You know you own an airplane when...

Mike Spera wrote:
snip
Finally, you can fabricate your own parts. The rub is that you have to
get a wrench to sign off on them. There are some rules around what you
MAY need to provide as far as documentation. I saw your wrench's reply
about the CAR3 cert. I don't believe that is true, however, it is HIS
ticket. He can refuse to sign off if he believes that the tooth fairy
has something to do with it (in other words, for any reason).

Yes, I know, and I can't necessarily blame him. Like I said in another
reply (and was ridiculed for saying it), if I were in his shoes I
certainly wouldn't put my ticket at risk so a cheapskate owner could
save a few hundred dollars. Note that I'm not defending the cost of the
parts, but the right of the mechanic to choose what he signs off.

snip
The metal ram's horn yokes that replace my original plastic ones were
$1290 each from Piper (and that does not include labor to swap them). I
found ones with the plastic coating peeling off and bent control shafts
for $150 (for the pair). After refinishing them, replacing their bent
shafts with my straight ones, installing them (under my wrench's eye),
and adding pre made leather wraps, I have them both installed. Total
cost was about $500 (the leather wraps were $300 and completely optional
- they looked great painted). BUT, I have about 25 hours of my labor in
the deal.
snip

Nice solution. Some time ago I was looking for new yokes for the 172
and Cessna came back with what I thought was a fairly reasonable $350
for each yoke. Where they became UNreasonable was in charging for the
little leather / plastic piece that attaches to the center of the yoke
and shows the Cessna logo and (sometimes) the aircraft model number.
You want that? It will cost you another $300. :-)

But, to address your point here...there's the rub. I don't know about
you, but I'd rather be doing something else with that 25 hours,
including making a bunch more money so I could pay someone to deal with
this kind of minutiae. It's not that I don't like working on airplanes
but my time is now better spent doing other things, including flying them.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

-Doug

--
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Doug Vetter, ATP/CFI

http://www.dvatp.com
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Can't I just go to a boneyard at some repair facility (e.g. Beegles)
and have them just take one out of a plane and use that?

Interested reading:

OPP Article from AMT
http://www.amtonline.com/publication...ubId=1&id=1257

Draft AC addressing requirements of mechanic produced parts
http://forums.aopa.org/attachment.ph...8&d=1142199821

Jim