chflyer wrote:
How do you recover the cost of such a service in your pricing as I believe these are not cheap?
The FAA files are $10 if you are not in a hurry and $20 for same-day service. I only order them with a “new” client and only on older planes.
Having a third party subscription service for searching and building up-to-date AD lists is not required since the FAA makes all of the information available on-line, for free. That said, it’s somewhat tedious using the FAA’s database, hence using a third-party on-line service and there is other required FAA documentation that must be available to the IA, such as the latest AIM, all of this is covered under the subscription.
The one I use is quite reasonable @$50/month.
AFAIK, to keep the IA going you need to do 4 annuals or 8 Major mods.
AD access is just an online subscription.
A relatively busy freelance A&P/IA, especially one who works “sensitively” with his customers’ maintenance companies (most N-reg people don’t use freelance engineers, partly due to no “work allowed in the hangar” facility) will make a number of tens of k a year, which is a reasonable living, especially on top of other stuff.
Michael wrote:
I order the FAA records beforehand and I request the latest AD record compliance list from the owner.If the FAA records and the AD Compliance list is complete and correspondes to my Inspection findings then there is no extra charge.
All other work, including having to research missing/un-documented ADs, STCs , etc. will be billed separetly @ 65€/H .
I have been told that certain reqts need to be met to keep an IA active, such as a min# inspections, etc, and one of these is proof of access to a current AD list (and on-line access to the FAA web site doesn’t count). Is that correct? I think you mentioned use of an on-line AD mgmt service, or did I misunderstand? How do you recover the cost of such a service in your pricing as I believe these are not cheap?
Thanks Gene. 
Michael wrote:
achimha wrote:
@C210_Flyer you agree?
I had to travel to Munich for his last Annual, so he paid for my travel expenses @ cost, on top of the 500€, all previously agreed on, not a centime more, IIRC.That said, I saved him THOUSANDS !!!
Here’s the story : https://www.euroga.org/forums/maintenance-avionics/6795-trust-but-verify#post_123751
Boy Im gone for a week and all hell breaks loose. Regarding Michaels fees yes I agree. Everything was above board. Except he did not mention that I bought him dinner before he returned home.
Yes he did save me $$$$$. And if he had gotten to the shop sooner I would not have had a sleepless night.
With that said I still use the shop in question because as I stated before there are many more pluses than minuses with them. Also I think it was just a dumb oversight which occurred and have not had a similar experience with them before or since. People screw up and that is one reason I stay engaged in the maintenance of the aircraft. In addition I can relay the history to another shop in the future. Also I am the ultimately responsible for the aircrafts expense payment and its airworthiness between annuals.
I have no problem letting others know of a shop that intentionally screws me so that others might avoid the aggravation. But that is not the case here.
Yes Michael is honest and inexpensive compared to some other shops Ive heard of so he gets a positive plug from me.
BeechBaby wrote:
My issue, if you want to call it that, was that he had stripped the aeroplane, in a remote hanger, then said he would charge me xxx.
Seems pretty cut & dried to me .
What am I missing ?
Ehhhh, Michael, No…….you have not got it straight.
BeechBaby wrote:
My issue, if you want to call it that, was that he had stripped the aeroplane, in a remote hanger, then said he would charge me xxx.
Let me get this straight: YOU flew your aircraft to a remote location, dropped it off with keys & log-books with an A&P/IA that you had NEVER worked with and barely knew, asked for a full Annual, but, NEVER discussed the fees ?
NCYankee wrote:
I will either work it out with the IA or request just the legal requirement of the inspection.
That is exactly the scenario I found myself in. My defect list went from 94 items, to 31, to 7 airworthy issues. The rest was cosmetic which we were in the process of completing, out with the annual process. My issue, if you want to call it that, was that he had stripped the aeroplane, in a remote hanger, then said he would charge me xxx. That was not on. I retrospectively found out that another pilot friend had found himself in the same position with this engineer, with a Cessna 170. That ended very badly.
NCYankee wrote:
If the IA won’t provide that, I will take it up with the FAA.
I did threaten that, and my aircraft was put back together and signed off. The discussion about It was all totally unnecessary, if the I/A had not used it as a cash cow fishing trip.
NCYankee wrote:
for example on my Bonanza, I
I am also very aware that in operating ‘older’ vintage aeroplanes, the skill set required is higher. The aeroplanes require a bit more loving care, and a decent logbook paper trail, than say a brand new Cirrus. I am happy to pay for that, but it has to make sense, and as discussed, there are times that it does not.
Michael wrote:
Whilst I am not a legal specialist, it’s my belief that if the owner/operator uses the IAs record to wipe his derrière rather than putting it in the aircraft records, the FAA would take a very dim view of this and prob 90% take action if they became aware of such goings on.
I approve all entries that are made in my logbook. If the IA adds superfluous stuff, I will either work it out with the IA or request just the legal requirement of the inspection. If the IA won’t provide that, I will take it up with the FAA. So far, I have never had a situation where the IA and I were not in agreement regarding the entry. Often I have requested a draft of the entry so I could comment on it, mostly for maintenance items, because often maintenance that was actually performed is not included in the proposed entry and I request it be added. I also ask that some data be recorded in the entry for maintenance so I can track wear, for example on my Bonanza, I generally want to add the over center force for the gear down lock and the clearance between the up lock and the roller which can vary between two limits. I compare this data annual to annual.
