Username Protected wrote:
There was… a lot of stuff in that invoice.
Some of it was useless, e.g. item 74-- "Engine nacelles and wing flaps are so oily they can't be properly inspected." Cleaning the plane pre-inspection is part of the annual.
Some of it would have deeply worried me as an aircraft owner and pilot. Corrosion in the elevator and horizontal stabilizer; leaking injector nozzles; "severe oil leakage" from both prop governors.
From my neutral 3rd-party POV this seems like a very thorough inspection that noted a lot of discrepancies, exactly as you'd want on an aircraft of this vintage. I don't have an opinion about whether the proposed costs were fair or not.
The plane wasn’t cleaned and it is literally the first item in Part 43 when describing the scope of work in an annual in the FARs
Quote:
Each person performing an annual or 100-hour inspection shall, before that inspection, remove or open all necessary inspection plates, access doors, fairing, and cowling. He shall thoroughly clean the aircraft and aircraft engine.
The corrosion they talked about was filiform on the trailing edge of the elevator and an area smaller than a thumbnail. It existed when I bought the airplane and I kept it hangared and was monitored and was not growing.
Clogged injector nozzles is a 30 minute fix by throwing them in a jewelry cleaner with some Hoppes #9. What IS unsafe is the fact they left every single injector nozzle finger tight when they returned the aircraft to me. This is why you preflight thoroughly after annual.
You are correct in your characterization that it was a thorough inspection however when you mark every single thing as airworthiness it leaves very few options. Based on the aircraft on their shop floor, they expect to maintain everything to new condition and are not interested in maintaining vintage aircraft.
