Cheap Annual

[Huckster79]

This brings up the question of, are club aircraft maintained better than private owned?

my personal experience would say personal planes are. Though that could vary widely from owner to owner- club to club.

My club plane is maintained fine- however it doesn’t have a doting owner who spends countless hangar hours with her and anytime they are doing preventative maintenance or supervised tasks isn’t running their hand over every wire, getting the magnifying glass out to look to see if a scratch is a scratch or a crack, who buys a borescope to peak at his cylinders at every spark plug rotation, etc.

I have helped the club now increase our care for her. With “club only” flying it’s more of a renter mentality - “Mx is the Mx Officers job- I just write sqwauks down.”

Till I bought mine own bird and studied and dissected (and still am) every aspect of being a good caretaker of bird ownership the club plane would get plugged in for the whole winter without so much as a bed sheet over the cowl. Oil was warm but god those poor cylinders... no one knew the psi for the tires, etc...

I’m not perfect by any means but I think I’m on the right track with Mx as my IA always says “wish I had more owners like you”

 

[YooperMooney]

After buying an E-LSA I know realize how much of a PITA it is to fulfill the GA owners dream of maintaining their own aircraft. It’s a lot more than I thought it would be. I didn’t build this so it’s been an exciting experience to learn how to do a proper condition inspection.

 

[chemgeek]

This brings up the question of, are club aircraft maintained better than private owned?

I think private owners are quite variable. Some keep their planes in excellent condition. Others are so cheap the presidents on their folding money get ingrown whiskers. There are some planes in the hangars at our airport I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. Others are doted upon. My observation is that a well cared for airplane that is actually being used is not ever "cheap" to maintain.

I would guess that in general there is probably less variance in maintenance practice for club-owned aircraft. With multiple owners involved, there has to be some regression to the mean.