First annual angst

saddletramp

saddletramp

Line Up and Wait
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Oct 15, 2015
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735
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Walla Walla. WA
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saddletramp
I bought my 182A one year ago. I assisted with the annual last June as a pre-buy inspection too. After paying $1,000 deposit I told the previous owners that if the annual went well I'd buy the airplane. I used their mechanic but I inspected everything too & being that I've been around airplane for over 50 years I figured I knew what to look at. The annual went fine except for a few minor issues, which the owners fixed, so I plunked down the money and flew it home a few days later.

Tomorrow, I pick up my 182 from it's first annual done by a local mechanic that I trust. No major issues at all. In fact, the IA said it was an exceptionally clean airplane. Other than a couple of loose rivets & some minor cracking on the flaps it was airworthy.

It's always nice to have a good purchase validated.
 
My first annual found nothing of significance either. But I was ready for something like a crack in the prop hub. It just happens.
 
I'm to risk adverse to use the owners AnP for a pre-buy. Glad it worked out for you.
 
Three times the fun! Fortunately the one I pay 100% of was the least costly and the club has plenty of operating funds for the more costly ones.
RV annual - $750, nothing out of the ordinary
Cherokee annual - New control cables, rigging, new ELT, WAAS upgrade, Garrmin 345 transponder, ($$$$)
Cardinal annual - In-process right now
 
Good to hear everything went smooth. I think I finished my 21st annual last February, had my ups and downs over the years. The IA who did my last annual said I have a very clean plane for being 43 years young...:)
 
My first one would have been OK had it not been for the damn prop strike...
 
shouldn't this be "LACK of angst", since you know it went well?
 
Nope. I'm like CNN. It's all about the headline.

He'll to be honest, I'm not really a handsome, proficient pilot as I've lead you all to believe & don't really own an airplane.

It's all a publicity stunt!

I bet that's not you in the tub either!
 
Rcmutz said:
I'm to risk adverse to use the owners AnP for a pre-buy. Glad it worked out for you.
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He used the owner's A&P for doing the annual. Good luck finding many sellers who will let any other A&P do an annual on a plane they own.
 
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My arrow hasnt been onerous for a retract. Whats killing me is the creeping labor rate, and i dont do owner assisted. I may start moving the airplane out of town for annuals if the labor rate jumps up again.
 
My Cardinal's first annual would have been a non-event. except for the wing spar carry-through corrosion... :( :(
 
rsleeds said:
He used the owner's A&P for doing the annual. Good luck finding many sellers who will let any other A&P do an annual on a plane they own.
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You can write it into the purchase agreement (if you have one) to let another A&P do the inspection. I did. Heck the guy I bought my plane from flew it down from AL to FL just for my A&P to look at it.

It's not unreasonable to get a second opinion and quite frankly you should get one. After 10 years of looking at the same plane the A&P may take some liberties and/or gloss over some areas whereas if you get a fresh pair of eyes on it you may find stuff.

My A&P found a AD from the 1960's that hadn't been complied with for example, yet every A&P since then signed off on it being compliant.

And if the seller refuses to let another A&P look at it, I'd move on. Plenty of other planes in the sea..or air..whatever :).
 
First annual was ten grand. It took me a long time to suck it up to own another airplane.
 
Looks like the final bill is right at $4,000.00. But, $1,700 of that was installing a larger oil cooler & an adapter plane. Since I tow gliders with the old girl I need to keep the oil temp a little farther from the top of the green. I towed our two-place glider up 9 times today in 94 degree heat & the new cooler made a big difference.

My Bendix mags have around 480 hours on them & even though the 500 recommended inspection is not mandatory I told the IA to go ahead & order some rebuilt/exchange mags. My mags are within tolerance & the drop at the run up is well within limits but I'm spending the dough anyway. I can't afford to have my 182 down because then my whole glider operation comes to a grinding halt.

I figure I'll probably spend another $2,000 on the magnetos.
 
4 AMU for a first annual isn't too bad. Particularly if there were a lot of "deferred" mx items left over, or you took advantage of the downtime to put in some upgrades.

My annual this year was nearly $6K. Almost all of it labor costs. The mechanic here is a putzer who likes to take his time digging into everything. If you want a THOROUGH annual he is a good man, but even so, I think 52 hours for the inspection is a little excessive. Unfortunately I had no choice since the plane (and I) were both legally unairworthy at the time.
 
azure said:
4 AMU for a first annual isn't too bad. Particularly if there were a lot of "deferred" mx items left over, or you took advantage of the downtime to put in some upgrades.

My annual this year was nearly $6K. Almost all of it labor costs. The mechanic here is a putzer who likes to take his time digging into everything. If you want a THOROUGH annual he is a good man, but even so, I think 52 hours for the inspection is a little excessive. Unfortunately I had no choice since the plane (and I) were both legally unairworthy at the time.
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Not a little excessive, a LOT excessive. You got fleeced, and I understand the feeling. One of the things that drive people to ExAB.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Not a little excessive, a LOT excessive. You got fleeced, and I understand the feeling. One of the things that drive people to ExAB.
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ExAB? :confused:

It's the sort of thing that drives people to "spirit" their planes to more reasonable shops, before or after they've turned into pumpkins.

Not that I would ever do such a thing of course, but it WAS tempting... :mad:
 
When I bought "Charlene" my old 421B, I used the sellers local shop, we agreed to split the flat rate cost of the annual, it was due in about a month anyway. The seller fixed all the squawks including a leaking fuel bladder that I discovered the day after I signed the acceptance and wired the money. Normally, I would have wanted a different set of eyes on it, but it worked well that time. My shop found a few minor issues, but overall it was a very clean, well kept airplane.
 
saddletramp said:
Looks like the final bill is right at $4,000.00. But, $1,700 of that was installing a larger oil cooler & an adapter plane. Since I tow gliders with the old girl I need to keep the oil temp a little farther from the top of the green. I towed our two-place glider up 9 times today in 94 degree heat & the new cooler made a big difference.

My Bendix mags have around 480 hours on them & even though the 500 recommended inspection is not mandatory I told the IA to go ahead & order some rebuilt/exchange mags. My mags are within tolerance & the drop at the run up is well within limits but I'm spending the dough anyway. I can't afford to have my 182 down because then my whole glider operation comes to a grinding halt.

I figure I'll probably spend another $2,000 on the magnetos.
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Hey I recognize that plane. We fueled up at S95 a few days ago enroute to Seattle. Nice little quaint airport. Glad we stopped there instead of the bigger field across town.
 
azure said:
ExAB? :confused:

It's the sort of thing that drives people to "spirit" their planes to more reasonable shops, before or after they've turned into pumpkins.

Not that I would ever do such a thing of course, but it WAS tempting... :mad:
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Really no need to "spirit" anything.

At least around here our FSDO is quite reasonable about ferry permits. Download the form, fill it out, stick it in a scanner (or nowadays take a photo of it with a smartphone and have an instant PDF of it), attach to an email, and it's usually approved and back in the same day. Not that big of a deal.

If you like old school, a fax machine works. If you can find one. LOL.

I guess maybe some FSDOs aren't as helpful, but if they aren't, people will "spirit" things around anyway. They might as well be reasonable about it.

We had to use one to get the airplane to an avionics shop across town and under the Bravo shelf (transponder dead). They wanted route of flight and asked us to call the TRACON supervisor before departing. TRACON asked us to notify them that we were enroute and to remind the controller we were negative transponder.

It was quite boring and uneventful really.
 
MtnMarcus said:
Hey I recognize that plane. We fueled up at S95 a few days ago enroute to Seattle. Nice little quaint airport. Glad we stopped there instead of the bigger field across town.
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So, what we're you flying & we're we flying our glider?
 
By the way, I've decided that Biennial Angst fits the FAA model better.

I think I'll plan to have angst twice a year. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
Really no need to "spirit" anything.

At least around here our FSDO is quite reasonable about ferry permits. Download the form, fill it out, stick it in a scanner (or nowadays take a photo of it with a smartphone and have an instant PDF of it), attach to an email, and it's usually approved and back in the same day. Not that big of a deal.

If you like old school, a fax machine works. If you can find one. LOL.

I guess maybe some FSDOs aren't as helpful, but if they aren't, people will "spirit" things around anyway. They might as well be reasonable about it.

We had to use one to get the airplane to an avionics shop across town and under the Bravo shelf (transponder dead). They wanted route of flight and asked us to call the TRACON supervisor before departing. TRACON asked us to notify them that we were enroute and to remind the controller we were negative transponder.

It was quite boring and uneventful really.
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Ferry permits are usually easy if you really can't get the work done where you are, but what FSDO is going to issue one if there is a perfectly good shop at home base and the only reason you don't want to use them is that they're too expensive? I don't know about Denver, but I'm pretty sure the Detroit FSDO would have just chuckled at that one. They actually gave some pushback when I needed one to get a new spar carry-through installed and there really was no one at home who could do the work. I guess Portland might be more reasonable... but I suspect a ferry permit just to save a few bucks would be a non-starter just about anywhere. Could be wrong, though.

But the other problem was that I didn't have a medical at the time, my BFR had expired, and the only shop that I would have taken the plane to typically has a 3-4 month backlog. Even if I could have gotten a ferry permit somehow, I'd have needed to make arrangements months in advance and "hire" someone to fly it there. And I really don't know anyone in this area with enough time in make and model to even qualify for my OPW.
 
saddletramp said:
So, what we're you flying & we're we flying our glider?
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We were in an orange and white 182. Yes we watched you guys tow a few gliders. I chatted with the pilot a bit but don't think it was you based on what I can tell you look like in your avatar. We'll be back at some point. Let me know if you're ever at KSUN.
 
denverpilot said:
By the way, I've decided that Biennial Angst fits the FAA model better.

I think I'll plan to have angst twice a year. ;)
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That would biannual angst.
 
GRG55 said:
That would biannual angst.
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LOL. Awesome. I did that on purpose. Wanted to see if anyone caught it.

Because... I've met so many people who do biannual flight reviews that I am amazed at their dedication to safety! :)
 
MtnMarcus said:
We were in an orange and white 182. Yes we watched you guys tow a few gliders. I chatted with the pilot a bit but don't think it was you based on what I can tell you look like in your avatar. We'll be back at some point. Let me know if you're ever at KSUN.
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Okay, I remember your orange 182. I'm the only CFIG in our operation so I was most likely in the glider.
 
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