Cost of annual?

Rich
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-Hank (or Al, or whatever)
-I would guess you are about to be "informed" by Jim of a very common
-indistinction made by many owners.

Moi? MOI???!!!


There should be a CLEAR distinction
-between the required ANNUAL INSPECTION, the repairs necessary to allow
-the aircraft to pass that inspection, and the routine maintenance (such
-as greasing wheel bearings) often performed at this inspection.

That is about the best truth that you are going to find on the newsgroups today.


-
-The annual inspection cost should be determined by your inspector's rate
-times the standard hours to inspect your aircraft. My aircraft calls
-for 22 hours to perform the inspection... Others less than ten.

And of those hours, somewhere between 80 and 90% are the labor to pull off the
inspection plates, pull the cowl, pull the spark plugs, tear the seats out to
pull the interior inspection plates off, open up the headliner, take the rear
bulkhead cover off, pull the wheel pants, (get the jacks onto the hardpoints for
retractible), fire up the compressor and pull the air hose over for the
compression check, and all the rest of the busywork required to get the airplane
into condition for inspection.

Let's take a middle ground...15 hours to do the inspection "by the book". Even
this is high for an airplane that you've been looking at for two or three years,
but let's go with it. Let's also go on the low side of my "grunt labor"
estimate. This means 3 hours actually "inspecting" and 12 hours grunting. I
think "owner assisted" folks here will tell you that these numbers are
real...and of those three hours "inspecting", two will be actually looking and
measuring and one will be paperwork -- AD research and the like.

So I get $200 for 3 hours work. That's $66 an hour. And you call me a cheap
date?



In the
-present legal enviornment, many IA's need additional time the first time
-they inspect an aircraft to assure themselves that the paperwork is in
-order and that mandatory work previously signed off was, in fact,
-correctly done.

That's why I get $200 on the first annual, $175 on the second, and $150 for
every CONSECUTIVE annual thereafter. The first annual is a bitch, as the
research on the ADs goes back to the day that sucker rolled out of the factory.
We also do a full back-to-the-factory weight and balance spreadsheet and the
lookin' don't get done until the writin' all is in order. Now you are right, I
**am** a cheap date, because by the time this first one gets done, I've got at
least 5 or 6 hours in the can with first-time paperwork. After the first one,
though, it is about fifteen minutes to see if there were any new ADs or
recurrent ones whose time is up, and an update of the weight/balance with "owner
installed" goodies, and other minor stuff. So I really start making my money
with the second and third annuals, which is why I do what I do.


That, and I'm very upfront with the owner that (a) they are going to get their
hands greasy; (b) I'm not going to sign off an unairworthy aircraft for ANY
reason; and (c) they are going to get a list of stuff that I'd like to see some
preventive maintenance done on in the coming year. The list is a checklist and
I want to see that checklist punched BEFORE I start the following year.

I ain't as cheap as you might think... {;-)


Jim

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com