Cha Muther&*$#ing Ching!

Well my partner and I budgeted for roughly $2500 - $3000 for our annual. Our annual in May of 06 set us back $2000. This time I asked for new tires and to replace the gaskets on the rocker covers as they were leacking a little oil. Well at the end of the annual I was stairing down the business end of a $4600 bill. Aint flying grand? Well close to 5 grand actually.

Just to run you through the work that was done on my a/c.

7 qts of Aeroshell 100 - 48.65

45 Misc bolts - 63.00

1 Nut - 3.15

1 Pneumatic Filter - 29.50

1 more Pneumatic Filter - 12.15

8 Spark Plugs - 385.20

2 Main Tires - 263.88

2 Main Tire Tubes - 206.92

4 Rocker Cover Gaskets 14.95

4 Break Pads - 49.28

8 Brake Rivets - 1.70

1 Belt - 63.05

1 Plate (?) - 105.96

ELT Battery & Recertification & S/H - 289.00

48 hrs of labour @ 65.00/hr = 3120.00

Now I am grateful that my mechanic takes such good care of me, he has been very honest with me in the past, and looks out for my best interest (I used to work for him). As you may have noticed a few of these items were not exactly part of my snag list (I requested tires, tubes and gaskets) but were done anyway. I am happy to have fresh plugs and breaks but unfortunately this was an unexpected installation. As far as I could remember the plane started and stopped ok, but new is better than old in many cases.

The way they found out I needed new plugs is by using a spark plug tester like this one. What it does is when connected to electricity and compressed air it will simulate spark in the cylinder. You can adjust the simulated RPM by increasing the pressure and moniture the spark. My spark plugs performed fine at Idle (800-1000RPM) but when taken above that the spark weakens and eventually disappears. What this means is that I am not burning the fuel air mixture in the cylinders the best I could. This means that I may not be getting the best power, it may lead to spark plug fouling, etc. Its best to have a good spark. So I now have 8 new spark plugs in my plane. For those of you whom arent in the know my PA28-140 has a Lycoming O-320-E2A producing 150hp, it means that my engine is horizontally opposed as indicated by the 'O' and 320 cubic inches. The E2A is simply a model number that would change depending on the accessories on the engine. My engine is 4 cylinders but we have 8 plugs run off magnetos for a few reasons:

1) More complete combustion, cleaner burning, more power, etc.

2) Saftey in redundancy, there are 2 magnetos each running 4 plugs, should the electrical system fail, the engine keeps spinning because of the magneto, should one magneto go, I can still fly the sucker.

When they got to the breaks apparantly they were worn down quite a bit, so we got new pads to keep me from going off the end of the runway.

I do not mind my mechanics intrest in my safety and my a/c at all however I do wish in the future that they ask me for authorization to perform such replacements. This was an extra $1500 that I was not expecting. Atleast I could have talked to my partner about it and decided if we wanted to go through with it. Obviously its better to have fresh stuff on the plane but it started and stopped just fine before the annual. We probably could have gone another few months or even a whole year. Oh well live and learn.

On a whole I am very happy with the work my mechanic has done, I have no complaint about the price or quality of the work. I just wish in the future I could have had more warning. Next annual I hope to be able to help with it so I can get a more intimate look at my airplane and also have to let my mechanic know I want to be contacted before new parts go in the a/c.

Tomorrow I have a flight with my new instructor, Ill report on how it went.

Adios Amigos!