Maintenance, up time and flying schools/clubs

[Frank]

My S.O. and I both fly. She is taking instruction in LSAs at a nearby school, and I belong to a flying club. Last night she was bemoaning the difficulty in scheduling her lessons, in part because planes (Tecnams) are often down for maintenance. My flying club also has some issues with availability of the most popular planes (172s). The 172s are much older aircraft, P models. We were discussing what could be done to improve availability.

How much availability is a norm? Are LSAs more fragile and hence more likely not to be available? If you were running a flight school, what airplanes (LSAs or certified) would you put on your flight line if availability were your number one concern? Are there preventive maintenance practices that could improve availability? Has anyone modeled the break-even point for such maintenance? Does anyone maintain flight school aircraft at night, when students are less likely to want to fly them?

 

[poadeleted20]

How much availability is a norm?

My experience in club management with 150/172 types is that the planes were rarely down for more than 1-2 days a month, and then usually only when the engine was out for overhaul.

Are LSAs more fragile and hence more likely not to be available?

That's my experience teaching in them, although that seems to vary with manufacturer. A friend operating an LSA-based flight school shifted from Flight Design to Tecnam due to fragility issues, and found the Tecnams to be far more durable.

If you were running a flight school, what airplanes (LSAs or certified) would you put on your flight line if availability were your number one concern?

Production-certified, hands down.

Are there preventive maintenance practices that could improve availability? Has anyone modeled the break-even point for such maintenance?

I am not aware of any.

Does anyone maintain flight school aircraft at night, when students are less likely to want to fly them?

To my knowledge, only the military. Too hard to get civilian mechanics to work nights rather than days in this sort of operation.

 

[warthog1984]

Except for maintenance pigs, VERY unusual for 152/172s to be down because of MX.

I would say 80-90% availability is normal; however, the newer LSAs seem to be more lightly built for whatever reason.

If I was totally focused on availability, I'd have a flight line of 152/172s or Pipers, with an older LSA-eligible conventional-gear plane available for Sport Pilots.

 

[frfly172]

The 152/172 line is tough to beat for reliability. The piper warrior line is right up there also. I have flown the remos and never had a problem with availability except when ther was an abundance of renters.

 

[ChitDisturber]

The more complicated the airframe the more stuff you have to break.

For older 172/152/150/7ECA/PA28 etc, outside from normal mx, I'd say 90% reliability, more or less.

Our school uses Grummans, very simple planes, most complicated part of the airframe is a $350 flap motor.

 

[flyingron]

Having run both sides of the leaseback issue, the key to even attempting to break even is AVAILABILITY. Not only do people need to rent your plane to make money, but if the plane is frequently unavailable they will go elsewhere (either to more reliable planes in the same club or to another rental outfit).