My Annual

George Patterson wrote:
wrote:


You're lucky... my A&P /IA makes _me_ do all the grunt work myself,
plus I have to pay for all the beer after the plane is put back
together, signed off and test flown.


There are shops in this area that make you do all the grunt work and
then charge you shop rates for your own labor.

My annual inspection is flat fee (a lot more than Weir would charge!)
and the mechanic teases that she doesn't charge more when the owners
help :-). I think she actually spends more time when the owners do help
as she explains everything and teaches at least one new task a year.
After a few years the savings start to add up not with the cost of the
inspection, but with the costs of the repairs/improvements made at the
time. When we put in a new ELT, which included fabricating a bracket
and running wires for the new remote switch the only charge from the
mechanic was for the paperwork compliance.

Margy

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

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...

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.

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.

I do wonder if we are mis-understanding each other. The inspection i'm
trying to describe was according to the A&P an optional inspection, and
a new one. He's normally on the ball.

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.

Yes, technically you are right. However, almost everyone describes the
inspection and the repair as "the annual". And this is a useful bit of
speach. And you've already made this point several times over the
years. And if you really want to be technical, I didn't say "annual
inspection" I just said "annual". But I think you are being picky for
no reason.

I'm going in on Monday (25th) for my 7th annual . . . '67 C-172-H.
I will do everything owner is permitted to do (as I have for the last 5
years).

Will report results here when complete. I fly about 125 hrs a year,
and at least once a week, often 3 times.

We shall see.

www.Rosspilot.com

Well, not such good news :-(

My #5 cylinder compression was only 57 . . . so my mechanic did what he
called "staking the valve" . . . by rapping on it with a plastic mallet
while checking the compression gage. No improvement.
The exhaust valve is not seating properly so we have to pull the
cylinder and either send it out for repair or exchange for another one
.. . .
Any comments or suggestions as to which course of action is better?

wrote:
Well, not such good news :-(

My #5 cylinder compression was only 57 . . . so my mechanic did what he
called "staking the valve" . . . by rapping on it with a plastic mallet
while checking the compression gage. No improvement.
The exhaust valve is not seating properly so we have to pull the
cylinder and either send it out for repair or exchange for another one
. . .
Any comments or suggestions as to which course of action is better?

Check the calibrations on that compression gage (assuming you are
loooking for 60/80 psi?). Fly the airplane for 10 hours and check the
compression on that cylinder again. Lots of times our 172M wouldn't
quite make compression & but then it would 10 hours later on a recheck.

This assumes you don't have a problem with excessive oil consumption or
fouling.