Hours for basic annual?

[YankeeClipper]

Hi all.

A shop recently estimated 45 hours as a baseline for an annual inspection of a '69 NA. Obviously this can go anywhere depending on issues found, but does this sound right to you for the basic tear-down, inspection, reassembly? As a reference, this would be $4500 for an aircraft with no issues found, by today's east coast rates. I ask because it seems there are some of you who have talked about annuals closer to 2k or 2500 recently, and am wondering whether this is because shop rates can really vary that much, or if the 45 hours is too many for an IA who knows his way around a skymaster.

-Gray-

[Skymaster337B]

I know the Skymaster very well. My estimate is 80 man hours for a basic annual on a Skymaster, to do it right. That’s if nothing is found wrong.

[JAG]

I think if you can get an annual done in 45 hours, you are getting a fair deal. While I do not know the Skymaster as well, 25 years doing annuals on my aircraft, I would guess that an average time to do a good annual on my single engine aircraft ran around 30 hours (doing it myself) - and that is after years of doing them and knowing the aircraft front to back. Given the complexity of the Skymaster (Retract tests, 2 engines, More panels and interior, etc) - I would think 60 to 80 hours is about right to do a solid inspection at a proper shop.

Don't confuse the price with the man-hours, as many people that have posted the < $2k annuals are doing some of the work in conjunction with an IA, thus saving a bunch of money with their own time.

BTW - I am coming up to the end of an annual inspection on my Skymaster that had likely had the "minimal" annual inspections done for the past 10 years, and I am already 15 months into it (approximately 1000 man-hrs)...I do not want to tell you how much money I have spent. Of course I am doing lots of upgrades at the same time, but the maintenance neglect had certainly taken it's toll - most of which I could not pick up on the pre-buy inspection. Just one example - the shimmy dampener had a leak. Instead of removing it and resealing it, they kept adding fluid until the nose wheel would shimmy again, then top it up again. Sounds logical, right - that damn thing is tough to remove and reinstall. Bad logic...they obviously had some major shimmy at some points, and it caused over $4500 damage to parts in the nose gear and steering system, not to mention a lot of labor to remove the gear, do sheet metal work, and re-installation and rigging.

I think of the annual as the investment to maintain the value and safety of my aircraft - not just an added expense.

Jeff

[YankeeClipper]

Very helpful responses ... as usual.

As it happens, this one has a collapsed nose gear (just the hydraulics). Can't wait for the fun to begin...

[frank.oconnor19]

So this past year, 2019, I had my annual done in NC at KEXX by Superior Aero Services. Thye are based on KEXX. For my Skymaster, a '76 P337G the flat rate was 4500. This included the entire process, as I was not available to help. So no savings in that. The list of squawks that came out of this was long. But a number of items that should not be repeated. O2 generators, major issue with heating unit, a broken switch for de-ice boots, and a few other odds and ends.

That quickly added up to another 6K. So with all items, I was into it for 10K. again as someone pointed out, a 10K investment on a bird that is 40 years old, totally worth it. If you can get you plane to Superior, they are good people and do good work.

Frank

[Skymaster337B]

I would also argue that an annual inspection should also include “annual maintenance” as defined by the Cessna maintenance manual (50hr and 100hr inspection checklist). Paying a flat rate for a list of discrepancies is only half of what needs to happen each year.