I am N-reg and use a freelance A&P/IA engineer. Regular services are done outdoors due to airport restrictions on work inside hangars; this is occassionally not nice but again with an N-reg you are not tied to a hard 50hr schedule. Annuals are done in a rented hangar. I assist with both. I’ve been doing this since about 2010 and apart from the occassional hassles where a hangar would be really nice, it works superbly.
I was G-reg 2002-2005 and the plane got basically gradually trashed by the company doing it. I used to sneak into the hangar in the evening and replace the screws they they mangled by use of power screwdrivers, etc. Then I went N-reg but continued to use a company (which I think used an A&P/IA to sign it off, but maybe not?). My last straw was some dodgy oil which froze the elevator trim at altitude; described here.
There are good companies out there but I don’t have any locally. General Aero Services at Thurrock are a really nice bunch which I have used. They also do prop overhauls. For avionics, it’s another story…
Regarding getting grounded, this has never happened to me because I maintain the plane on a zero-defect money-no-object basis. On my PC monitor I have a postit sticker with 9 discrepancies which will all be fixed at the Annual in January. All are minor and most people would have not bothered. And I have a stock of spares: magneto, alternator, fuel servo, fuel totaliser (transducer and instrument), various avionics, a complete spare autopilot system, etc. Not in the hangar, obviously… My A&P has grounded on the spot a number of planes though (mostly G-regs; he is EASA66 also) and got some extremely p1ssed off owners as a result. He no longer works for certain companies which asked him to sign off dodgy work. I am certain he would ground mine if he found something appropriate.
GA maintenance is not like taking your Toyota to a dealer for a service. You have to be involved and be pro-active. This is possible on any reg but is easier on an N-reg. If I was G-reg I would be doing stuff off the books (as many do), buying parts (particular avionics) off US Ebay, or overhauled ones with an 8130-3 form) and swapping the stickers with a hair dryer 
I never had any problems with my maintenance organisation. They are to the point, tell you what’s going on, you are welcome in the hangar any time.
Main time wasters were sourcing parts and shipment. Currently I face a 4 week grounding due to a fuel pump which needs to go to overhaul to the US. However, overhaul costs 800$ whereas a spare (also overhauled) pump will be 2500 $. So we use the measly weather season and get it done.
It took some times sourcing fuel tank parts last year as well, but saved a lot of money sourcing them via Don Maxwell vs ordering new.
Once everything is in place, maintenance are quick to react.
@ Mooney_Driver
See, I was reporting other peoples concerns, gathered by asking “why do you sell ?”. The pattern was telltale.
It also raised the concern, where would I go with my next Mooney (my long term MO has quit from all GA / SEP operations).
Would you please tell me where you do your maintenance ?
All three planes I had were bought new and made in Europe. Guess that’s a way to stay out of trouble
I wish that had been my experience.
The major factor in selling my beloved three-year-old Robin DR401 was months of AOG time caused by a lack of maintenance at my home field.
For the future, I’d say, unless you can do it yourself, a good maintenance relationship – preferably experienced and willing maintenance on type at the home airfield is the most important criteria for happy ownership.
I would never again own a FADEC-engined aircraft unless there was excellent local support – every time one of those sensitive little lights came on it cost me £1000s and misery!
AJ wrote:
Would you please tell me where you do your maintenance ?
Sure. Seiferle Aviation, Speck Fehraltdorf and SAAG Plus CAMO.
There are several good Mooney maintenance centers in Europe, Troyes is one, there is one in Leutkirch which I know off hand.
I have good first name basis contact with my maintenance shop and CAMO at Teuge. To maintain an EU reg SEP to a nice (or any…) standard is expensive but they do their part to make it (somewhat) palatable. The most of their business comes from flyingschools and other companies uses their aircraft commercialy, so I’m a bit of a different customer for them. I can always call and/or app with the man responsible for CAMO and paperwork and the head technician, even in weekends or evenings, they don’t mind. That kind of thing goes a long way. When troubleshooting the problems I had with the wastegate they sure didn’t bill every hour and made me part of the whole proces. They know the Mooney with it’s intricacies well, and that too is helpfull. I’m mostly happy with International Aviation Support at Teuge.
The major factor in selling my beloved three-year-old Robin DR401 was months of AOG time caused by a lack of maintenance at my home field.
The pilots who own “glass” or electrically or engine-wise complex piston planes tend to be located near avionics maintenance facilities (read: a Garmin dealer). Visit your nearest Garmin etc dealer’s base and see what’s parked there. It’s obvious…
And regrettably most of them (of course there are exceptions and most of them are on EuroGA ) don’t do long trips. If you go to some distant location (down the Adriatic or further) most of the piston GA you see is older stuff. Of course it is gradually changing (of necessity) but most of the “eye candy” (the brand new SR22s etc) doesn’t venture far. I think there is a general (and unstated) lack of confidence. And I know quite a lot about this since Socata appear to have built my panel out of avionics returned from the field with intermittent defects and most of it was replaced under warranty
NealCS – your Robin’s starter issues could have been sorted in an hour by somebody (who had the wiring diagrams etc) with a £20 multimeter, but not within the EASA Part M framework, and not in the hangar where it was parked…
Peter wrote:
General Aero Services at Thurrock are a really nice bunch
Another vote for these guys.
They do 50hr checks while we wait, and once changed a cylinder while I waited – having only discovered during the 50hr that it needed changing.
There seems to be a particular challenge with Prop-Overhauls.
As much as I love (as a European and a Businessman) to see a European-SME like MT-Propeller flourish and obviously having a more than full order book: The 9-11 weeks AOG-time for the prop overhaul is “quite disappointing”. This is even more the case as the opportunity costs of this downtime (hangar, insurance, data subscription, etc.) almost get in the same ballpark as the price of the overhaul itself…
Is it not possible to book the overhaul slot in advance, and get it done fast? A prop overhaul is only a few days, and most of that time is waiting for the paint to dry.
A company which takes weeks to do a prop overhaul is just a disorganised outfit which drops your job when another customer screams at them down the phone and threatens to sue them That indeed is the standard operating mode of much aircraft maintenance. There are many less than happy customers out there. I spoke to an ex employee of one of the biggest avionics shops in Europe and he said that’s how they work. Jobs get left behind until the customer screams and then everybody gets sent to “battle stations” as he put it.
In the UK, G-reg, most people are on a 6 year hard time limit. It can be avoided via the SDMP route but almost nobody has managed to get that approved. Yes I know an SDMP doesn’t need approval because it is “self declared” but that’s not the reality.
