Say you're at a busy as a beaver EMS base with added tacit pressure to fly. The mechanics are lazy and don't want to maintain the aircraft. They will only fix something if you write it up. The company whole-heartedly agrees that there will be no text message or post-it note mantenance. If it's broke: write it up. End of story. Only problem is that if you write up everything little thing breaks since they WILL NOT FIX IT otherwise, it puts the  aircraft  OOS for a minimum of 1-2 hours. It really doesn't matter what it is, it's 1-2 hours OOS time. The customer starts noticing the new pilot is writing up everything and is costing a lot of OOS time and missed flights. Starting to see how this works?

Now say you bought a house and moved the family to this base. You eventually realize the customer will run you off because YOU OBVIOUSLY ARE THE PROBLEM. The mechanics know this. They now pretty much have complete control over you, so you must play their game or you will soon be uprooting the fam when the customer eventually tells you to hit the trail.

I have seen this happen a few times in my career. It is an absolute no win situation. My advice is DO NOT move to a base for probably 6 months until you find out what the maintenance situation is first! 

it's not about safety, it's about money

it's not about health care, it's about money

you'll never win an argument with a med crew and they are not your friends, they are the customer

I've never meet a mechanic who over flew an inspection, you are the PIC, it's all on your shoulders, sucks but that is the truth...

and as a new mechanic hiring on and seeing pilots not wanting to fly

so shut up stupid , you're not special

If it's broken write it up. Not writing it up was the way the industry has gone and is not right. Set a standard and let your crew know that x is broken and you are left with no option but to write it up. When everything works, and you accept all the flight you should you will get respect.

Now if you write things up on the last day of your hitch so the aircraft is grounded and you go home early it will not go un-noticed. Do the right thing. If the mechanics know that you are going to write everything up the will be more proactive so they don't get called in during the time they wish to be at home.

I never said it was right. Go back and read it again. You can write up everything right up until the day you get let go. It's a lose lose situation. If you don't mind getting run off or be in a constant state of battle with maintenance, no problem. Very few people will endure that day after day and end up leaving or get told to leave and it starts all over with the next pilot. And tell me more about this "proactive" thing. LOL 

if you think you can just leave on break day if the aircraft is AOG after you write something up. Does NOT work that way.

Here's the deal.  You can't afford a wife and kids.  Not on peanut salary being a pilot.  That's your own dumb fault.  Doctor or Lawyer, that's it.

So ditch the fam, or go back to med school.

Secondly, if you write up dumb $#!t, like "this Fuel boost caution light is not as bright as the other Fuel boost caution light" and you know it's not a freaking light bulb......yeah, you are gonna be hated for it.  Stop writing up dumb $#!t.  These birds are old and have high time.  THey are not new any more and will not look new in behavior.  THe reason that boost light is dimmer than the other is not your problem.  The fact that it functions as it should is your problem.  Does it go on and off as it should?  THere, no problem.  THe reason it's dimmer is because the switch in the fuel tank has higher resistance to ground than the other one.  Does the switch still work?  Yes. Will a difference of 2ohms between 2 switches keep you from flying it?  IF it does, then you are gonna have some pretty pyissed mechs who hate playing in fuel, going after a working component in the fuel cell.  Not the best way to make friends....and a good way to get run off.

S 92 avionics tech is really just a 206 wrench lol

He's the f'king guru

Is because he works on everything?

Ever thought of that ?

Retard?

I sure didn't think of that. but then again, since he doesn't know how a simple intercom works, I have my doubts he would know how to fix it. or anything else for that matter. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ9DTYKJ_PM

The A&P mech is always going to control the naritive....Also FYI a good aircraft mechanic that is certified on many airframes is way more inteligent than any pilot.

lol bro

It's not that F 'ing hard. As the poster above said, stop writing up dumb S #!t.

I will never write up anything without talking to a Mech first. Sometimes you can make something super simple into a major deal by just what you write, so confer with the Mech first. If it's something like a broken plastic interior panel that doesn't harm anyone, let a Mech know and they will take care of it on the next weather day or inspection. Doesn't have to be a big deal. It's not that they are lazy, it's that they also know how to play the game and avoid unecessary OOS time. (i.e. make the hosp not like you.) If it's something serious and is an actual unairworthy item, I've never had a Mech turn the other way. They are on it like white on rice.

So simple answer, Stop writing up stu pid S #it.

Two issues here:

1. Pressure to fly. You should NEVER be pressured to fly. If you are, go to a different company. In my decade plus of flying EMS there are numerous fatal accidents due to pressure to fly.

2. Never move to base unless you want to continue living there after they shut your base down. I've been through two base closures and finally became a relief pilot. Lived where I wanted to and got paid to commute. Sure, lost some time off for travel days but got paid 1 1/2 time salary to have a cocktail during my commute. 

3. Classic example: San Antonio Airlife.  2015 there was 6 bases. 9 years later they are all closed except Uvalde. 

In over 2 decades of HEMS/HAA, the only organization that I was ever pressured to fly was AirLife SA. Not sure why they closed since they flew more pt flights than anyone in the USA. 

"they will take care of it on the next weather day."

haaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my sides hurt

I understand your situation completely, best compromise for you is to save an item for a weather day and on your preflight write it up.  Dont find the issue and talk about it with the mechanic for a week and then write it up on the weather day otherwise you will lose the game you are trying to avoid.  Just make a mental note on something you find, "sliding door is making noise and needs adjusting."  Then hold that to yourself and hopefully within a week or so a weather day will happen and you "discover it" on preflight.  Write it up, he has to come in and fix it but the base isnt OOS because of it since the wx is junk.  

Obviously as others have stated if its an issue that cant wait because common sense says it needs fixing right away and is a safety of flight issue then of course do that.  

Is it the way its supposed to work? No.  In a perfect world you find anything wrong, you write it up, every GOM is written that way and thats the answer you would give to anyone from the FAA asking.  Unfortunately as you have found out some bases have a bad attitude on things.  Now I dont disagree with the mechanic/base principle of not doing post it note mx, if it wrong write it up is a good first step, you unfortunately have a bad second step in the management frowning on it.  I'm very lucky here that our program director has an aviation background so he wants things fixed when they happen and not dragging them out.

And again as other have stated, dont write up stupid stuff or at least ask the mechanic, some aircraft what you think is a problem is actually a feature! Just dont sweat the small stuff, you have a place you like that you are invested in, is it worth getting run off because you wrote up something small that was bothering you that could have waited to get worked in with a bigger maintenance event?  

I'm lucky at my base we have a good mechanic and good relationship.  If we notice something is getting ready to break or is getting worn out and we know its going to require parts that he does not have in stock we can work with him to order the parts we need and that way when a weather day happens and we write it up he already has the parts vs having to wait for them to come in.

but the rot runs deep at some programs. Not fixable until management recognizes and gets serious about rectifying. Very rarely does that happen. Glad to hear you have a good situation.