It seems some Cessna 150 owners have been finding cracks in the
vertical tail attach bracket.

It seems the FAA thinks the same thing, since they issued an Airworthiness
Directive in 1980 for that same problem. See AD 80-11-04.


It's a piece of metal the size of my
palm that any fool could weld together. It costs (I'm told) $200. To
inspect it requires removing both vertical and horizontal stabilizers,
the elevator and rudder. I'm told this is 10 hours labor. Our local
mechanic has inspected seven and found two cracked.

Horsefeathers. It requires a flashlight, an inspection mirror, and ten
minutes. See Cessna service letter 79-49.


Doing this also means you can replace some nut plates with
actual nuts and terminate a repeetitive AD.

That's true.


In addition I got

Several repetitive AD inspections checked

New oil and filter
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Spark plugs cleaned and gapped
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Seals on vacuum pump replaced
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Valve cover gaskets replaced on three cylinders
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Compressions of 74,76,74,76 (not bad for a 1100 hour engine).

Nose gear torque tube link retightened
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Shimmy damper cleaned and serviced.
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

ELT inspected (It's fine)

Wheel bearings cleaned and repacked

Total cost $800. This is the only maintenance I've needed this year.

That's not bad, but you could have done $600 worth of it yourself.

Jim