Annual Costs - Take the Pledge

I learned a lesson recently relating to annual cost vs value. Two
years ago I took on the renovation of a 78 Piper Lance that had sat
outdoors untouched for 3 years. As the service dept. of the flight
school I was teaching at was too busy to fit the plane in, I ended up
having the annual done at another shop on the field. In retrospect I
should have gotten a ferry permit(it was out of annual) and taken the
plane to another airport to have the work done.
IIRC, the total bill was around $1400. This for a plane that sat 3
years without having the engine pickled(!). They replaced the tires
and tubes(only at my insistence) the battery, and ELT batteries (they
used the wrong type) and the wheel bearings on the mains (sprayed a
little Corrosion-X too for good measure) I flew this plane for a year
(about 30 hours) until the next annual. During that time I had a gear
emergency in the pattern (frozen in mid-extension) due to a severely
corroded power pack that was never inspected by the first shop.
My flight school service dept did the 2nd annual. The service mgr.
told me the plane was "scary" there was so much wrong with it. The
second annual cost over 23k, as the squawk list had 130 items on it. A
bunch of these were cosmetic, but mostly airframe related stuff.
Admittedly it was dumb to accept a $1400 annual as a thorough
inspection of a neglected airplane. At least now I know the plane is
safe to fly, and as someone else was paying for the service work I
offer this anecdote to anyone else in a similar position.
In aviation, you really do get what you pay for.

Will