My Annual

It would be interesting if other people would post what their annuals
have been like. I'll start.

I own a Cessna 150, which I have had for several years. This year my
annual ..

It seems some Cessna 150 owners have been finding cracks in the
vertical tail attach bracket. It's a piece of metal the size of my
palm that any fool could weld together. It costs (I'm told) $200. To
inspect it requires removing both vertical and horizontal stabilizers,
the elevator and rudder. I'm told this is 10 hours labor. Our local
mechanic has inspected seven and found two cracked.

The mechanic offered to have his apprentence do the grunt work and he
would do the inspection. The apprentence's labor comes without charge,
so I only paid for the inspection itself (very quick dye penetrant
test). Doing this also means you can replace some nut plates with
actual nuts and terminate a repeetitive AD.

In addition I got

Several repetitive AD inspections checked
New oil and filter
Spark plugs cleaned and gapped
Seals on vacuum pump replaced
Valve cover gaskets replaced on three cylinders
Compressions of 74,76,74,76 (not bad for a 1100 hour engine).
Nose gear torque tube link retightened
Shimmy damper cleaned and serviced.
ELT inspected (It's fine)
Wheel bearings cleaned and repacked

Total cost $800. This is the only maintenance I've needed this year.

This was our first annual in our '79 Mooney 201. 8.5 AMU's and I am
still scabbing over from the beating.

rebuilt exhaust
nose gear truss and tubes
magnito work
fuel tank repairs

Those were the biggies.

Jon Kraus
4443H @ TYQ

Charles Talleyrand wrote:
It would be interesting if other people would post what their annuals
have been like. I'll start.

I own a Cessna 150, which I have had for several years. This year my
annual ..

It seems some Cessna 150 owners have been finding cracks in the
vertical tail attach bracket. It's a piece of metal the size of my
palm that any fool could weld together. It costs (I'm told) $200. To
inspect it requires removing both vertical and horizontal stabilizers,
the elevator and rudder. I'm told this is 10 hours labor. Our local
mechanic has inspected seven and found two cracked.

The mechanic offered to have his apprentence do the grunt work and he
would do the inspection. The apprentence's labor comes without charge,
so I only paid for the inspection itself (very quick dye penetrant
test). Doing this also means you can replace some nut plates with
actual nuts and terminate a repeetitive AD.

In addition I got

Several repetitive AD inspections checked
New oil and filter
Spark plugs cleaned and gapped
Seals on vacuum pump replaced
Valve cover gaskets replaced on three cylinders
Compressions of 74,76,74,76 (not bad for a 1100 hour engine).
Nose gear torque tube link retightened
Shimmy damper cleaned and serviced.
ELT inspected (It's fine)
Wheel bearings cleaned and repacked

Total cost $800. This is the only maintenance I've needed this year.

The apprentence's labor comes without charge

A bargain, I would say.

Charles Talleyrand wrote:

I own a Cessna 150, which I have had for several years. This year my
annual ..

'65 C172F, recently sold. Paying $200 a month for hanger was the final
straw. 4R7 ($400 for the hanger, split 2 ways)...

Spark plugs cleaned and gapped

Replaced fine wire with massive electrode from those fine folks out on
the left coast...

Valve cover gaskets replaced on three cylinders

Same here, but all six cylinders, new valve covers as well. Cured the
majority of the oil leaks. Replacing o-rings on the dipstick, tightning
all the cylinders and replacing all the crush rings - fixed all the
others...

Compressions of 74,76,74,76 (not bad for a 1100 hour engine).

3400+ hours, 900+ since topped with chrome cylinders, readings about the
same, 2 higher, 2 lower, all above 70...

Nose gear torque tube link retightened
Shimmy damper cleaned and serviced.

Replaced the little henge piece behind the nose strut (cracked in 2
places), 2.3 AMU's is what cessna wants, did it for $300 through a
salvage firm. 5 sets of strut seals before they finally got one that
didn't leak down in a few days time. Added some shims in the strut as
well. Replaced a tire with a bald spot at the same time, used tire from
the same salvage people, plus new tube ($35)...

Nose rim also had spun bearings, replaced the rim and the bearings.
Forget what the AMU's were on a rim, $100 or so through salvage. Keep in
mind that all of this was repaired/replaced less than 2 months after
prior owner's annual and we took ownership of it and at our expense...

Wheel bearings cleaned and repacked

Replaced both brake discs, one had actually rusted through in a few
places, both worn to minimums. New brake pads, new chrome discs ($100
ea.). Steel was cheaper, stainless was more expensive...

Total cost $800. This is the only maintenance I've needed this year.

Annual inspection labor was under $300, we did most of the work
ourselves, did all of the annual dissasembly and reassembly...

Shopping planes again. Would like an amphib, 4 seats preferred...

"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...

This was our first annual in our '79 Mooney 201. 8.5 AMU's and I am still
scabbing over from the beating.

rebuilt exhaust
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

nose gear truss and tubes
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

magnito work
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

fuel tank repairs
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.


Jim

I happen to have an Aviat Husky Amphib for sale. Not a 4 place but a
great two place. Just annualed.
Contact me at anothername(at)comcast(dot)net. (Repalce the at with an
@ and the dot with . ).

Nothing like Seaplane flying. Great freedom. Land on lakes!!!

Pics on Jays website.

It seems some Cessna 150 owners have been finding cracks in the
vertical tail attach bracket.

It seems the FAA thinks the same thing, since they issued an Airworthiness
Directive in 1980 for that same problem. See AD 80-11-04.


It's a piece of metal the size of my
palm that any fool could weld together. It costs (I'm told) $200. To
inspect it requires removing both vertical and horizontal stabilizers,
the elevator and rudder. I'm told this is 10 hours labor. Our local
mechanic has inspected seven and found two cracked.

Horsefeathers. It requires a flashlight, an inspection mirror, and ten
minutes. See Cessna service letter 79-49.


Doing this also means you can replace some nut plates with
actual nuts and terminate a repeetitive AD.

That's true.


In addition I got

Several repetitive AD inspections checked

New oil and filter
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Spark plugs cleaned and gapped
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Seals on vacuum pump replaced
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Valve cover gaskets replaced on three cylinders
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Compressions of 74,76,74,76 (not bad for a 1100 hour engine).

Nose gear torque tube link retightened
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

Shimmy damper cleaned and serviced.
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

ELT inspected (It's fine)

Wheel bearings cleaned and repacked

Total cost $800. This is the only maintenance I've needed this year.

That's not bad, but you could have done $600 worth of it yourself.

Jim

Nobody mentioned the word INSPECTION.

This is the annual "Mechanic needs a new toy so I get to buy it for him"
party.

For anyone wondering, go check out

http://www.rst-engr.com/annual/

For Jim's opinion of how an owner should have his ANNUAL INSPECTION done.

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.
Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.

I didn't say anything about the INSPECTION did I...

Jon Kraus
'79 mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

RST Engineering wrote:
"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...


This was our first annual in our '79 Mooney 201. 8.5 AMU's and I am still
scabbing over from the beating.

rebuilt exhaust

Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.


nose gear truss and tubes

Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.


magnito work

Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.


fuel tank repairs

Had nothing to do with the annual INSPECTION.


Jim

"Charles Talleyrand" writes:

It would be interesting if other people would post what their annuals
have been like. I'll start.

I just learned mine was about $9K (after very little flying this
past year). I don't even want to look but the high points were "free"
turbo oil tank replacements and a stabilator skin replacement.

--kyler