So aircraft booked two weeks ago for a pre-buy at a well known UK maintenance firm. Needs a boroscope (it is PT6 powered) and a small inspection as it is still under warranty and has very low hours. Two main things could be wrong with an aircraft in this position - the engine or actual damage to structure, gear etc. The airframe is fairly straightforward and there is no evidence of anything but an expert should check it over. If a turbine engine has been damaged however that gets expensive. Only way to check is a boroscope.
Aircraft is coming from mainland Europe so some logistics to work out with the owner having to get it here. Dropped maintenance firm an email last night letting them know the confirmed ETA and am told the following:
Honestly.
And as a follow up - the boroscope didn't just break - it has been broken for three weeks.
UK maintenance is mostly a case of: in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Most owners (private and schools) are so tight with money you could not get get a #1 Pozi up their back end 
So the business is structured to make some kind of living from that customer profile.
So when somebody with 2p to rub together comes along, they don't know how to handle it.
Project management is mostly nonexistent. Even at the bigger firms, when the quoted deadline comes up, it's "panic stations", and you get stuff like this being done. That was done by one very well known name.
Skills are also often poor. Another very well known name did 4 jobs for me and all 4 were done badly. After one of them I had to hoover up metal cuttings from behind the panel, and relocate some wiring which was about to get cut through by a sharp edge on some metalwork.
It's difficult... which is why I am staying on the N-reg where I can much more easily organise the work and project manage it myself. But most owners can't do that; they need a company they can just leave the plane at.
If everybody was spending €50k on the latest eye candy then the business would be very different, I am sure. But, despite the full page adverts in the mags, people that do that are very rare. Most work is stuff like Mode S transponders at £2k a time, where the customer got 5 quotes and went for the lowest. Especially in syndicates where getting agreement can be painful. In my 11 years with the TB20, I only once spent any real money and that was the £12k on the TCAS system. I have done other avionics upgrades (the Sandel EHSI, and now doing a RHS "pilot panel" with another EHSI etc) but I have done those myself, obtaining the hardware from U.S. discount dealers, doing the wiring design myself, processing the 337 via a U.S. FSDO myself, and paying a freelance installer to install it. The unfortunate thing is that the company which did that stuff on the TCAS install (which I am NOT naming) is actually one that caters for a particular market where most customers do just throw money out...
it is PT6 powered
Aha! So what 'ya gettin'? Meridian?
Yep!
Eurocontrol will be happy, your fees will contribute to the ongoing maintenance of the airways!
After you guys bailing out all of southern Europe, it is the least I can do...
And in reality they are a small component of direct operating costs.
If you were a proper Citizen of Europe you would buy a new TBM850, which would help prop up the French banks who lent all that money to Greece, and then all us poor people with TB20s could have holidays down there, assisted by a good supply of airports with Customs and Avgas
The route charges are not exactly small. For a PA46T they seem to be in the region of 1/3 of the DOC. Of course it depends on how you calculate the DOC, but they won't be as low as say 10%. They might be as low as 10% on say a King Air 350.
I know someone with a Jetprop and that can be flown for less money than the Meridian, so if that was 2T+ the route charges would be even more relevant.
I am sure one of the reasons Diamond are doing almost nothing with the D-jet is because it being 2T+ just kills it in the market. Especially as, like the PA46T, it will fly below RVSM levels so not really needing enroute separation from CAT.
If I bought a new TBM850 then I would also need a bailout!
Remember there is a 1999kg option for the Meridian as well. I have done the numbers - overall DOC will be about 20% higher - but I will get there faster!
I actually think enroute charges are what kills older heavy twins - I don't think it is a major factor in newer turboprop singles where really it is a small part of the overall cost of ownership. Let's face it enroute charges will be the least of my problems!
Why the Meridian and not the JetProp DLX?
Both are great but different. I chose the Meridian.
