Annual costs are a hot hanger topic. All of us who follow GA maintenance
issues have seen how it goes. Preferred Aviation gives good advice so an
owner spends $5000 on his Skyhawk while it's in for the annual. When his
friends ask why the long face, he tells them he just had a five grand annual
at Preferred. They think, wow, I'd better go to Savemore Aviation for my
annual because, I can't afford a hit like that right now. Preferred then
gets a divot taken out of its market share for doing a proper job.

Every year, at the club meeting after our annual, somebody says that Joe
Pinchface gets his annuals done for $800 up at Savemore and why are we
spending all this money? I ask if he's read the report in the newsletter.
He doesn't have to read it because Joe has a damn fine airplane, he's flown
with him many times, and if he can get it through annual for $800 at
Savemore, there's no reason why we can't.

Last year, I had our shop give me two invoices. The first was for the
inspection and just the rock bottom, minimum necessary to legally sign the
plane off. Everything that could be deferred until after the plane had
flown again was put on a second invoice. We are used to spending $2000 to
$5000 at annual time. I reported to the club that we had a $1200 annual and
elected to do $2500 of other stuff while the plane was down and taken apart.
I was a hero and it was the first year I didn't have to listen to the
Savemore speech.

I used to recommend our late lamented shop to everyone. Several people said,
"Yeah, he's good but I can't afford his annuals." After last year's annual,
I told people who complained about our shop's high annuals that ours was
only $1200 on a Skyhawk and they said they might give him a try. If this
kind of billing was more common, an excellent shop might still be in
business.

So, take the pledge. If you are a shop, keep true annual costs separate so
you don't suffer annual cost inflation that scares away customers. If you
are an owner, ask for two invoices so you can better track expenses and not
scare customers away from the shop that you depend on.

--
Roger Long