This is what I normally keep
Most of this stuff was picked up as special deals, over time.
It has saved me considerable downtime on occassions, especially when troubleshooting. This is partly because I have no maintenance company which I have a “relationship” with and which keeps any parts.
I wonder if anybody else is as crazy as this 
Nothing here
Hi Peter, where is your hangar located exactly?
;-)
I don’t have one Well, can’t keep anything there.
I would have thought;
- a main wheel made up/jacking adapter
- spare keys wire locked inside an inspection panel
- spare alternator belt
- two plugs
- oleo seal kit
- jump lead adapter
along with some tools would be good onboard supplies if you have room, or otherwise on the shelf. You could at the base also have an alternator/regulator/starter/vac pump/mag set if you wanted to be super organised. I’ve needed things for mag/tire/electrical breakdowns before and was always able to get them sent from the usual suppliers PDQ. Having all the manuals in PDF and knowing how to find parts ASAP is also key. Knowing where there are identical aeroplanes to yours being parted out also a further bonus.
Indeed; I have most of those, in a toolbox weighing some 20kg After some “fun” in Spain in 2005 I decided to carry that…
The alternator belt change needs prop removal though.
I have a hanger full of spares based on ordering double of most grounding items since delivery times are so long and the cost of shipping for 2 x something is often the same as 1 x something from the US to Asia.
I have to operate on as much replacement stand by spares as I can being so far away from supply, otherwise I would be grounded for weeks or months waiting for stuff to be sourced or repaired.
There are limits to what I keep due to costs etc, for example I do not have a standby Aspen, but I have spare GNS530/430’s since the price has been dropping, and like Peter I have a complete replacement autopilot system most of which accompanied me on the trip to Europe and back. Hand flying in the upper flight levels for hours on end is no fun.
E
The autopilot situation in Europe is absolutely atrocious.
I have so many emails from so many pilots, asking me about who can take a look at their autopilot. Many were posted here over the years, too. Keeping spares for a (hopefully sensibly guided) swap-over to isolate the problem is the best way, because since there are almost no avionics shops which can test the signals within the system, or test the components, they can’t do any better, and without swap-over spares they can do precisely nothing.
I suspect a certain amount of off-the-books repair work is being done… and nobody can openly admit they have spares which came from US Ebay
Peter wrote:
I suspect a certain amount of off-the-books repair work is being done… and nobody can openly admit they have spares which came from US Ebay
There is also a semi-legal way to repair things. I know of at least one case where a Part 145 company repaired an instrument that was not on their capability list, issuing an EASA Form 1 stating “inspected/tested” instead of “repaired”.
