Partners and I are looking at a 425XP and dropping the 340A, a bittersweet move. The current owner of the 425 we're now looking at has had it serviced at Yingling in Wichita, however we have been using West Star in Grand Junction for the 441. While expensive and not perfect, West Star has done a good job. Our main guy there, Gary, has been an 11/10 for us and has moved on to their Embraer side, so hopefully that continues to be the case with our new contact. I have heard mixed things about Yingling. Does anyone have any experience with maintenance at Yingling in Wichita?

Ordinarily I would not have the same shop that worked on a plane do a pre-buy, however the current owner already has it scheduled for the major phase inspections and prop overhaul next month at Yingling. I am not sure how hard to push for this to be switched to West Star, or to fly it to West Star after Phase.

John, I don't have extensive experience with Yingling, but they did work on my '78 C340 a couple times. My experience was like your West Star experience, expensive and not perfect, but overall a good job. As one would expect from a Cessna Service Center.

John,

While not directly related to your situation, the company I fly for took delivery of a heavily refurbed Citation Excel this past December. Yingling did the paint, interior, and the G5000 retrofit. While most heavy maintenance was done across the runway at Textron, Yingling did do a fair amount of airframe and engine work pre-delivery. Our experience was very, very positive. I spent about 2 weeks on-site at Yingling and watched all facets of the operation, very impressed. There were always multiple 425’s present, they certainly know those birds.

Hope that helps, best of luck.

Sandy

Yingling maintains the piston demo fleet for Textron Aviation since the experimental techs are always busy with actual experimental projects. The OEM sends them work. That's a decent vote of confidence.

That explains why they had parked the demo G58 beside me on their ramp about 2 months ago

Yingling serviced my 441 and I always felt they were very solid. They are expensive, but they are fast, reliable, and very thorough. I’ve heard from others that they are even better with 425’s.

Yingling recently completed a Bravo inspection for me. I had not been there in years but I thought they did solid work and would go back.