On 15-Jun-2006, Otis Winslow wrote:

Wait till SBs become mandatory by regulation .. which is in the works.
It's going to cost $1000 plus per hour to operate these old planes. And
the value of them is going straight in the toilet.


Some SBs become mandatory because of a subsequently issued AD, but by
themselves they are, from a legal standpoint, voluntary. That said, my
feeling is that SBs generally address serious issues that soul be dealt with
by careful pilots/owners.

In the 10 years I have co-owned our Arrow IV, the various Piper- and
Lycoming-issued SBs affecting our plane have had quite modest cost
implications. Unfortunately, the SB dealing with cracked wing ribs caught
us -- not because of the cost of the inspection, which took about 2 hours of
A&P labor (if done at the time of an annual), but because it revealed some
cracks. The cracks make the airplane un-airworthy, SB or no SB. So in
effect, the big cost is not in complying with the SB, but rather in
repairing the damage that performing the SB uncovered.

Yes, older airplanes generally have more maintenance issues. Things wear
out. But properly maintained, their values generally, on average, have more
than kept pace with inflation. Consider, for example, Bonanzas from the
'70s and '80s. They require lots of expensive maintenance but their values
keep climbing, or at least hold firm, year after year.

-Elliott Drucker