Pilot reported being pressured by a flight school owner to fly an unairworthy aircraft.

Attributes
ACN	1724376
Time
Date	202002
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Aileron Trim System
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

On a planned IFR training flight during my preflight I noticed a crack including 2 ribs near the trim tab; causing it to move around I would expect it to cause flutter; possibly losing the horizontal. So I reported it to the flight school owner. His response was 'I know it's been like that' then told us we needed to jump start the aircraft. At this point we called the flight and he preceded to argue about the aircraft being airworthy ended up doing the training flight in another aircraft. I am concerned about the lack of safety culture teaching primary students it's okay to fly a broken airplane. That type of mentality I feel will cause serious problems in the future.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reported being pressured by a flight school owner to fly an unairworthy aircraft.

Narrative: On a planned IFR training flight during my preflight I noticed a crack including 2 ribs near the trim tab; causing it to move around I would expect it to cause flutter; possibly losing the horizontal. So I reported it to the flight school owner. His response was 'I know it's been like that' then told us we needed to jump start the aircraft. At this point we called the flight and he preceded to argue about the aircraft being airworthy ended up doing the training flight in another aircraft. I am concerned about the lack of safety culture teaching primary students it's okay to fly a broken airplane. That type of mentality I feel will cause serious problems in the future.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.