I bought my plane in August 2022 and it just came out of it’s first annual. I don’t have the final bill yet, but it’s gonna be a big one. Thankfully I planned for this when I bought the plane. She was in annual for 3 weeks and I included a few special requests and a healthy list of squawk items. So all said and done, here’s all the discrepancies and requested items they addressed:
[list]
[*]Replaced faulty ignition switch (allowed key removal in run position)
[*]Replaced worn scat tubing to airbox
[*]Fabricated and installed oil cooler winterization plate
[*]Repaired broken carb heat airbox flap
[*]Installed lower cowl air filter seal (replacing a homemade one the previous seller tried to fabricate from orange baffling)
[*]SB 1375A (replaced attach bolts and screws, no oversizing necessary, said bolt holes showed zero sign of wear)
[*]Rebuilt both main gear struts (seals failed in November and lower end strut rebuild failed to correct)
[*]Excess flutter in trim tab, replaced worn bushings and rewound cable on jack screw
[*]Replaced worn trim tab hinge
[*]Repaired rudder trim control
[*]Replaced ELT remote battery
[*]Replaced interior door handle and latch assembly
[*]Removed nose wheel fairing
[*]Added full deflection markings on nose gear strut
[*]Removed old motorized rotating beacon and replaced with dual-color LED flashing beacon
[*]Installed front seat shoulder harness kits
[*]Installed LED Landing Light
[/list]
And unfortunately this isn’t all yet. They also identified surface corrosion on the propeller so we’re going to send that in for overhaul. However, there’s a 6-8 week lead time so we’ve got my name in the queue and I can keep flying in the meantime. When they’re ready for the prop, we’ll take it off and ship it. I can expect another few weeks of downtime at that point.
So all in all nothing earth shattering. His comments on the engine were “Whatever you’re doing keep doing it”. Said the plugs looked perfect (yay for ground leaning), scope was good and compressions were all mid-70’s.
