Ownwer Maintained, Whats the maint/flight time ratio?

[kontiki]

I 'm just getting started, several things need attention, I'm thinking one weekend a month ought to be dedicated to maintenance The rest, finishing the commercial and traveling.

Tires did need air about a month after the annual. Any body really have a handle on this.

 

[JHW]

it's all over the map. I probably spend >1 hour tinkering for every hour flying. I enjoy tinkering and keeping clean. My neighbor flies more than I do and seems to never clean or mess with anything.

 

[weirdjim]

I 'm just getting started, several things need attention, I'm thinking one weekend a month ought to be dedicated to maintenance The rest, finishing the commercial and traveling.

Tires did need air about a month after the annual. Any body really have a handle on this.

Define "this".

Jim

 

[wabower]

Never-leak tubes will solve the air loss problem. Change them the next time the wheels are off the plane. Cost is negligible.

 

[bluerooster]

Just figure on doing what needs done when it needs it.

 

[PilotAlan]

Never-leak tubes will solve the air loss problem. Change them the next time the wheels are off the plane. Cost is negligible.

THIS!! Cherokee speed pants are a major pain to air up.
A few years ago I put in Desser Leak Guard tubes. Now I never have to add air outside of annual.

 

[wabower]

When they originally told me that, I thought "yeah, right" but anything was better than adding air before every flight so I tried them. My experience has been exactly like yours with nary a puff necessary during the year. Amazing.

THIS!! Cherokee speed pants are a major pain to air up.
A few years ago I put in Desser Leak Guard tubes. Now I never have to add air outside of annual.

 

[kontiki]

Define "this".

Jim

Thanks Jim, I guess my original question should have been, how much time are folks spending down the hangar maintanining their aircraft, if anyone is really tracking it, how they handle planning for it.

I'm just trying to get my head around it for my own scheduling purposes.

 

[kontiki]

Never-leak tubes will solve the air loss problem. Change them the next time the wheels are off the plane. Cost is negligible.

Thanks Wayne, I'll definitely take a look at these.

First time airing the tires was Friday, some compressor assembly was required first (it's a collection of poorly fit parts right out of the box).

I finally got the right mix of parts to get on the valve, it took over an hour, when I done the, sky was all clouds.

So much for maneuvers review in the new plane.

I finally rememberd to get that old unused rubber exercise mat down to the hangar today. Boy that would have come in handy for airing tires too.

 

[wabower]

You need at least the better part of a year, including an inspection of substance (usually the annual) to really get a feel for the requirements and intervals and also a SWAG for the oopsies. After that, you'll know.

Thanks Jim, I guess my original question should have been, how much time are folks spending down the hangar maintanining their aircraft, if anyone is really tracking it, how they handle planning for it.

I'm just trying to get my head around it for my own scheduling purposes.

 

[kontiki]

There is a 50/100/1000 hour maintenace plan outlined in CH 5 of the Tiger AMM, anybody using a plan like this or just going annual to annual, and on condition for the failures?

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Depends.

The more you fly, the less maintainance per hour there is.

And it really depends on the condition /complexity of the airplane.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Flying about 200 hrs a year in my Cherokee, I found that 1 maintenance in 10 hrs of flying- maintenance such as cleaning, oil changes, tire changes, swap battery and such are required. I would add air to the tires only once in 7 months or so but I did have to add air to the struts regularly until I got the strut kit and rebuilt them.

In addition to that with the annual inspection and paid AI/A&P maintenance is another 1 in 10 hrs.

So flying 200 hours a year I would provide 20 hrs of pilot maintenance and pay for another 20 hrs of AI/A&P maintenance.

I am including annual inspection with that.

 

[douglas393]

I do very little maintenance on my plane, and so am a bad example. I just do not have the time. What I can say is that I fly 3-4 hours per week, all on weekends. My scheduled maintenance consists of having oil changes every 25 to 30 hrs, and annuals. Using this process, in the two+ years since I purchased the plane(purchased May of 2011), the plane has been out of service only once(Annual this year took 2 weeks because of problems with G1000 PFD, and holidays(Christmas/New Years). I have had a few problems between oil changes(blown tire, transponder problem, nav/com loss, another PFD loss, prop leaking oil), but all of these were taken care during the week and the plane was never unavailable for me on the weekend. I have missed more flying time because of weather than maintenance.

 

[Skylane81E]

Thanks Jim, I guess my original question should have been, how much time are folks spending down the hangar maintanining their aircraft, if anyone is really tracking it, how they handle planning for it.

I'm just trying to get my head around it for my own scheduling purposes.

Last year I probably flew about 2.5-3 hours for each hour I worked on it, light maintenance year, but a very light flying year too

 

[Henning]

Thanks Jim, I guess my original question should have been, how much time are folks spending down the hangar maintanining their aircraft, if anyone is really tracking it, how they handle planning for it.

I'm just trying to get my head around it for my own scheduling purposes.

Maintaining as in turning wrenches, or are you including cleaning and futzing about? Much of it will have to do with condition and how much past 'deferred maintenance' exists on your plane. 1 hour work for 10 flying is a reasonable estimate for a plane in good condition with little or no deferred issues.