I think that many of us are now seeing the combined effects of parts availability for heritage airframes, often no longer fully supported by the type certificate holder, and the post covid economic non-recovery of manufacturing and supply chains more generally. Not so much an issue for the PA28, C172’s of this world, but critically important for less common types. I am dreading the day when the parts I need simply cannot be sourced, and the aircraft has to be parted out.
Not to mention the soaring costs of some of the less abundant items on the older/less common airframes, and the regularity of waiting for parts from overseas. Fortunately shipping is occasionally slightly more efficient and can compensate a little on the lead times from the past.
Our annual is usually 2 weeks if no special parts or jobs are needed.
@Mark_B I really don’t think that you and I will see such a situation with the Comanche and TwinCo. The ICS is doing a great job about parts availability! Think about the landing gear! I‘ve been quite deep in maintenance of mine and I can’t think of a lot of items that could not be fixed. It’s just a huge percentage of standard items.
Doing my own maintenance, I plan 3 full days to complete an annual on my pretty simple airplane (RV-6.9i). This is without accounting for any repairs.
The Falco usually took 1 day more thanks to having to jack it up to check the retracts, clean and re-grease those retract screws, service the Hartzell prop, etc.
Of note, I like to take my time and do things properly, instead of breaking down afar later. This also helps in reducing the weight and bulk of the tool/spare kit I carry along 
Mine is done over 3-4 days. My A&P/IA and myself and sometimes we have a 3rd person.
Usually no waiting for parts because everything needed was discovered before it started. One exception was on the last one when I was down for a few weeks due to a damaged exhaust pipe (posted about it here). I find it hard to understand why lots more do not do that, because it is one of the factors which results is long annuals
@Peter ok I haven’t found that thread, ok for me if you merged them.
Somehow it reliefs me that also in a shop it’s taking more time (so justifying the work that I used to put into it) but on the other side I was hoping that a one-day annual was more sort of normal.
In the last annual I installed LED lighting where some new cabling and adaptation was necessary. This alone took around 16 hours. And then I did a full revival of the brake system (except the tire mounted stuff). There were some old hoses (30 years is old for a rubber hose, I’d say) and I wasn’t happy with it. I exchanged all hose pieces and additionally made a revision of the master brake cylinders. And then I had to have the magnets overhauled. On top of that we made some detailed inspections like corrosion of the fuselage, that is a real mess dismantling lots of pieces inside. But of course happy to see that it’s in a perfect condition after all these years.
Next annual should not be like the ones before. I’m through the biggest part of it for quite some time.
Dan wrote:
This also helps in reducing the weight and bulk of the tool/spare kit I carry along
I tend to agree to this. I’ve seen practically the whole plane from inside out and know that it’s fine.
Most “company” annuals come to about 5k even if no remedial work is done.
That is the value of own hangar because you can use a freelance mechanic 
And, guess what, that is why most airports do not allow work to be done in hangars. This is also a major chunk of the value of being N-reg – lots of previous threads on that…
Peter wrote:
That is the value of own hangar because you can use a freelance mechanic
Absolutely!
On my field, my homebuilder’s association EAS has a field association, and we are renting a third of a heated hangar. For quite a modest fee each member can work, final assemble, service, repair, or modify, his homebuilt in comfort, and with a good selection of shared tooling.
The only disadvantage is being interrupted many times during work by curious peers and friends
PS
We also sub-rent to interested parties.
I just had my annual + 200 hour maintenance for a DA42 in Norway. Done over 4 days, Monday-Thursday. Always had great service.
The annual/100 hr check on my Mooney normally takes 1 1/2 – 2 days. We have had cases where parts needed to be ordered, but often not critical, so we finished the annual and exchanged them once they arrived a few weeks later.
So far the only serious downtimes I’ve had was when we did the engine, the avionic install/prop overhaul and recently after the accident.
