I spent 4 hours with the A&P yesterday walking through every item on the list. To his credit he walked me through every single item until after working hours to get me the answers I needed.
Takeaways:
(1) The person who prepared the invoice (an office manager not an A&P) seemingly randomly labeled items as airworthy or recommended, despite his more detailed write up more accurately denoting which ones were airworthiness items (a much smaller list);
(2) The invoice preparation double counted a lot of options, so the totals they were providing were absurd;
(3) I went in with the intention of getting their checklist (the one
@Bell206 mentions is required under part 43 -- along with determinations of discrepancies). However, once we started working through the specific items and showing them to me I forgot to ask about this. Going to try and get it on Monday.
(4) I totally underestimated how much I would enjoy seeing the Arrow taken apart and getting educated on a lot of the nuts+bolts of it. It's my first time seeing it stripped down during inspection. Granted, I wish it wasn't while I was having a heart attack over the proposed annual price tag, but it was a fun, valuable educational experience none the less. Could have easily spent a full day doing that for fun.
Garmin G5
@TCABM Thank you for sending the G5 installation manual link. This was actually about the first thing he asked if I could provide since he said he has minimal time working with them. Here's his concern with the G5: the people who installed it have a washer they cut or bent right above it (see photo below). He suspects the washer is wedging the G5 in place, sort of ghetto rigged (I don't think it's wedging it in place, it's far too secure for that washer to hold it in place). He also doesn't like that one side doesn't look as flush with the panel as the other (see bottom pic). Separately, I challenged them on the "slight angle" of the G5 they cited; we used an electronic protractor and got between 0-1 degrees of tilt (and that's assuming the jacks are perfectly level). Any tilt is imperceptible to me.
This side isn't as flush with the panel as the other side. But it seems so minor to me as to be inconsequential. In the installation manual it just says "
The G5 is installed by inserting the alignment pin located at the top of the unit into the mating hole in the mounting ring, pushing the unit flush with the instrument panel...". But I don't see any tolerance given for what constitutes "flush" (Also the red markings are my own digital markup to show the small gap btw G5 back and panel).
GTX335 Transponder
The transponder isn't mounted as securely as it should be. Getting underneath the panel I had a chance to poke it. With +/-G's I suppose it could move just a little. Personally I was surprised this counts as an airworthiness item -- I'd be interested in getting community feedback. They also said they'll only bill me for time taken, but I'm still a little reluctant to approve 2 full shop hours for it b/c jobs approved for X hours usually have a way of taking all X hours. Feedback appreciated.
Here's a short video to show the give that it has (I took this while I gave it a slight push up from underneath the panel).
Aero-Trim:
The single biggest thing to come out of yesterday's discussion was their claim that the Aero-Trim was installed improperly. For background, it was installed back before the last owner bought it in 1988, but was never documented properly. I paid my main maintenance shop, which usually does high quality work (I think), to do a conformity check on the installation when I first bought the airplane. That was nearly 1k$ alone for that check. The log book entry is pictured below. This current shop doing the annual got a copy of the STC and we walked through it and from what I can tell the measurements are actually indeed wrong (i.e., it's not installed properly). It's installed too far aft on the aileron by about 3", and laterally off by a lesser amount. I've asked the previous shop to provide a picture of the installation drawing they used and I'm hoping it will help.
W/o that drawing showing it's done right I don't know what recourse I could have, if any, to avoid doing a very involved job on the aileron. The proposed job is pretty much getting a new aileron or having it reskinned, painted, balanced at a shop. It's... not cheap.
Installation verification log entry
Propeller Backplate rubbing lower cowl due to motor mounts:
They're suggesting my rubber motor mounts were installed improperly which is now leading to a slight sag, thus resulting in the lower cowl rubbing against the prop backplate. They deemed this an airworthiness item in their view as it should not be rubbing. I have no intelligent opinion on whether the motor mounts would cause that, and whether or not that wear is new? The motor mounts are not new... And because I'm a dumb-dumb I'm still having trouble understanding how we can guarantee that reseating/reinstalling the motor mounts will prevent this? Any thoughts on this?
The wear they're pointing to on the plate:
Corresponding wear in the lower cowl:
They pointed out the things in the motor mount that concerned them about their installation - but I didn't get photos.
(it was stored in an adjacent hangar and would have taken 5 minutes to move). I'm often left wondering how some of these places have any business at all.
