experience with maintenance shops - Germany, C525

[Cecco]

Hi, I fly a CJ1+/CJ2+ and I am also responsible for all organisation involved.
Regarding maintenance shops, I´d be interested in your experience. We were
at JA in DUS and now at AAS in BRE. My experience in 2 years is that if a part is ordered, you can be sure that they get the wrong part and that it arrives too late, virtually all invoices in two years are full of errors; e.g too many labour hours charged etc. In general, people there are helpful and also seem competent but...what are your experiences???

Cheers
Cecco

[hawker750]

Welcome to third party maintenance in the world, period. You have to be on the look out for sharp practices. Many mantenance organistaions have rich clients who never query the bills and they think this is the norm for all operators. Suggest you employ a really good engineer who will accompany your aircraft on check and audit your bills. You will find your maintenance costs dramatically fall.

[Tony Mabelis]

I agree, employ an experienced LAE (like myself).
Just pay me the money I save you from wasteing!!

Tony:)

[chubbychopper]

My experience with JA at Dusseldorf: Standard of maintenance is good on types that they have gained experience working on. Billing errors were commonplace, and mainly related to charging excessive hours for a number of the smaller jobs. When questioned they never argued and issued credit notes immediately.

Regarding JA at Zurich: (I changed from DUS when introducing new aircraft type that they had little experience of, and didn't want them to learn at my expense). I am very happy with quality of work. Same billing issues but again these are immediately rectified when questioned.

It pays to remain with the aircraft while maintenance is being carried out. You may decide which additional rectification work is really necessary, and which items are not airworthy related. Keep an eye on how many guys are actually working on the aircraft, what they spend their time doing, and how long they take to do it. Small deficiencies should be attended to by your own line maintenance wherever possible. When presented with the work report study it very carefully, and question every detail that you are not sure about. Next time around they are not likely to take as many liberties.

[whenrealityhurts]

You must be dealing with morons..in 20 years of flying I can't even remember the wrong part being ordered...or it it was, I wasn't told, and the right one was overnighted the next day...

[His dudeness]

I´d say RUAG, AAS and JA are the biggest players in Germany on Citations.

I have been client at all 3... for me, AAS is the best compromise between cost and quality. Mistakes happen everywhere, and a little bit of checking by the pilot helps a lot and safes a lot of money everyhere.

I also have been client at AERODIENST EDDN (not with the CJ, with KingAirs) - which I consider to the best shop I ever was - and JA Basel (again not with the CJ).

I did ask for prices for every Inspection Document or Phase and crosscheck every bill I get. Lots of works, but worth it. (and I have received only a few invoices without mistakes at every shop)

All in all: they all cook only with water.