Yes, contrary to popular belief, light aircraft are mechanically and structurally simple devices to maintain. It’s one of the attractive things about owning them.
@WilliamF, your stabilator bearing example is right on cue… I’ll be doing that job soon on my plane. The job for yesterday was a fancy $10K borescope inspection of my O-320 cylinders and valves, we also polished the haze of corrosion off the valve springs before it could turn to pits. My exhaust valves slide freely in the guides at 1000 hrs since new, there were few deposits to be seen in that area. There was some corrosion visible in the bores, which not withstanding reasonable oil consumption and good compression may I think mean new cylinders some day ($4K). The engine has never been apart since 1970 or 71!
WilliamF have you created a spreadsheet for your 206 rebuild? It would be interesting to get some idea of the detailed cost estimate needed on one of these projects?
I stopped keeping costs once we got past the budget number. Once we did the annual inspection we found more things to do, as a totally independent Cessna specialist went through it. That’s it’s current stage. You definitely could spend much much more on it if you wanted to embody every Cessna service kit etc the manufacturer made. The three nylon bearings on eccentric cams that each control column slides on are 6x €221 new for example. Today a new fuel pump and all flexi hoses so kiss €2k good luck. I didn’t cut many corners, put huge amount of my own time in but it will be comfortably sitting at 2x what we planned last year. It’s hard to account for your own time, to get new piece of interior plastics to fit right you could loose 3-4 hours. Getting access to contract labour is tougher and tougher, the closer it gets to flying the less of a priority you are. If you want me to sanity check your numbers I will.
Once it’s flown 20hrs I’ll take the old avionics looms out from behind the panel and start over on that. Avionics not really a priority beyond a 430/ads-b box for me. I’ve already changed all old co ax for rg400 and sorted antennas.
@AdamFrisch You are paying someone to have all the fun on your planes, don’t you?
Right now I’m not paying anybody because I can’t afford to!
