When I considered buying aircraft before leasing for my club a maintenance organisation told me Annuals start at £3k.
I have had private owners tell me bills of anywhere from 7 to 12k on sep.
I helped in a maintenance hangar long time ago, dread to think what some aircraft are really like when relatively cheap and worn bolts such as on torque links, don't get replaced, but owners get big bills for high value items. (Discovered how Piper u/c castings would crack).
And time again I have seen people buy and spend lots of money on an aircraft, yet don't budget to get some basic parts renewed.
I would have a long list such as plugs, mags, vac pumps, alternator, battery, torque link bolts.
Just change them all and have peace of mind that they will not need doing for a long time and hopefully the aircraft will not strand you in a far away place.
When I see the big bills people get, I sometimes wonder if every part has been replaced.
It would be interesting to cost out every consumable part.
I remember paying £25 per plugs (CSE price) 20 years ago.
So then £200 for new plugs that might last 200 odd hours.
Save getting the engineer out every few months to clean a plug @ ? hour.
Good example was watching some guys ready to set off in their 2nd hand recent purchase Mooney, paid 60k.
First flight abroad, mag drop. On seeing the plugs they all looked about as old as the aircraft, 12 years.
Why didn't replace all with new at purchase and save this problem.
New plugs were then fitted.
Last edited by BigEndBob; 27th Aug 2016 at 19:24.