Cost of annual?

What does it cost for your annual?
Some shops around here now give an estimate then add for parts and extra labor.
I think some shops like to make a killing. I want all the airworthy item taken
care of and AD's complied with, but would pay by the hour.
I have a Cessna 172 in good shape.

(Hankal) writes:

What does it cost for your annual?

Two hundred bucks and a six pack of diet coke.

See http://www.rstengineering.com/annual for more details. I just
completed my second annual on my Skylane, with Jim Weir inspecting and
me trading sweat equity for dollars in my wallet. Worked out great.

-jav

"Hankal" wrote in message
...
What does it cost for your annual?
Some shops around here now give an estimate then add for parts and extra
labor.
I think some shops like to make a killing. I want all the airworthy item
taken
care of and AD's complied with, but would pay by the hour.
I have a Cessna 172 in good shape.

My 'normal' annual costs $450 plus parts (10 hours at $45/hr). My first one
was right around $450, the next one was almost $1,800 with tires, window
replacement and some other squawks, my last one was again around $450. This
is on a 58 year old plane. I drop the plane off and come back a few days
later, pay the bill and leave. If you assist, you can save more money.

Where are you located? It might make a difference if you are in the
boondocks compared to the metro areas as to availability of inspectors and
costs. Check around and find one that works well for you.

Javier Henderson wrote:

(Hankal) writes:


What does it cost for your annual?


Two hundred bucks and a six pack of diet coke.

See http://www.rstengineering.com/annual for more details. I just
completed my second annual on my Skylane, with Jim Weir inspecting and
me trading sweat equity for dollars in my wallet. Worked out great.

-jav

Yes, but Jim is a cheap date! :-)

Seriously, my lowest cost Skylane annual was $600 and my highest was
nearly $3,000 which included replacing a cylinder and cracked piston
and some other significant items. Whether you technically consider that
cost part of the annual depends on your persepctive I guess. I never
assisted in any of the annuals.


Matt

Hank (or Al, or whatever)
I would guess you are about to be "informed" by Jim of a very common
indistinction made by many owners. There should be a CLEAR distinction
between the required ANNUAL INSPECTION, the repairs necessary to allow
the aircraft to pass that inspection, and the routine maintenance (such
as greasing wheel bearings) often performed at this inspection.

The annual inspection cost should be determined by your inspector's rate
times the standard hours to inspect your aircraft. My aircraft calls
for 22 hours to perform the inspection... Others less than ten. In the
present legal enviornment, many IA's need additional time the first time
they inspect an aircraft to assure themselves that the paperwork is in
order and that mandatory work previously signed off was, in fact,
correctly done.

The cost of regular maintenance is also easy to figure.

The cost of repairs to make YOUR aircraft airworthy is anybody's guess!

Rich

Hankal wrote:
What does it cost for your annual?
Some shops around here now give an estimate then add for parts and extra labor.
I think some shops like to make a killing. I want all the airworthy item taken
care of and AD's complied with, but would pay by the hour.
I have a Cessna 172 in good shape.

Rich
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-Hank (or Al, or whatever)
-I would guess you are about to be "informed" by Jim of a very common
-indistinction made by many owners.

Moi? MOI???!!!


There should be a CLEAR distinction
-between the required ANNUAL INSPECTION, the repairs necessary to allow
-the aircraft to pass that inspection, and the routine maintenance (such
-as greasing wheel bearings) often performed at this inspection.

That is about the best truth that you are going to find on the newsgroups today.


-
-The annual inspection cost should be determined by your inspector's rate
-times the standard hours to inspect your aircraft. My aircraft calls
-for 22 hours to perform the inspection... Others less than ten.

And of those hours, somewhere between 80 and 90% are the labor to pull off the
inspection plates, pull the cowl, pull the spark plugs, tear the seats out to
pull the interior inspection plates off, open up the headliner, take the rear
bulkhead cover off, pull the wheel pants, (get the jacks onto the hardpoints for
retractible), fire up the compressor and pull the air hose over for the
compression check, and all the rest of the busywork required to get the airplane
into condition for inspection.

Let's take a middle ground...15 hours to do the inspection "by the book". Even
this is high for an airplane that you've been looking at for two or three years,
but let's go with it. Let's also go on the low side of my "grunt labor"
estimate. This means 3 hours actually "inspecting" and 12 hours grunting. I
think "owner assisted" folks here will tell you that these numbers are
real...and of those three hours "inspecting", two will be actually looking and
measuring and one will be paperwork -- AD research and the like.

So I get $200 for 3 hours work. That's $66 an hour. And you call me a cheap
date?



In the
-present legal enviornment, many IA's need additional time the first time
-they inspect an aircraft to assure themselves that the paperwork is in
-order and that mandatory work previously signed off was, in fact,
-correctly done.

That's why I get $200 on the first annual, $175 on the second, and $150 for
every CONSECUTIVE annual thereafter. The first annual is a bitch, as the
research on the ADs goes back to the day that sucker rolled out of the factory.
We also do a full back-to-the-factory weight and balance spreadsheet and the
lookin' don't get done until the writin' all is in order. Now you are right, I
**am** a cheap date, because by the time this first one gets done, I've got at
least 5 or 6 hours in the can with first-time paperwork. After the first one,
though, it is about fifteen minutes to see if there were any new ADs or
recurrent ones whose time is up, and an update of the weight/balance with "owner
installed" goodies, and other minor stuff. So I really start making my money
with the second and third annuals, which is why I do what I do.


That, and I'm very upfront with the owner that (a) they are going to get their
hands greasy; (b) I'm not going to sign off an unairworthy aircraft for ANY
reason; and (c) they are going to get a list of stuff that I'd like to see some
preventive maintenance done on in the coming year. The list is a checklist and
I want to see that checklist punched BEFORE I start the following year.

I ain't as cheap as you might think... {;-)


Jim

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

whoa!!!! please remember that "annual" refers to the inspection only.
Any repairs, new gadgets, etc, are not officially part of
the annual.

Unfortunately all of us refer to "the annual" as the number at the
bottom of the bill that includes everything, not just the inspection.

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 09:14:06 -0400, Rich wrote:

There should be a CLEAR distinction
between the required ANNUAL INSPECTION, the repairs necessary to allow
the aircraft to pass that inspection, and the routine maintenance (such
as greasing wheel bearings) often performed at this inspection.


Oh so true. The problem I've found is very few people will do an
Inspection. I've talked to a bunch of shops / people, and they either
want to do the whole thing, or nothing at all. I even tell them an
A&P will sign the 100 hour before I bring them the plane!

It's very frustrating.

z

In article ,
wrote:

So I get $200 for 3 hours work. That's $66 an hour. And you call me a
cheap
date?

The local motorcycle dealer charges $72/hours for service, so, yeah,
the $66/hour for an IA is a bargain. (you have a heck of a lot
more training than the guys at the dealer).

--
Bob Noel

Seriously, my lowest cost Skylane annual was $600 and my highest was
nearly $3,000 which included replacing a cylinder and cracked piston
and some other significant items. Whether you technically consider that

My first annual was $14850.00 by a shop that did the prebuy. The price went
from 10K at 5 pm to 14850.00 by 7 PM. When I ask "why" they said we found some
things. They did not even work after 5.
Most of the $$$ was for labor. Like 55 hours of inspection, after the prebuy.
So now I am real cautious and no one will get my logs until I get the bill.
Hank