These aircraft have an Annual cost 1/10th of the price of my ancient and very simple CofA aircraft.
Robin - I don't think that 10:1 could possibly be real unless there is something fishy going on.
My TB20 is 8 years old. Unscheduled maintenance has been pretty minimal to date (barely 4 digits total) unless I count the Lyco crank business. Now let's say it went on a Permit. What would I save?
I would save the £200 for the A&P/IA signoff. Plus a few hundred quid. But there is about 40 man-hours, mostly inspections, and these would still need to be done, and that comes to about £2000. Plus VAT
So what could I do about that 2k? If I was an A&P I could do it myself, and if I was mates with an IA I could get it signed off for a beer.
So I spend a week or so on my back, getting dirty and oily.
In fact I could do a "customer assist" job where I work for a week together with an A&P mate of mine. The catch? One needs a hangar in which one is allowed to work, and these are damn scarce in GA.
Once one starts examining closely the often claimed massive savings on LAA types, it usually comes down to
- the owner is the type who likes to get his hands dirty, and places a zero value on his time (there's two grand already, eh?, need I go on?)
- the owner is an engineer who is able to do the work (and if he messes up, something comes off in the air; not an entirely unusual event in the LAA scene......)
- the owner has access to a hangar or other building where he can work, because the crowd where he revolves is more "chummy" so he has a big pool of contacts
- the aircraft is simpler so there is less to do....
- ADs can be disregarded (e.g. the Lyco 1997-2002 crank recall can be disregarded if you are on LAA or the US Experimental; different people will have different views on that one, shall we say... and since I fly over water and mountains, you can guess what mine would be)
- in the "chummy" LAA world you pay cash whenever possible, which saves the VAT
In the ICAO world you try the same thing but one can't normally do it with companies..... but you have to go to a company for the Annual because.... you are not allowed to work in your hangar (not because you need their expertise)
There are real savings like not having to use certified parts, but the financial effect of these depends on the airframe condition and history. But (see my Form 1 comment below) the biggest factor is how smart one is in buying parts. If you have a Piper and go to the Piper dealer for everything including spark plugs, you get what you asked for.
So yes there are savings by going non-ICAO but
10:1 ? No way for like-for-like aircraft and complexity. Any such claim is pulling your leg.
Smart ICAO owners get it to a fine art. They log airborne time carefully, not "hobbs" time which costs another 20% or so. They develop valuable contacts who have the right bits of paper allowing them to sign stuff, and they build trust so they can do the work themselves and a friend signs it off. And they learn about engine management which saves them 20-30% on the fuel.
Of course there are people who do zero maintenance for years, and forge their records. You can do that on a CofA plane (and some have) but it is a lot easier to do on a homebuilt.
When my aircraft lost a prop a while back, I had to pay 40% more for the replacement compared with an equivalent (identical) Permit aircraft - just for the Form 1
You don't need a Form 1 for any privately operated G-reg. The FAA 8130-3 or even any other evidence of traceability is fine, so you can buy bits from the USA by mail order. EASA Form 1 (which many shops dishonestly try to tell you you need) is for AOC aircraft only. Anybody says otherwise - ask for legal references. Form 1 is a giant margin-scam; a ripoff; I paid £11k for a prop with a F1 which listed in the USA at $9k with an 8130-
4 (Export CofA) which is what is needed for Class 1 parts (engines and props). There is a recent reg change which appears that an 8130-3 is fine for Class 1 parts too. The prop came from the USA and "passed through" a JAR145 company which just printed off the F1 and made the 4 digits for the cost of the laser printer toner. That was an insurance job and I knew little about planes back then anyway, but even I knew that £1=$1.60 back then so somebody (Socata and Air Touring Ltd mostly) were seriously minting it
