and what your level of satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) was with those facilities. If you've been happy with a particular service center in the past, we'll probably suggest using them again; if you've been unhappy, we may suggest some alternatives.
Once the decision has been made about where the annual will be done, you'll need to advise the selected service center that you've engaged SAMM as your maintenance manager, and present the service center with a copy of SAMM's Service Center Briefing so they understand how the relationship will work. If the service center has any questions, we will answer them and try to make sure the service center is comfortable with the arrangement. From that point on, we will handle the interface with the service center.
Finally, should the service center decided upon be located somewhere other than your home airport, we'll need to discuss the logistics of moving the aircraft to and from the shop. We always prefer if you can fly it there yourself, but if that's impossible we'll need to work with you to arrange for a ferry pilot who meets the requirements of your aircraft insurance.
We certainly look forward to working with you!