Finding a Good A&P

Michelle,

I would love to, but I have a career that takes 110% of my time.

I have a couple of good word of mouths referrals that I can try now. I
will gives those a shot.

What I would like to do is to hand them a test before they touch my
engine. If they pass it with flying colors, then they can touch my
engine. In medicine, there is something called the American Board of
Surgery that certifies doctors and gives them such a test. That is why
I always seek a "Board Certified" surgeon. It would be nice if it were
that easy for A&Ps. Alas, the world is messier.

By the way, what does it mean when an A&P shop calls themselves a "Piper
Service Center." Do they have to actually do anything or know anything
special, or can anyone pay some fee somewhere and get called a "Piper
Service Center"?

-Sami

Michelle P wrote:
Sami,
I found mine by becoming one.
The best way is word of mouth. Once you have found one, it is like your
hair dresser, doctor, etc. You hold on to them until one of you is six
feet under ;-)
Michelle

O. Sami Saydjari wrote:

OK, I have a controversial question. How does one find a good A&P
mechanic. I just bought a Piper Turbo Arrow III recently and I want
to find a mechanic in my area (Central Wisconsin) that I can trust and
is competent. I am interested in hearing about how folks find the
good A&Ps out there, other than by pure luck.

I have had a couple of disappointing experiences with A&Ps where they
missed some pretty significant problems. I found one through word of
mouth. The other, well, I found the closest Piper Service Center near
me (figuring that they had special knowledge and expertise with Pipers
-- turned out to not be so).

-Sami

Mark Astley wrote:
As hokey as it sounds, my first criteria is the condition of the shop floor.
The shop which does my work has two hangars both with pristine white floors.
The shops I didn't choose have dirty unpainted floors.

It doesn't just sound hokey, it is hokey.


I believe there's a
correlation between clean/neat facilities and competent work,

There ain't.

Mark Astley wrote:

I believe there's a
correlation between clean/neat facilities and competent work, but maybe I'm
just fooling myself.

I have found that to be not the case, but I have found a direct relationship
between neatly painted floors and the size of the final bill.

George Patterson
Love, n.: A form of temporary insanity afflicting the young. It is curable
either by marriage or by removal of the afflicted from the circumstances
under which he incurred the condition. It is sometimes fatal, but more
often to the physician than to the patient.

As hokey as it sounds, my first criteria is the condition of the shop
floor.
The shop which does my work has two hangars both with pristine white
floors.
The shops I didn't choose have dirty unpainted floors. I believe there's
a
correlation between clean/neat facilities and competent work, but maybe
I'm
just fooling myself.

I felt the same way, but soon found that the "clean white floors" were also
considerably more expensive. They were the corporate shop, that "punched
in" on your plane at 8 AM, and "punched out" at 5 PM -- regardless of
progress or results.

My current mechanic is a long-term EAA and AAA (Antique Aircraft
Association) member who works a full-time job (a chief mechanic for Airborne
Express) as well as running his own shop, and is building his own plane
between jobs. (When? God only knows....) As a result, there is usually
some major sub-section being worked on, with all the associated clutter and
fuss scattered about.

This bothered me, at first, till I found out that Keith did twice the work
in half the time of the "white floor" shop. With better results, too.

So, it's a good rule -- but not universally applicable to all A&Ps.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

By the way, what does it mean when an A&P shop calls themselves a "Piper
Service Center." Do they have to actually do anything or know anything
special, or can anyone pay some fee somewhere and get called a "Piper
Service Center"?

It usually means they've been around a long time, since the hey-day of
Spam-can production. Piper (like Cessna) used to run a chain of "service
centers" for their planes, back when they cranking out thousands (rather
than dozens) per year. These "centers" had "certified Piper mechanics" and
usually sold new Piper aircraft, too.

The "New Piper" has kept the system going, sorta -- but from what I've heard
they are a mere shadow of their former selves.

When our FBO sold out a few years ago, I bought two of their big "Piper
Service Center" signs (for $2 apiece!), cleaned them up, and hung one in my
rec room, and one in my hangar. The new FBO sells only new Cessnas now...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Sami,
Your best bet is to hang out at the airport and find out who others are
taking there aircraft to for repair and inspection.
Ask them who they take their aircraft to, what they had done, were they
satisfied? Pretty soon you will see a pattern emerge.
Don't despair if your first bill from a good mechanic is large. They
just found everything everybody else missed or overlooked. The bills
will get smaller and less frequent with time.

Michelle

O. Sami Saydjari wrote:

Michelle,

I would love to, but I have a career that takes 110% of my time.

I have a couple of good word of mouths referrals that I can try now.
I will gives those a shot.

What I would like to do is to hand them a test before they touch my
engine. If they pass it with flying colors, then they can touch my
engine. In medicine, there is something called the American Board of
Surgery that certifies doctors and gives them such a test. That is
why I always seek a "Board Certified" surgeon. It would be nice if it
were that easy for A&Ps. Alas, the world is messier.

By the way, what does it mean when an A&P shop calls themselves a
"Piper Service Center." Do they have to actually do anything or know
anything special, or can anyone pay some fee somewhere and get called
a "Piper Service Center"?

-Sami

Michelle P wrote:

Sami,
I found mine by becoming one.
The best way is word of mouth. Once you have found one, it is like
your hair dresser, doctor, etc. You hold on to them until one of you
is six feet under ;-)
Michelle

O. Sami Saydjari wrote:

OK, I have a controversial question. How does one find a good A&P
mechanic. I just bought a Piper Turbo Arrow III recently and I want
to find a mechanic in my area (Central Wisconsin) that I can trust
and is competent. I am interested in hearing about how folks find
the good A&Ps out there, other than by pure luck.

I have had a couple of disappointing experiences with A&Ps where
they missed some pretty significant problems. I found one through
word of mouth. The other, well, I found the closest Piper Service
Center near me (figuring that they had special knowledge and
expertise with Pipers -- turned out to not be so).

-Sami




--

Michelle P ATP-ASEL, CP-AMEL, and AMT-A&P

"Elisabeth" a Maule M-7-235B (no two are alike)

Volunteer Pilot, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic

Volunteer Builder, Habitat for Humanity

Ben,

I agree. I don't let anyone touch my airplane unless I am there to
supervise.

--
John Purner
Editor - The $100 Hamburger
http://www.100dollarhamburger.com
"Ben Haas" wrote in message
om...
"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message
...
OK, I have a controversial question. How does one find a good A&P
mechanic. I just bought a Piper Turbo Arrow III recently and I want to
find a mechanic in my area (Central Wisconsin) that I can trust and is
competent. I am interested in hearing about how folks find the good
A&Ps out there, other than by pure luck.

I have had a couple of disappointing experiences with A&Ps where they
missed some pretty significant problems. I found one through word of
mouth. The other, well, I found the closest Piper Service Center near
me (figuring that they had special knowledge and expertise with Pipers
-- turned out to not be so).

-Sami

This is exactly why a large percentage of owners now are building and
mantaining our own planes. I have owned several certified planes and I
will be damned if I ever want to see a yellow tag again. I found a
great A&P/ IA when I used to live in Fla. I was alomst killed by a
couple of bad A&P's before I found him. If I go out I want to be the
one who does it to myself, not someone who just barely passed a test
to work on a plane but is not smart enought to get a PPL to test fly
what he just worked on. My two cents worth...

Ben Haas N801BH

Me too on the other hand my last annual was at a dirty shop int the country.
A cylinder needed to be repaired. The invoice claimed 9 hours and thirty
minutes to remove and replace it! Theft or incompetence is alive and well
everywhere.

--
John Purner
Editor - The $100 Hamburger
http://www.100dollarhamburger.com
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Mark Astley wrote:

I believe there's a
correlation between clean/neat facilities and competent work, but maybe
I'm
just fooling myself.

I have found that to be not the case, but I have found a direct
relationship
between neatly painted floors and the size of the final bill.

George Patterson
Love, n.: A form of temporary insanity afflicting the young. It is
curable
either by marriage or by removal of the afflicted from the
circumstances
under which he incurred the condition. It is sometimes fatal, but
more
often to the physician than to the patient.

In article , G.R. Patterson III wrote:
I have found that to be not the case, but I have found a direct relationship
between neatly painted floors and the size of the final bill.

The one time in my life I took my plane to a place with spotless floors,
I was 800 miles from home when a magneto decided to no longer be attached
to the crankcase. I didn't have a gasket or a timing tool with me, so
I had to take it to a shop (Southern Jet Center in Raleigh). They
replaced the gasket, timed both mags, cleaned the engine, and had me on the
road again in an hour. For $100.

I've always been wary of clear-floor shops, but there are good ones out
there that charge a fair price.

Of course, by the time the 6 quarts of oil that were spread all over my
belly dripped off, their floor wasn't quite so clean.

Tina Marie
--
http://www.tripacerdriver.com "...One of the main causes
of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way
to indicate successful termination of their C programs." (Robert Firth)