Does anyone know what the penalties are with an expired D check? Does condition deteriorate faster or am I at risk of an accident? Just wondering how long it can be stretched to line up with other maintenance
Short response: Not a good idea to play with fire.
Slightly longer response: Fines, CI penalty, grounding of the plane, spiral of death, bears, beats, battlestar galactica.
Each ramp check (aircraft grounding + fines) takes +/- 10 CI points. If you have a queue of aircraft waiting through D-check for more than 2 months, risks are that you can 2-3 straight ramp checks in just some RL hours and the impact on load factor of your aiplanes and profit margins will be significant.
I've been hit with about 30+ ramp checks over the months between 3 GWs. The biggest problem is the hit towards CI. The sharp drop hurts for a few months, but recoverable if you have stocks of cash.
You shouldn't have issues with ramp checks unless your extremely lazy like I am. Otherwise, just keep auto-D check "checked" and you'll have no problem.
Talentz