A Director of Maintenance describes the confusion in their maintenance tracking program for their Cessna Caravan-208B; where all six flap tracks exceeded the inspection time limit requirement.

Narrative

A Chapter 4 inspection time limit requirement was exceeded on the flap tracks. At 12;525 total landings; during routine inspection; several flip tracks were found to have corrosion. All flap tracks were further inspected and removed. Several were new; due to the extent of the corrosion. The work was documented on a repair station work order in detail and entered into the Maintenance records of the aircraft. This maintenance was also entered into the On-line Maintenance Tracking System. The Chapter 4 15;000 FT landing flap track NDI inspection 'due' time arrived some years later and was not performed at that time. This was due to the fact that the On-Line Maintenance System tracks only 1 line item for all 6 tracks and since new components were installed previously the 'due' warning was ignored because I assumed that all the tracks were replaced previously. I discovered this during an attempt to clean up the tracking system. The Maintenance Tracking system is generic to all Caravans; so many inspections and maintenance items appear in my printout even though they are not applicable. I was reviewing these items and double-checking against maintenance records prior to clearing them when I realized my mistake. The aircraft was headed to the service center; for its Avionics 12 month inspection. I immediately called them and had all 6 flap tracks NDI inspected per Chapter 4. The NDI inspection passed on all 6 tracks. In learning more about the tracking system; I now know that I can have them customize the program somewhat for better tracking of MY aircraft. And more thorough checks of tracked items must be accomplished in the future. One important human factor that I feel is important to mention here is that -- you can't do it all. In this industry; managers are given many collateral duties and at some point we must learn to say 'I can't do it all.' I think that if I had focused more on the primary duty; Director of Maintenance; this oversight would have been prevented. Callback conversation with Reporter revealed the following information: Reporter stated he expressed his concerns about taking on too many collateral duties to his senior management and surprisingly; they stepped up; and were willing to help him with delegating areas of responsibilities; in order for him to focus on performing his duties as Director of Maintenance.