Kevin Carbone of Winchester, Va., advises pilots to find a shop that permits owner assisted annuals.
Bring your own tools. Start with the basics. Remove seats and floor boards to expose stuff. Remove any wing covers, tail cone, engine cover top and bottom. Do the oil change and filter as needed. Get an AvLab test kit. Be handy to help with stuff that requires two people, like testing lights, gear retracts. Change the battery and log it.
A good shop appreciates owner assists and you are getting “intimate” with the flying machine. The extra bonus is that you trim 30% to 60% from the invoice and you learn “stuff.”
I’d bet most shops that allow owner assisted annuals would argue there’s little to no reduction in cost and perhaps a little more time is required. An owner, regardless of their mechanic skills, can’t be as efficient as someone who works on planes day in and day out. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with helping out, but remember, you’re taking space in a hangar that could be occupied by another aircraft and you should be paying for that time regardless of how much work you complete. One way to get the most “bang” for your buck would be to assist with the annual AND pay the shop to complete additional maintenance outside the annual while you’re there. Doing so keeps the shop employees busy, and everyone gets a little extra. You gain knowledge, confidence in the condition of your machine, and an improved aircraft, and the shop maximizes their revenue potential. Kenneth is right. We in GA don’t want to lose the shops and mechanics willing to work on our planes. The unfortunate reality is completing an annual on a Cessna 182 generates much less revenue than replacing parts on a Phenom. Sometimes a dollar saved today means paying $110 / hr later or not being able to find a shop willing to work on your plane at all.
As a shop owner who is also an airplane owner, PLEASE keep in mind that a savings or reduction of “30-60%” in the cost of your annual puts ME out of business. Don’t get me wrong; I fully support anyone who wants to learn more about their airplane but at the same time, the doors cannot remain open if the shop is making $25 bucks an hour-the numbers just do not line up. Interestingly enough, most don’t ask to work on (or owner assist) your motor home or boat when it is taken to the shop but for some reason, “airplanes are different”. If you find a good mechanic and shop, stick with them like they will stick with you. Just keep in mind that none of this activity is free and if the appreciation of what it costs to own, fly or work on airplanes is not “respected”, we all lose.
If you are the type who is mechanically inclined and enjoys being a DIYer then I recommend taking this a step further and finding an A&P that will allow all owner assisted maintenance and allow you to do most of the work under his/her supervision. I have been doing maintenance like this on my plane for 14 years now, and while I have saved a tremendous amount of money, the real benefit came from me now knowing my airplane inside out and being able to catch little problems before they become big problems. I have found so many things in my plane over the years that were the result of poor or hurried workmanship from mechanics used by the previous owner. There is no way that a typical A&P shop that has to handle X number of planes a week would catch all of these items. But when I schedule an annual and tell my A&P that I’ll be at the plane about 3 hours before he gets there and will start taking things apart, I have time to start looking at things while everything is open and bring it to the attention of my A&P. And when I see things that look like they can be a future problem, I can now plan ahead by ordering parts and having them ready for when it’s time to correct an issue.
This is more than owner “assisted” maintenance. This is full involvement and it leads to a much better maintained and safer aircraft. And then again, there’s always the other benefit: My last annual only cost me $500 plus any parts I needed to order, which I was able to shop around for the best price.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything that Daniel has said. I am the owner of an RV-7, an experimental amateur-built (EAB) airplane. Not being the builder, I lack the “repairman’s certificate” that a builder would receive giving them the ability to sign their own logbooks for airworthiness and do their own condition inspections. In experimental aircraft, “annuals” are called “condition inspections”. Consequently, I must rely on an A&P to sign off on my condition inspections. Even so, I have been able to do the last two condition inspections (2014 & 2015) on my own, with the supervision of a friend who is an A&P. This has worked out fine, and I have paid for my friend’s service. But, my friend has now decided that to continue do this extends his liability beyond his comfort zone. He’s afraid of getting sued. It doesn’t matter that I’m “not that kind of person.” So, I am now in the process of finding another A&P who will partner with me in doing an owner-assisted condition inspection. However, I’m having a hard time finding such an A&P, and I’m hearing the same reason given for their reluctance. Too much liability. I want to keep on participating in my own inspections, because (like Daniel has said) I benefit greatly from acquiring a greater familiarity with my airplane. What’s the answer here?
Pose your question on one of the message boards or yahoo groups for Vans RV owners and you should be able to find an informed mechanic who realizes that they are not signing off your aircraft as “airworthy”, which is a term that only applies to certificated aircraft, but as “in a condition for safe operation”.