Although pilot training provides the knowledge and experience we need to safely fly an aircraft per the regulations, little more than the school of hard knocks is offered to help us maintain it. Amid stories of five-figure annual inspections for piston singles, the typical aircraft owner faced with a maintenance-related decision is more likely to defer to the shop than to seek a professional second opinion. That can get expensive. And, until now, professional maintenance management-that is, having a professional make these decisions on the owners behalf-simply wasnt available for personal aircraft at any cost.

But is there even a market for such a thing? Mike Busch thinks there is. Busch is long-time maintenance advisor to the Cessna Pilots Association, the FAAs National Aviation Maintenance Technician of the Year for 2008 and founder of the Savvy Aviator Seminars on aircraft ownership. In mid-2008, he founded Savvy Aircraft Maintenance Management (SAMM) which offers to professionally manage the scheduled and unscheduled maintenance of most models of owner-flown aircraft.

This service strikes us as moderately priced and the company bills it as a service that will pay for itself by saving owners money. Is it worth it? Our contacts with early clients of SAMM indicate that theyre pleased with the service and seeing reduced maintenance expenses, along with increased confidence.

What SAMM Is

Savvy Aircraft Maintenance Management brings to owner-flown aircraft what previously was available only to the bizjet set. One way to think of SAMMs service, according to Busch, is as a technical interface with the service centers and mechanics doing the work. This sort of professional maintenance management has long been standard for corporate jets and turboprops, but has never been available for owner-flown aircraft, at least that we know of.

In the March, 2005 issue of Aviation Consumer, we reported on a service called Fast Fix pitched as a kind of AAA for pilots, for an annual fee. But that service didnt oversee routine maintenance, as SAMM proposes to do, nor did it handle such tasks as upgrades and long-term repairs.

For a fixed annual fee that varies with aircraft complexity-presently $500 for a legacy fixed-gear single (Skyhawk, Dakota, Cessna 206), $750 for a retractable or technically-advanced single (Bonanza, Cirrus), $1000 for a piston twin and $2000 for single-engine VLJs-SAMM will manage all of your aircrafts maintenance.

Instead of actually turning wrenches, SAMM acts as the owners maintenance advisor and advocate to ensure the aircraft receives first-rate maintenance at the lowest possible cost. It handles everything from picking the shop and giving them their marching orders to reviewing and approving the invoice for payment.

SAMM has on staff maintenance experts with years of experience who intervene between the owner and the shop. For efficiency and to establish a paper trail, communication is generally handled by e-mail, which means that shops that arent e-mail conversant may not be on SAMMs horizon. The service can both recommend shops and/or work with a shop the owner prefers.

The program is a logical extension of Buschs successful Savvy Aviator Seminar Series, which helps owners become more conversant with the regulations addressing aircraft ownership, their responsibilities and how to manage the challenges of maintaining something as complex as a personal airplane. “Most owners have no training in maintenance,” Busch told us, a perrenial problem given that the FAA places the regulatory burden of ensuring airworthiness directly on the owner, not the shop doing the work.

Through his seminars, Busch has trained more than 1000 aircraft owners, most of whom he found were uncomfortable in dealing with A&Ps and shops. Even though pilots can be assertive in the cockpit, many owners are outside their comfort zone in dealing with maintenance.