The Rockwell Commander 114B that I co-own typically takes two weeks to complete a thorough annual inspection, but that was before the pandemic. The maintenance shop that we have been using has done the 11 preceding annuals on our Commander, as we’ll as routine maintenance. In 2021, the ownership and management of the shop changed hands (let’s call them New School Maintenance) to two “new guys,” who on the surface appear not to have any experience owning and running a maintenance shop.
This year, the Commander went in for its annual on Feb. 13. While many pilots will hand over the keys and logbooks to the shop, we take a more proactive approach. The shop we use is not keen on owner-assisted annuals. One of the shop’s founders would tell me that they had two rates: $90 per hour if they do the work—and $110 per hour if we help. For the past 11 annuals, we’ve followed the same approach where the aircraft goes into the shop and after roughly two or three days for the inspection, we meet with the mechanic and review their findings. From the inspection, we’ll break it down into three classifications of their findings, determine the estimated costs for the repairs and collaborate with the mechanic to determine the repairs to be implemented. The categories include ADs and SBs (or must do), safety or preventive maintenance and cosmetic issues (like yellowing landing light covers).