[stackj]

I, too, have a good annual situation. I have the advantage of being an A&P mechanic. I do most of the work for the annual. Over the past five years, the cost of the actual annual inspection has averaged around $450.00.

To accomplish this, I do all the teardown. cleaning, lubrication and present my IA with a list of gigs that I find. He does the actual inspection - looking in all the cracks and crevices, follows up on verifying AD compliance, etc. He then presents me with a list of additional issues he found.

We go over both lists, define those things needing immediate repair and those things needing to be monitored with estimates as to how soon they should be addressed.

I usually repair the items as soon as money and time is available to handle them (of course, critical items are addressed before further flight - fortunately, we rarely find items this critical).

So, annuals don't have a high dollar cost for me, I pay that off in time commitments.

It's just the cost of parts that kills me. The fuel valves I mentioned in the last posting... a $500 exhaust bell, a $400 control cable, an $870 rebuilt magneto. The aviation industry rapes us financially. There is no reason for these kinds of costs.

Yes, I know the quantity of parts produced is significantly less the similar parts for cars. But enough to cost 20 times as much... come on now!

Oh, by the way, the parts for the fuel valve are listed as NP (not procurable). That forces you to buy the replacement valve for $ 13,000.

Let's see now, ball bearing $.50, O-ring, $.30, spring, $1.00, Snap ring $.50. That's $2.30, times 4 ports - $9.20 plus $.30 for the shaft o-ring and $.50 for the gasket. That totals about $10.00 in parts. Wow, how can they live on only $12,990 profit? Of course, I'm sure they have to pay a high labor cost to rebuild it. That probably knocks about $70 off of their profit.

hmmm, could something be a little out of line here?