Annual downtimes?

I wouldn´t want to “waste” (in my view) my time on working on my airplane – I´d rather spend that time flying it around

I can certainly understand that but the problem in GA is that your local shop is not your local Merc or BMW etc dealer in “project management” and general organisation. GA maintenance runs a bit like the Battle of Midway where a customer turns up with a plane and there is a call for everybody to run to battle stations.

Also a modern car is almost certain to be running all fine at the regular service. They tend to do small stuff. Parts logistics are also really good.

Not getting involved just means lots of hassle and downtime.

Peter wrote:

Not getting involved just means lots of hassle and downtim

Yes but sometimes getting involved results in the same outcome.

I had been getting on like a house on fire, no pun intended, when my trusted mech states he wants his mate to join us for a week. Bit more work than he thought.

Problem he wants me to pay for that. So the 65.00 an hour becomes 130.00 an hour, plus expenses etc. Double the price…

For zero effective downtime, I planned my last annual to coincide with a fortnight’s holiday, but actually had to wait over 2 months.

2 weeks for the annual itself, of which 1 week was waiting for a replacement control cable to come from the US. I’m ok with this bit.

The real problem was being in a queue when the shop was busy, not helped by them being closed over Christmas. I’d given them 3 months’ notice, but I now think the real queue is the line of planes physically parked outside so the notice is irrelevant.

Because of the delay they didn’t charge labour on the remedial work, but it isn’t really a solution.

Peter wrote:

I can certainly understand that but the problem in GA is that your local shop is not your local Merc or BMW etc dealer in “project management” and general organisation. GA maintenance runs a bit like the Battle of Midway where a customer turns up with a plane and there is a call for everybody to run to battle stations.

Also a modern car is almost certain to be running all fine at the regular service. They tend to do small stuff. Parts logistics are also really good.

Not getting involved just means lots of hassle and downtime.

That´s why I choose to pay 120euro/month for part-CAO to do the management/airworthiness – it so happens, that I would need it managed anyways to do flight instructing on it DTO(commercial)/ATO in EU land.
Even though it´s currently also being maintained by the same company that does the management/airworthiness, I´ve made it clear that it´s not a card blanche for them to issue work orders as they please, to their own maintenance shop. It´s supposed to be two separate entities – and I can take it to any other certified shop as I please, with their work orders issued. So, not locked up and having to accept what the maintenance wants and not. Ultimately, trust is the most important – and quality comes at a price.

I´m still involved, primarily because I´m new in this, and because I have the time anyways – but this will vapor off as soon as possible! BeechBaby wrote:

Yes but sometimes getting involved results in the same outcome.

I believe you´re very right about that. Sometimes it´s best to let the pro´s do their thing – again trust is key.

A good annual inspection starts by commencing planning during the prior one.

Proactivity is the name of the (short-annual) game.

Of course there is no mandate to do it that way….but you pay the price in “surprise” downtime.

A typical private flying (low-utilization) situation would be: during annual you find there is some play in the NLG linkages, not too bad, no reported shimmy, but enough to start thinking of it. You look up the list of bolts, bushings and other stuff for the scissor links and put it on the list for next years annual. You keep adding parts to the list as you fly throughout the year and think this or that could be fixed at the next annual (if not be4). You order the parts on your list 4 mos ahead and have it ready one month before next annual. As stated above, this will only work with owner involvement: you can’t expect your shop to work for whoever is going to be the shop in your next annual, maybe themselves, maybe someone else.

A long-term commitment to a shop/camo may help with that. A theoretical alternative may be to pay extra hours for your shop to compile the list of suggested requirements and parts for the next annual, but who in this world does that?

In the airline world it works similarly. We simply can’t afford unplanned groundtime so we have a long-term-deferred-items list where you list all otherwise unscheduled maintenance actions which should be done during the next heavy maintenance opportunity. A typical thing may be temporary structural repairs which are time-limited or require frequent repeat inspections but which require long groundtime for permanent repair.

It also happens during line maintenance but this is more airline-specific. For example airliner windshields tend to delaminate over time with pressure and temperature cycles. The delamination keeps growing over hundreds of cycles until eventually it is not acceptable for continued service per the AMM. It can be a pre-flight item or a weekly check item to review.
You get the passive maintenance organization (or even technician) who will clear it for dozens of inspections without further action. One day, without warning, someone flags it out of limits and you are AOG for one or two days unitl you can arrange the replacement.

You also get the proactive one who will monitor it reporting the condition even if within limits allowing the proactive planning of a replacement at a good opportunity before it is completely out of limits.

Another typical one would be the proactive pilot reporting in the logbook “ML Wheel #4 almost out of limits” . Then you get the not so proactive but good humoured technician answering back “Wheel #4 almost replaced” …

You can see more of those here

On an LAA Permit Annual Inspection I get 3 lists:
Things to be fixed before flight.
Things to be fixed by a date.
Things to monitor.

Maoraigh wrote:

Things to be fixed before flight.
Things to be fixed by a date.
Things to monitor.

That is pretty much how we work as well. There are no-go items which need to be done immediately, other things we can defer to the next 50 hr check or to such a date when the parts arrive and finally stuff we notice that might become a problem but is not yet.

The primary thing is that most people don’t have a 1:1 relationship with their maintenance shop. I am really grateful I do. This does not prevent all difficulties but being able to talk on a even level and popping a Whatsapp instead of going through the secretary e.t.c. does help tremendously. It also builds trust. That is why my plane has been with the same maintenance organisation since I have it.

Yes parts are a problem and worse, engines and props can take forever to source, that imho is the major problem these days. Other than that, any annual which overruns massively will have either unearthed a problem which is really new or will be a consequence of part shortages.

Mooney_Driver wrote:

The primary thing is that most people don’t have a 1:1 relationship with their maintenance shop. I am really grateful I do.

Nirvana and never let that relationship go South. I used to think I had, until I did not. With my guy because I queried an item on my invoice. I later found out that others thought he was a full fruit loop, but I was disappointed. He thought I had broken his trust, and then I became the problem

Amazing the amount of people that take it as a personal slur when they are queried.

Back to the drawing board..

In 9 years of Annuals for PA28 where I help as owner assisted Annuals, I have never had an Annual longer than 4 days. Most are done in 3 days. Day 4 and 5 are spent doing “improvements” and the plane gets better each year. A respray and dedicated airframe work is not “Annual” work, that is planned maintenance and gets done in the winter or when I am on holiday

Generally things can be deferred and repaired when the part is in stock, either the following year or unusually a week or so later.

I plan for the next Annual (ordering parts) for planned maintenance as soon as my Annual has been signed off. My next Annual in in May 2024 and I already have a list of improvement jobs and the parts on order.

I am amazed at how badly most Annuals are handled. No planning, props pulled, and aircraft abandoned for months whilst the cam rusts away etc