Maintenance structure:
Maintenance should be a scaled structure, that has risk and reward built in. When you compare a system like OnAir, you have a 100hr inspection that takes 1 day to perform on a Piper single engine, but 1 day 1 hour on a B747.
Maintenance times should be scalable, but maintenance should also be in accordance with required airline checks. Typically referred to as A, B, C checks. Inspections are cumulative, so each inspection builds on the previous, thus taking longer but also a longer period between inspection windows.
For example, a structure similar to real world like the following would scale cost, time and planning for each inspection:
A check
every 100 flight hours
consists of a visual examination of the airframe, powerplant, avionics, and accessories to ascertain the general condition of the aircraft.
Time: 12 hours, scalable by features mentioned below.
B check
every 150 flight hours
include A check plus selected operational check, fluid servicing and lubrication as well as an open inspection of the panels and cowlings
Time: 24 Hours, again scalable
C check
every 300 flight hours
include A- and B- check plus detailed inspection of airframe, engines and accessories, heavy lubrication, and a portion of the corrosion prevention program
Flight controls are calibrated, major internal mechanisms are tested and Service Bulletin requirements are fulfilled
about 72 hours, again scalable.
Naturally, every inspection costs more.
For mechanics, I would suggest incentivizing training or hiring good mechanics. This could be done by making a top tier mechanic perform the maintenance in 90% of the estimated time, and a brand new low skill mechanic taking up to 20% longer to perform the inspection.
Also adding mechanics to a inspection or repair, would decrease the time but not on a linear basis.
Example: 120 hour inspection takes
11 hours for 1 mechanic to complete.
8 hours for 2 mechanics to complete
6 hours for 3 mechanics to complete.
In the real world, maintenance isnt completed faster in a linear form from adding mechanics to the task because some tasks cannot be performed by multiple people at once. Due to this each inspection should have the ability to reduce down time less and less. (ex: 100hr can be reduced up to 50%, 150hr can be reduced up to 30%, and 300hr can be reduced up to 10%)
Naturally every inspection incurs more time than expected, with more down time because you are inspecting more things that could potentially have faults.
Additional factors:
- Better hangars decrease wear on aircraft, no hangars increase weather damage, corrosion and overall condition. This could be factored in since during scheduled maintenance it is required to fix faults that were deferred to maintenance windows.
- Better hangars decrease down time since mechanics have access to higher quality facilities, and are not working in the elements. Say by having a hangar that can accommodate the maintenance of a B737, would decrease the in maintenance time by 8%, couple that with hiring better mechanics and more than one mechanic it can reduce the down time by 50%.
Make hiring and firing employees hit your business in a negative way. This would encourage keeping consistent employees on the payroll and increase reliability and your rep.