Original Message

Always, write it up as a float pilot, you are the first to get dinged by the company and violated by the Feds if they turn up and spot it. So what if it makes you unpopular at that base, you move on. As an HAA float pilot of 14 years, I approach the first preflight of my first day in a new aircraft at a new base, looking for something to ground it. If I can't find anything and the logbooks check out, I'm happy to put my butt in that aircraft. I cannot count the number of times I have found discreancies not written up. THATS MY JOB! safety is number #1, I dont pay lip service to it, 40 years flying helicopters without (touch wood) an accident.

Read the regs, you are in violation and in violation of your ops manual too ,if you fly a known discrepancy that affects the airworthiness and the safety of flight

And this is an HSI I once found on my first preflight of an aircraft, been flying like it for a couple of weeks according to the crew. GROUNDED IT!!!!!!