MAINTENANCE SUPPLY CHAIN: HURRY UP AND WAIT
Based on the emails and phone calls we field here at the magazine, plus the pilots I run into during my travels, it’s not getting any better. I’m talking about the long lead times that owners are dealing with to get on a shop’s schedule for upgrades and maintenance, and even sourcing service parts that you would think should be easy to get your hands on. Need a rebuilt alternator for a Cessna 182, as one example? If you do, you might be disappointed. A friend called me recently and was shocked that his maintenance shop was waiting—weeks—for one that it ordered through the usually efficient and well-stocked retailer Aircraft Spruce and Specialty. His shop ended up going above and beyond and removed an alternator from another aircraft on the shop floor for use as a loaner just so it could finish the annual inspection. Life may be showing signs of getting back to normal as the pandemic eases, but things don’t seem to be normal when it comes to wrenching aircraft—and even other machines, as I learned firsthand.
I recently had one of my motorcycles at a Honda dealer for some work and ended up retrieving it—unrepaired—because the dealer couldn’t source a fairly common part for what it projected to be “months, if not longer.” I found the part on eBay, took a day off from work and replaced it myself. “We have motorcycles and power equipment that have been sitting for over a month because we can’t get the parts we need,” the service manager told me. My neighbor waited weeks for the local BMW dealership to finish his late-model vehicle because it couldn’t get parts in a reasonable amount of time. There’s also a shortage of good technicians.