Rant: Day 36 of annual

We were hit with the McCauley prop governor AD, and it was shipped to Texas for inspection and overhaul if required. God help us...

 

If you sent them to Texas Aircraft and Propellors, then you’re in good hands.


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TEXAS???

 

Dang dude, that’s a bummer. Maybe it’s time you shop for a second plane. Or third.

 

Economies of scale! LOL

 

That sucks.

 

I don't question the quality of work, but parts availablity due to Covid and the Texas slowdown due to the artic weather. It will eventually come back, but when, nobody knows.

 

Sounds like you need the B hub. There was one of those awful ADs for the prop on my aircraft and I made darn good and certain mine wasn't affected before I bought it.

 

Well, you got me beat by 3 days.

 

You’re referring to a Hartzell prop hub AD. This does not have any commonality with the McCauley governor AD that appears to be affecting Bill.

 

Wrong AD

 

Oops, you beat me to it.

 

Sounds like their RPM (Rate of Prop Maintenance) is low

 

We’ve got you beat. Airplane has an unflyable problem - not even a ferry permit would work - and we’ve been waiting on the local shop for three months.

Not that I could fly it anyway, but it’s certainly hampering my co-owner. He’s also been super busy personally so it’s not as painful as it could be.

Oh the joy of basing off of an airport that caters to bizjets during Covid. The bugsmasher crowd doesn’t rate anymore. Can’t blame ‘em — mo’ money.

 

Dang. My annual was 2 very long days (4 if you don't count opening and closing all of the panels and minor stuff like oil change.)

Two people working about 14 hours a day to knock it out. Thankfully nothing major other than the spar AD for Piper. I couldn't imagine having to wait for a part to get back with an unknown timeframe.

 

So, yesterday afternoon we chose to exchange our governor for a new on the shelf unit as there was still no date for parts. All partners agreed to the cost so the plane is now complete, done and out of jail.

Yay!

 

Gosh that sucks. We had a scare with the Cessna door post AD, that would have made our annual go from two weeks to two months including trucking the hulk somehwere LOL. Turned out ok but I feel your pain. Good luck.

 

longest "annual" for me was almost 2 years (9/11 occurred in there, creating additional delays). I've since sold the airplane so I can't give the exact amount of time.

 

2+ year long "annuals" seem to be my specialty. Even nice airplanes need a good straightening out from time to time. Bill is probably lucky he didn't hire me, ha.

 

Doesn’t “ Annual “ mean it takes a year?

 

I told my home-base shop first of November that I was bringing it in for annual 12/1. They finally got around to it 1/15. Still waiting on parts. Every business uses Covid as an excuse for crap service

 

Threads like this make "experimental" much more attractive to those that have the liberty to embrace it. I realize that many certified planes have no reasonable counterpart in the experimental world, experimentals are limited in training, and many owners don't want to work on their own plane.

Still, I'd be nuts over some of the time and monies certified owners are spending ...

 

I'm two months into my annual - and I'm the one doing it.

I never understood how aviation mechanics took so long to do the seemingly simplest thing. Then I built my own plane and I finally understood.

Everything is painstaking, everything is so oem-specific, nothing is accessible and on and on. I've spent 45 minutes getting a tiny nut on the end of a screw. The easiest tasks takes hours. Just walking around the wings of an aircraft ends up putting miles on your legs and wasted time on the clock. And the ONE screw you lose is the ONE screw you don't have in your parts supply. And that one screw is going to take two weeks to get.

And then you realize you also lost the washer! Another two weeks wait for a washer.....

Now I realize most A&P's are incredibly fast and efficient at their jobs.

 

ironically, it isn't accepted as an excuse for "slow" production and distribution of vaccines.

but I don't understand why people think production capacities (and therefore product availability) aren't impacted by restrictions imposed because of covid-19. But that probably deserves it's own thread (which would get locked pretty quick)

 

It’s not possible to know how it feels to screw until you’ve been screwed.

 

Four likes so far. Probably most of them mechanics. Mechanics are acutely aware of how little owners usually know about what's involved in maintenance and repairs.

I used to remind my flight students that one can go from zero flight experience to a CPL/IFR in six months if they work hard enough and have the cash. A mechanic in Canada has a four-year drag no matter what. Formal education is required here, and if it's through an approved school you get credit for some of the time toward your four-year apprenticeship. If it's an "acceptable" program as some schools are, and all distance-education programs, you have to put in the whole 48 months, at least 7200 hours in that time (minimum of 150 hours per month, on average). That's one reason there are a lot fewer mechanics than CPLs.

We used to joke that we could train a monkey to fly an airplane, but you could never train a monkey to fix one.

 

And don't forget that the shipping on that screw and washer are $4.50 ea. I've often said the only people to make money in aviation are UPS and FedEx.

 

There are 210,000 general aviation aircraft in the US, including bizjets and helicopters. Some of those will be derelicts.

In 2020 there were 286,900,000 cars (and presumably including light trucks and SUVs) in the US. Almost 1400 times as many cars as light airplanes, and the ratio gets worse if we reject the bizjets and helicopters from the GA fleet numbers. And if we take into account the average age of the GA fleet compared to the vehicle fleet, things get even uglier. What car/truck OEM still makes parts for their 1970 models?

That's why aircraft parts are often not usually readily available. Or cheap. We are a tiny market.

 

UPS and FedEx fly airplanes, so their freight has to be high. They understand the expense.

 

We should consider the salvage yard parts.
Try finding a Warner engine cylinder, for example.

 

I spent 3 hours removing, cleaning, ohm checking, gapping, anti-seizing and re-installing 8 spark plugs last Friday. I also learned that oil change time is directly related to the temperature.

 

We used to buy parts from the salvage folks, and the standard price was one-half of a new part. We often found that the salvage part was more than halfway shot already, and if we figured the labor into it, knowing that we'd be replacing it again before too long, it wasn't worth it. And it seemed that the parts we needed were all the same parts everyone else needed, so they were already gone from the yard. We eventually ended up buying new stuff most of the time.

And yes, rare, old stuff will only be found from salvage places. I almost bought another Auster a few years ago, but I had to sit back and consider what would happen if I was on a long trip, far from home, and something on that 1946 deHavilland Gipsy Major engine failed and had to be replaced. The airplane could be stranded there a long time, with me back home looking for parts and making another trip out to fix it. If the airplane had an O-300 or O-235 or whatever, things would be a lot easier and quicker.

Auster AOP6:

 

One of my 182 guys dinged a stabilizer, my estimate of repair was less than a spare from a salvage yard.
And no 337 involved