What should it cost

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Tom-D
I drove to AWO, 50+ miles removed a C-170 tail wheel, brought it home to the shop, disassembled it cleaned it, did the NDI inspection on the main spring, replaced the steel parts, IRANed the Scott assemble which required I replace 65 bucks worth of parts, re-assembled and returned to AWO and replaced the assembly.

I charged 8 man hours @ $50 per), $50 for gas/travel, and the 65 for parts. = $515.

Rip off or what ?
 
Tom-D said:
I drove to AWO, 50+ miles removed a C-170 tail wheel, brought it home to the shop, disassembled it cleaned it, did the NDI inspection on the main spring, replaced the steel parts, IRANed the Scott assemble which required I replace 65 bucks worth of parts, re-assembled and returned to AWO and replaced the assembly.

I charged 8 man hours @ $50 per), $50 for gas/travel, and the 65 for parts. = $515.

Rip off or what ?
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Did you spend 8 hours on the job? Include your travel time
 
Seems like a bargain to me. Fair rate, honest hours by a skilled hand, and travel to the plane to boot.

Fair.
 
Seems fair. What's a new tailwheel assembly cost these days? Lots of big city shops charging way more than $50/hr for skilled labor.
 
And even better if he reassembled it correctly. :D

The last guy who worked on the 3400 on my previous 180 put the components on the shaft in the wrong order and it tried to head for the left ditch way too often. And it was his airplane before I bought it and he was the mechanic. :yikes:

SCCutler said:
Seems like a bargain to me. Fair rate, honest hours by a skilled hand, and travel to the plane to boot.

Fair.
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I have done that kind of stuff for free. But I think you where real resonable.
 
Tom-D said:
I drove to AWO, 50+ miles removed a C-170 tail wheel, brought it home to the shop, disassembled it cleaned it, did the NDI inspection on the main spring, replaced the steel parts, IRANed the Scott assemble which required I replace 65 bucks worth of parts, re-assembled and returned to AWO and replaced the assembly.

I charged 8 man hours @ $50 per), $50 for gas/travel, and the 65 for parts. = $515.

Rip off or what ?
Click to expand...

What do you think Tom?
 
Tom-D said:
I drove to AWO, 50+ miles removed a C-170 tail wheel, brought it home to the shop, disassembled it cleaned it, did the NDI inspection on the main spring, replaced the steel parts, IRANed the Scott assemble which required I replace 65 bucks worth of parts, re-assembled and returned to AWO and replaced the assembly.

I charged 8 man hours @ $50 per), $50 for gas/travel, and the 65 for parts. = $515.

Rip off or what ?
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You undercharged. $50 per hour is peanuts. The most expensive thing in the world is other people's time.
 
Tom as an N D I, you should be hitting about $85 per hour. $50 an hour seems what industrial guys get, not aeronautical!


Sent from my iPad using An APP that doesn't pay me to advertise.
 
I think you're fine. My A&P charges about $50/hour but he's a drunk, and I do most of the work with some guidance. I usually pay him a bit more but $500 for a good working TW and spring sounds like a decent deal.
 
docmirror said:
I think you're fine. My A&P charges about $50/hour but he's a drunk, and I do most of the work with some guidance. I usually pay him a bit more but $500 for a good working TW and spring sounds like a decent deal.
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As long as the guy knows he's paying your rate for travel to and from, seems plenty fair. I actually chose one field over the other to base the plane at simply because I had maintenance options at one airport and would be paying mechanic to travel or hauling crap back and forth myself.

No matter how you cut it, $500 for a working grocery cart wheel is pretty tough to swallow, but if we consider it just a half AMU, maybe not so bad. Aviation is expensive, especially with the certified stuff.
 
Tom-D said:
I drove to AWO, 50+ miles removed a C-170 tail wheel, brought it home to the shop, disassembled it cleaned it, did the NDI inspection on the main spring, replaced the steel parts, IRANed the Scott assemble which required I replace 65 bucks worth of parts, re-assembled and returned to AWO and replaced the assembly.

I charged 8 man hours @ $50 per), $50 for gas/travel, and the 65 for parts. = $515.

Rip off or what ?
Click to expand...

Very reasonable in my opinion.
 
Tom-D said:
I drove to AWO, 50+ miles removed a C-170 tail wheel, brought it home to the shop, disassembled it cleaned it, did the NDI inspection on the main spring, replaced the steel parts, IRANed the Scott assemble which required I replace 65 bucks worth of parts, re-assembled and returned to AWO and replaced the assembly.

I charged 8 man hours @ $50 per), $50 for gas/travel, and the 65 for parts. = $515.

Rip off or what ?
Click to expand...

You know that price is not a rip-off. Regarding your rate, you know it is on the low side but if that is what you are comfortable with then why increase for the sake of increasing? My mechanic in Miami charges $55, the airframe instructor at the school who build his last two Pitts, competes in unlimited, and is a go-to guy in the state for bipe and Extra repair, charges $40.

Why would you wonder? Was the customer sour on the price?
 
What do you think an oil & filter change should cost?
(8qt oil/1 filter)
 
Tom-D said:
What do you think an oil & filter change should cost?
(8qt oil/1 filter)
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About $50 bucks.

But I expect to pay about $150 to $175, and usually more because he always seems to find a little something extra that is needed. (That is a good thing, not a complaint).

I don't think your original question about the 170 tail wheel is out of line either, as long as you explained to the customer up front what was going to be involved and approximately what it would cost.
 
JOhnH said:
About $50 bucks.

But I expect to pay about $150 to $175, and usually more because he always seems to find a little something extra that is needed. (That is a good thing, not a complaint).

I don't think your original question about the 170 tail wheel is out of line either, as long as you explained to the customer up front what was going to be involved and approximately what it would cost.
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$50? That doesn't even cover the oil/filter. Is he removing cowling, cutting and inspecting the filter, etc.? This ain't Jiffy-Lube.
 
Dan Thomas said:
That's a better price than for the genuine article. Univair charges $2821.38 for their Scott 3200. The Alaskan is a good copy and is PMD'd.
Dan
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The Bush Wheel isn't a copy, they own the Scott production certificate. plus all their own designs.

Scott is defunk. gone, bye bye
 
alfadog said:
$50? That doesn't even cover the oil/filter. Is he removing cowling, cutting and inspecting the filter, etc.? This ain't Jiffy-Lube.
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True, but he asked what do we think it "should" cost. I don't think oil should cost $6/qt. But it does. That is why I pay $175 without complaining.
 
JOhnH said:
True, but he asked what do we think it "should" cost. I don't think oil should cost $6/qt. But it does. That is why I pay $175 without complaining.
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I pay $60.00 for 12 qt case.
 
Is there a story that goes with this question? Customer complaining that the bill was too high?

Your rate and the amount of time you charged the customer for seems very reasonable. The shop rate here is $65/hour and I think that is low, especially when the automotive dealership shop rates in the area are around $100/hour.
 
mondtster said:
Is there a story that goes with this question? Customer complaining that the bill was too high?

NO

Your rate and the amount of time you charged the customer for seems very reasonable. The shop rate here is $65/hour and I think that is low, especially when the automotive dealership shop rates in the area are around $100/hour.
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The 170 owner is a happy customer.
 
$50/hr is quite reasonable. Check out auto shop labor rates, most around here are at $100-$125/hr :eek:
 
N801BH said:
I am beginning to like experimental more and more...
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And not just because the prices are lower. The homebuilder's tailwheels (like the Matco) often work better, too. They don't bother with friction devices to control shimmy, either; those things have always seemed like a waste of time to me, considering that the shimmy is almost always due to bad steering pivot geometry, or a dynamically imbalanced wheel/tire assembly, or both.

Dan
 
before I owned my own plane, I'd say you raped somebody. Now that I pay for repairs on my plane, I probably wouldn't blink at that bill.
 
bluerooster said:
$50/hr is quite reasonable. Check out auto shop labor rates, most around here are at $100-$125/hr :eek:
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They have overhead, building rent, people to pay, SSI, L&I and insurance to pay, I don't.
 
Dan Thomas said:
And not just because the prices are lower. The homebuilder's tailwheels (like the Matco) often work better, too. They don't bother with friction devices to control shimmy, either; those things have always seemed like a waste of time to me, considering that the shimmy is almost always due to bad steering pivot geometry, or a dynamically imbalanced wheel/tire assembly, or both.

Dan
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When the geometry goes south on any tail shell it will shimmy, I don't care how much it cost or what aircraft it is installed on.

And none are better than a Scott/Bush wheel. I've dealt with Matco they are a cheap POS
 
Tom-D said:
They have overhead, building rent, people to pay, SSI, L&I and insurance to pay, I don't.
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some of them don't either. ;)

And Body shops are only at $42/hr, as set by the insurance companies.
They do[/] have overhead, even the one guy shop.
 
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rbridges said:
before I owned my own plane, I'd say you raped somebody. Now that I pay for repairs on my plane, I probably wouldn't blink at that bill.
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Not to hijack the thread (I think Tom's price is on the low side as well), but this statement sums up one bit of knowledge everyone who posts a "looking for my first plane" thread should heed.
 
Tom-D said:
What do you think an oil & filter change should cost?
(8qt oil/1 filter)
Click to expand...

Aside from the oil and the filter price, about 20 minutes labor. UNLESS you are talking about removing the cowl and then reattaching same, then about an hour and a half labor.

Depends on who is doing the grunt work.

Jim
 
Tom-D said:
When the geometry goes south on any tail shell it will shimmy, I don't care how much it cost or what aircraft it is installed on.

And none are better than a Scott/Bush wheel. I've dealt with Matco they are a cheap POS
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Not the ones that drop a pin and lock...;) Plus the help you from going in circles on landing when there's a stiff crosswind.
 
bluerooster said:
some of them don't either. ;)

And Body shops are only at $42/hr, as set by the insurance companies.
They do[/] have overhead, even the one guy shop.
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Apples and oranges, body shops get 'flat rate' out of the Mitchell Manual, typically I can can make $120hr out of a $42hr flat rate.
 
Tom-D said:
What do you think an oil & filter change should cost?
(8qt oil/1 filter)
Click to expand...

At least $125. Filters are around 15, oil (from the jobber) is about 5/quart, so there's $55. Add an hour to remove and replace the cowling. Throw in a couple dollars for safety wire and rags.
 
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