No matter where you look in the general and business aviation markets you’ll find price increases—eye-widening ones—and I think it’s hindering safe aircraft ownership like nobody’s business. For the typical small airplane owner struggling to feed the machine, the cost of engines, propellers, avionics, consumables, shop labor and insurance is enough to hang the for-sale sign on the windscreen or keep the airplane sitting in the growing weeds. We find others in the NTSB wreck reports who hang on by deferring critical maintenance and component replacement, with shops reporting that budget-stressed customers are deferring too many items found during inspections. The other problem with that is some shops have stopped working on smaller airplanes because as one shop owner told me, “They don’t want to deal with a bottom-feeding clientele,” and it’s hurting those who are able and willing to spend real money on real maintenance.
At press time in early February, the big news in the propeller market is that Hartzell’s new owner, Arcline Investment Management (a Nashville, Tennessee-based private equity firm), has increased (doubled in some instances) prices across the board on its line of products, including props and components in the Sky-Tec starter line. One model that previously sold for just under $500 without a core is now almost $1300 and requires a core exchange. Some propeller blades were hit with 40 percent price hikes. This has some fearing that competitors (McCauley and MT, to name two) will also raise prices of their props. But that domino reaction could spread to other parts of the industry—and quickly trickle down to shop-level invoices—because Hartzell Aviation also umbrellas Hartzell Aerospace Welding and Hartzell Engine Tech, building engine-related assemblies. This includes Kelley Aero, a source of magnetos and ignition components.