Does the facility in Waco work on all Cessna's or just twins? I'm at GTU and that would be great if I end up buying a Mustang/M2

I believe air impressions only works on twin Cessnas of the piston flavor. There was a 210 in their hangar when I was there a couple of months ago, but I believe it was a friend of theirs. I asked Jeff if they work on conquests and it was a definite no.

Juan at DFW Aeroworx works on the Conquest. He did the prebuy and I believe still works on the 441 I managed when we sold it a year ago and he seemed very knowledgeable about them.


I'm in the same boat as you, I have a 414 and would love a lower end turbine. The acquisition cost isn't the issue, the normal expenses are not the problem, it's when something goes wrong that becomes a problem. We put $25k into an ACM (next option was $77k!). We had a lightning strike early on and each engine had to comply with $25k in new SB's during the inspection. Then Honeywell came out with a mandatory SB that was about $300k each engine to comply with, which affected the sale value of the airplane. I found a company that could do it for about only $300k total. When we bought the airplane, it showed up for prebuy. The shop found that WestStar GJT had missed $35k in inspections. We found it a couple days prior to the prebuy (I had pictures of the logs) and the seller ended up getting a ferry permit to get it to prebuy. It doesn't take many of those events to bury you.

Overhauled and rebuilt my ACM for $14K. Key was knowing which shop to send the parts (Qualified Technologies, Upland, CA).


If not an AD, mandatory SBs are not required for part 91 operators. Neither are overhauls.


Westar is trying to be another Duncan or Stevens, those high end shops just under the factory service centers, so their prices are not cheap. Quality has gotten spotty with them, too, from what I hear. Some get great service, others have had some problems.


They don't occur very often and there are usually ways to mitigate the impact, especially if part 91 and if you are at least somewhat involved in the upkeep of the airplane. Not so much wrench turning as in deciding on the strategy.

For example, I had a failing hydraulic pump. Textron service center would cost $35-40K since it involved a new pump that was different and a conversion kit. I found a used pump and fix it for $1800, labor included. That's the source of thing that can save tons of money if done right.

Turbines just don't break as often as pistons do, and that includes things that aren't engines, too. The constant shaking of a piston aircraft breaks stuff.

Mike C.

When we looked, there were two ACM's available. That's with two shops looking for it, me and the one that did our heavy maintenance on the airplane. There were no other options...

I'm well aware that SB's are not mandatory for part 91 airplane. However, if you have the engine apart, and have any aspiration of selling the airplane to a potential 135 operator, the $25k SB per engine would save a much larger bill in the future to tear it down to install the part. I can't remember which part it was at the moment. IIRC, the $300k one was a T-wheel replacement that was immediately mandatory for 135 operators, unlike at the next teardown, etc. for some SB's.