Aircraft Owner Maintenance - Unique Aircraft Cost Much More to Maintain
Let's say you want to buy a used aircraft, and you would like something which is fun to fly, and somewhat unique.
You don't want to buy a Cessna 172 Skyhawk like everyone else.
You want something that will stand out, present a little bit of individuality, and be extremely exhilarating to fly around.
Okay so let's talk about this for second because some of those interesting looking airplanes can be a maintenance nightmare.
James E.
Ellis author, pilot, and aircraft owner suggested in his book that if you choose to own a unique used aircraft and happen to have the only one on the field, then you can expect to pay more for maintenance as the mechanic will have to train himself on the differences of the systems, basically learning on your time and money.
This is common and you should expect this, but not gripe as that is one of the drawbacks to having an aircraft that isn't common, thus, you should pay the mechanic or A&P to do it right regardless which mean you need to cough up the money; "if you roll the dice, you have to pay the price," is the author's note to the reader, meaning when you buy anything new you are taking a chance (Ref: "Buying and Owning Your Own Airplane," book).
When I was a young man, I had an aircraft cleaning service while I was learning to fly.
There was an airplane out at the airport, a Czechoslovakian biplane which was fully acrobatic.
The owner and pilot didn't fly it very much, but he always paid me to keep it meticulously cleaned and waxed.
I understood that the airplane had tough handling characteristics, and I assumed that perhaps the pilot was afraid to fly unless the weather was absolutely perfect and there wasn't a lot of traffic out of the airport.
It turns out my assumption was totally incorrect.
The reality was that he couldn't get parts for it, anytime something broke, such as the brakes, or some other specialized part, he just couldn't get it.
He had to order it from Europe from an old airplane collector or aircraft junkyard.
If he couldn't find a part, he had to pay to have one specially made at a machine shop, and all he had to go by was the maintenance manual for the airplane which was also quite old.
Sometimes if it was a reciprocating part, if there was more than one of those parts on the airplane, he had to go to the other side of the airplane take off that part, and go to the machine shop and tell them to make another one of these, sometimes he had to make another one which was exactly opposite and backwards.
Then he had to come and put it back on himself, or hire an airframe and power plant mechanic to do it for him often while that mechanic was charging him a high hourly rate and learning on the job because he hadn't ever worked on airplane like that before.
Okay so, the moral the story is that if you're going to buy a unique aircraft, be ready to pay extra to maintain it and keep it in airworthy condition.
Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
You don't want to buy a Cessna 172 Skyhawk like everyone else.
You want something that will stand out, present a little bit of individuality, and be extremely exhilarating to fly around.
Okay so let's talk about this for second because some of those interesting looking airplanes can be a maintenance nightmare.
James E.
Ellis author, pilot, and aircraft owner suggested in his book that if you choose to own a unique used aircraft and happen to have the only one on the field, then you can expect to pay more for maintenance as the mechanic will have to train himself on the differences of the systems, basically learning on your time and money.
This is common and you should expect this, but not gripe as that is one of the drawbacks to having an aircraft that isn't common, thus, you should pay the mechanic or A&P to do it right regardless which mean you need to cough up the money; "if you roll the dice, you have to pay the price," is the author's note to the reader, meaning when you buy anything new you are taking a chance (Ref: "Buying and Owning Your Own Airplane," book).
When I was a young man, I had an aircraft cleaning service while I was learning to fly.
There was an airplane out at the airport, a Czechoslovakian biplane which was fully acrobatic.
The owner and pilot didn't fly it very much, but he always paid me to keep it meticulously cleaned and waxed.
I understood that the airplane had tough handling characteristics, and I assumed that perhaps the pilot was afraid to fly unless the weather was absolutely perfect and there wasn't a lot of traffic out of the airport.
It turns out my assumption was totally incorrect.
The reality was that he couldn't get parts for it, anytime something broke, such as the brakes, or some other specialized part, he just couldn't get it.
He had to order it from Europe from an old airplane collector or aircraft junkyard.
If he couldn't find a part, he had to pay to have one specially made at a machine shop, and all he had to go by was the maintenance manual for the airplane which was also quite old.
Sometimes if it was a reciprocating part, if there was more than one of those parts on the airplane, he had to go to the other side of the airplane take off that part, and go to the machine shop and tell them to make another one of these, sometimes he had to make another one which was exactly opposite and backwards.
Then he had to come and put it back on himself, or hire an airframe and power plant mechanic to do it for him often while that mechanic was charging him a high hourly rate and learning on the job because he hadn't ever worked on airplane like that before.
Okay so, the moral the story is that if you're going to buy a unique aircraft, be ready to pay extra to maintain it and keep it in airworthy condition.
Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
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