This is going around the internet currently. Not my text!
I bought an airplane. It was a lifelong dream. 6 months later, I’m out. Not because it’s expensive to own. I knew it would be. It’s not because insurance is high and hard to find. I knew that going in. And it’s not because the price of fuel doubled a month after I bought it. I can afford it. And not because “GA is dying” either. After my experience, I don’t believe GA is dying,….
…it’s long dead and we’ve just been looting the corpse. Here’s my story.
It’s been in my blood since childhood. I’ve been a pilot for 20 years, but always a renter/clubber. My flying activity level waxed and waned over the years, but recent growth in income along with “settling down” in an area with a good club and aviation community enabled me to fly a lot more. I stretched my wings to bigger, faster planes, got my instrument rating, got my wife involved, flew some Pilot’s n Paws, etc. It was a great time, but schedule availability and unreliable planes kept me looking for more.
I researched the hell out of aircraft ownership. For years. I explored build vs. buy, new vs. used, talked to tons of owners, did cost calculation spreadsheets, and so on. I got the right memberships to access the right data, forums, etc. We talked it over many times, and made careful decisions. I went in eyes wide open, or so I thought.
The perfect plane popped up for sale. As luck would have it, it was at my home airport. Fit the mission perfectly, had new paint, upgraded panel, great interior, fair price, all the right stuff. I made an offer, went under contract, and got ready to call around for a pre-buy.
The first shop said “we’re not accepting new bookings, we’re too busy”. What? I could understand, “It’ll be a few weeks”, even “It’ll be a lot of weeks”, but “no?”. And this was a shop that advertised specializing in this specific make/model! Just “no?” Well, maybe it’s a fluke. Let’s call the next shop.
“No.”
And, this was the shop that normally maintained the plane! “Are you sure?”
“Okay, fine. We’ll do it, but it’ll be $4,500 and 6 weeks out.”
That seemed egregious. So I kept calling. I found a shop who would drive 70 miles and do the prebuy for a fair price, 4 weeks from now. I booked it. The seller was pissed. I offered to work with anyone he could find who was quicker. He couldn’t find anyone.
6 weeks later and after a week or so of pestering the shop to send over the results of the pre-buy, I re-negotiated the deal based on the findings and closed on my dream plane. But wait.
By now, the plane was out of annual. The owner didn’t want to wait another 6 weeks to close the deal, so he knocked $5k off the price and sold without. The shop who did the pre-buy agreed to knock $1,500 off the annual if I did it with them. Sweet. In 6 weeks. And it would require a ferry permit. Okay, fine. It’s worth waiting for. I’ll skip the details here, but the FAA went in circles with us for a few weeks, required some field trips for the mechanic to inspect/address certain items, then issued the permit.
Weeks go by. Silence. I call the shop and leave a message. Nothing. Online ADSB trackers show my plane taking a quick flight around the patch. Is that normal during an annual? Who knows. We’ll assume it is. Call after a week. Leave another message. “We’re getting to it, we got backed up. Next week for sure.” Weeks go by. Silence. Okay, one bad apple. Clear skies from here.
Finally, one glorious day they call and tell me to come pick it up. My wife drives me 90 minutes to the nearby airport. I taxi out to the runup. As soon as I add RPM, a screeching noise fills the headset/intercom. It didn’t do that before. I can’t hear the tower. I taxi back to the shop. He pulls the radios and blows on the connectors. Fiddles with the headset jacks. We fire it back up. Sounds okay now. I depart.
At 500 AGL, the screech returns.
I know I won’t be able to hear or accept a landing clearance, so I manage to exchange “frequency change approved” with the tower as I exit the Class D and continue to my home airport, which is uncontrolled and sleepy this time of day.
Are you still with me? It gets much worse. I can’t fly it back in this condition, so I call the shop on the home field and describe the issue. “I can look at it next week. I’ll let you know.” Weeks go by. I call back. “I’ll look at it this week.” Weeks go by. “I’ll look at it tonight.” Finally.
He calls the next day to tell me I need a $2k alternator. Okay, aviation’s expensive, no biggie. I stop by the field that night to fiddle around, just to be sure. In 30 seconds I isolate the issue to a rear passenger headset jack. If I plug a headset into that jack, the sound goes away. Doesn’t seem like an alternator to me. Tell the mechanic. He finds that the previous mechanic (who did the annual) incorrectly re-installed the interior trim and the jack was grounding to the frame. Easy fix. I spent 30 seconds of my own barely-know-what-I’m-doing time to do what he couldn’t in a month. Shouldn’t he have checked something that obvious before ordering me a new alternator? Did he even look at the plane? It was still at its tiedown when I went to the field. So, probably not. Maybe he just quoted me something expensive to get me off the phone. Okay, two bad apples. Clear skies from here.
So now after 3 months, I can finally fly it, right? I take a few VFR trips. Awesome. Oops, low marine layer today, I’ll need an IFR departure. I get cleared via ODP, which requires a radial intercept. At the hold short line, I configure the GTN. There’s no OBS mode. It doesn’t work. Brand new $100k full glass Garmin flight deck and I literally cannot adjust the CRS. There is no function/knob to do it. WTF? Where is VLOC mode? What? Cancel clearance and park it.
Read the manuals, ask on the forums, fuss around some more. It’s installed incorrectly. The shop that put in the $100k panel not only configured it incorrectly, they didn’t do the basic return to service tests specified by Garmin. I know they didn’t because they would’ve failed it immediately. I didn’t notice when I inspected the plane before buying. I didn’t think to check OBS mode or notice that the CDI won’t switch to VLOC mode. It’s not legal to fly IFR, and probably not airworthy at all. Okay, lets call some Garmin certified shops and get this squared away. Voicemail. No response. Voicemail. “I don’t work on those anymore”. Voicemail. No response. “Call me back tomorrow, I’m busy.”
Finally get a Garmin expert from another shop on the phone. Tell him I’ll fly it to him and leave it as long as necessary. “You’re probably doing something wrong. You’re not supposed to change OBS or VLOC modes on the GTN.” I explain that the PFD manual specifically says the opposite and what he’s describing doesn’t work on my panel. “Call Garmin support.”
So, here I sit, 6 months later. Still can’t fly it, still waiting for support. With no end in sight of the cycle of trying to find someone to fix it, and then waiting for it to be fixed. Every mechanic that’s touched it seems to be unable to do work of any level of quality, despite every one of them being a certified expert in this make. And those were the ones who would answer the phone!
And I can’t sell it, because I don’t have an updated title or registration from the FAA yet. 6 months later.
In my industry, or any other industry I’m connected to or ever worked with/in, any business that functioned this way would be out of business in a year, max. There’s only one reason this shitshow is accepted. It’s because they’re the only ones left. The customer has no choice. This industry isn’t dying, it’s long dead. Those still in it are just turning out the lights on their way out the door, carrying any last thing of value they could find.
I guess I’ll follow them out the door before it gets too dark in here. I’m hanging up my wings. I’ll find a new dream. I’m out.
Maybe he could be cured by coming to Europe for a while and then going back? He‘d think he is in heaven 😂.
Seriously, what if he’s right? Is GA dead? It’s a bit frightening. Any projections for the next couple of years? Climate, CO2, fuel prices, 50+ year old airframes etc…
Incapable drama queens exist in every sphere of life, everywhere, and repel people who would otherwise help them.
He didn’t know anybody to get his Pre-Buy or Annual done, was thereby unprepared to buy a plane, but bought it anyway and finally got somebody to do the work. After completion by people who had not likely warmed up to him, or perhaps by now actively disliked him, the plane had a squawk. Normal stuff. Then after he got that straightened out, he found a the new-to-him plane has a pre-existing avionics issue that needs to be straightened out. Wow, what a surprise. 
Snoopy wrote:
Maybe he could be cured by coming to Europe for a while and then going back? He‘d think he is in heaven
That would be very harsh 
I suggest you get him in touch with few US fellows who packed it up right on arriving to Europe
Whilst he may have antagonised people or made mistakes he is not the first to report such tales both in Europe and the USA.
The maintenance or lack of quality maitenance at a non exhorbitant price in a decent timescale is IMO a major problem for GA around the world.
Why? I don’t know the answer to that. Some of it is down to parts delivery I am sure. But why? Are parts manufacturers so slow to make stuff now?
IMO one other reason is quality cotrol. The old wise chaps who have retired over the last few years used to take pride in checking that everything is as it should be when an aircraft leaves the shop. The good ones took nothing for granted. Nowadays, and not just in aviation, it is the customer who does the quality control. In aviation this can turn out to be dangerous.
The attractions of the ULM and what in many countries is called experimental (ie kit build, collection, orphelin etc) is the only thing really providing hope for the future of GA.
The ULM scene is just about the only scene, now in Italy and to some extent Spain.
Outside the clubs France GA is mainly ULM and experimental.
AIUI in the USA sales of Vans kits are outstripping all new aircraft sales outside of the training organisations.
The ubiquitous Rotax is taking over in Europe and offering training courses on its engine maintenance.
Even in the USA Rotax shops are growing in number which has led to many training organisations switching to the Tecnam P2006T for MEP and MEIR training. Unlike the DA42 and the Seminole the other more popular MEP trainers, the Tecnam running costs lie somewhere between a Cessna 172 and a 182. Admittedly the performance is also around the Cessna 182 mark.
IMO as GA pilots we should be bl***y furious when we see reports like the one @Snoopy posted, not calling the poster a drama queen.
This happening in the USA is a portent towards the death or decline of certified GA everywhere.
We should be pressing regulators to avoid making rules that allow owners to be treated in such a cavalier and occasionally dangerous manner. That is particularly the case when it comes to avionics. One has to have certified equipment to fly IFR is certified aircraft, one has to have an STC, one has to pay more for it, ot has to have regular checks, it has to maintained by a workshop approved by the manufacturer. There aren’t too many of them so the ones that there are are kept busy, can charge what they want and have rubbish quality control. Yet all other pilots say when told of this is you should not have done it this way, you should move to N reg (wouldn’t have worked in this case) you need to be more careful in future, you should have had a better prebuy by someone who knows what they are doing.
There seems to me to be many smart people on this site, quite capable of fixing many or even most avionic problems which are not due to manufacture. And some on here could even fix them IMO🙂
While I don’t believe in the death of GA as a whole I do believe in the slow lingering death of the certified GA market. YMMV.
I could have given up the first time I ran into a problem too. If you want the new car experience with an aircraft, then best to buy a new aircraft under warranty.
Been reading about this same thread on Pilots of America. The post originates from Reddit.
Does this mean GA is dead? No, but there are issues with supply of parts and labour, but these issues will resolve themselves. In my industry (electronics repair) we rely on parts made in China, so obviously the supplies dried up for a few months at the height of the Covid outbreak but things are largely back to normal now. This will apply to other areas.
People waiting for obscure parts on old piston twins or other legacy GA products is mentioned a lot as well, but again the manufacturers in question are usually busy selling new turbine products hand over fist, so you can see why they might not be prioritising keeping old liabilities in the air.
This story reminds me of the reasons why I did not buy any certified aircraft prior to that maintenance regulations got so much easier in Europe.
But what adds in: whenever I do need assistance with my plane the connections I made with shops were totally different. It is as always a question of expectations vs. reality.
But isn’t it the same with yachting, golfing, vacations … ?
I liked one of the comments on this on another forum in which the poster said he moved to an area of homes, all on large 5 acre plots. When introducing himself to the neighbors they were all very nice, but one warned him of problems with the other neighbors. After that he never had any trouble with any of the neighbors, except eventually with one. Guess which one.
Another good one was “Alternate title: I didn’t test the OBS knob so I gave up my lifelong dream after just 6 months".
Realistic expectations and willingness to engage are certainly useful. When I bought my first plane I didn’t have any useful contacts either, and like this guy didn’t fly my plane for 6 months (in my case not one flight). During that period I made contacts that have lasted me to this day, 20 years later, and it was one of the best periods I can remember. I fixed all the problems on the plane, learned a lot, and found somebody to teach me to fly it. After another 6 or 8 months I had my pilot certificate, and was flying around happily.
In addition to having realistic expectations I think it’s better to buy something less demanding than an older Bonanza as your first plane, to start instead with something simpler to establish those contacts and relationships that will help maintain it. One gets the feeling this guy thought he was buying a new Lexus, not a 1950s Cadillac.
Snoopy wrote:
The first shop said “we’re not accepting new bookings, we’re too busy”. What? I could understand, “It’ll be a few weeks”, even “It’ll be a lot of weeks”, but “no?”. And this was a shop that advertised specializing in this specific make/model! Just “no?” Well, maybe it’s a fluke. Let’s call the next shop.“No.”
And, this was the shop that normally maintained the plane! “Are you sure?”
“Okay, fine. We’ll do it, but it’ll be $4,500 and 6 weeks out.”
That seemed egregious. So I kept calling. I found a shop who would drive 70 miles and do the prebuy for a fair price, 4 weeks from now.
What would be a “fair price” for a pre buy inspection? On one hand, I can imagine that you’re going to need a senior engineer who knows their stuff and not some junior or mid level engineer building experience, and you’re going to need them for at least a day (prob more if there is a lot of travelling involved) plus their travel costs.
On the other hand (as I understand it) a lot of prebuys end in no-buy. So you wouldn’t want to be forking out $4.5K unless you were reasonable sure you were going to buy. Paying that 4 or 5 times before you find one that you want to buy would quickly eat into your budget.
The poster doesn’t say what they considered and paid as a “fair price”. That makes me curious as to what is a fair price?
