The Annual that Wasn't

Got the call from the A&P yesterday.  The annual inspection results weren't great.  Not as bad as they could have been, but not great.  

The bad news first.  While the pre-buy caught several important things, it missed a whole bunch of others that are real headscratchers.  The most egregious was a random bolt the size of a finger floating around one of the wings, and a bunch of blue work towels left in the same wing.  How do you miss those?  No idea.  Corrosion on the elevator and rudder cables was another - clearly seen through the inspection port.  The total price originally quoted to do all airworthy, recommended and owner requested options: North of $28K.  Not a typo, and the A&P prepared me for that.  There's some context to this which I'll explain in a bit, and it's not quite as bad as it sounds.

The good news is that there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with the airframe.  When the inspector first looked into the interior he found a bit of old metal debris, which had him assuming they were going to find substantial corrosion.  Fortunately, they didn't.  The spar looked good and overall corrosion (except for the aforementioned cables) was consistent with a plane of its age and manageable, which the A&P inspector had also noted.  The inspector figures that when the somewhat sloppy paint job was done by the owner, that some of the stripping chemicals dropped down through one of the flap openings and ran down the interior where they found the debris.  

Here's a list of the airworthy items, totaling $12,140 in estimated repairs:

A few comments:

• The seat pan crack on the co-pilot side was something he had ID'd previously.  Cost to repair is estimated at $4,150.  This is the single largest item on the list and is an airworthy item.  I had him show me the crack, and I would have never have noticed it, so I don't blame the pre-buy for not catching it necessarily.  
• When the plane all of a sudden went from starting like a champ to nothing, I figured a solenoid had gone bad on the starter system, and I was right.  Cost to replace, $512.
• Vacuum pump screw was showing now thread.
• Muffler crack was in the base of the exhaust system.  Again, it was hard for me to spot, but you could see it.  Given the CO2 risks, definitely fixing that.  $1,219
• The bushings looked like they had been on a plane that sat and then all of a sudden flew again, causing damage to them.  $866 for the elevator ones and $690 for the rudder.
• Small leak on the left sender needs to be fixed - $328
• Both fuel gaskets - $150
• Bolt on pulley in right flap - I saw this first hand.  Just not screwed in all the way.  $130.
• Adjust aileron cable tension - yes please, for $195
• Adjust flap cable tension - sure, $195
• ADD77-02-09.  Probably noted in the missing first log book, but because I don't have it, $260.
• Replace grease felt RH wheel hub - $249
• Seat belt fraying - $860, but more on that in a bit.
• Mag compass low on fluid and missing card - $340
• Aircraft pitot-static missing sump bottle.  Also, it's not attached to the static port.  You read that right.  $413
• Cleaning and treating corrosion on flight control cables - $390 (more on this in a minute)
• Crack in seat pan on co-pilot side - $4,150

While not all of these are an immediate safety issue, they're all legit airworthy items, and it is great to know that the inspector found them, even if it is a pain in the ass to have to deal with them.

The biggest expense on the recommended items is the replacement of the cables with corrosion.  They're also listed as recommended because we don't know if it'll need it.  The cleaning of the flight control cables mentioned above may be able to eliminate the spots, and if it hasn't broken into the metal and isn't showing signs of metal distress, then the airplane won't need new cables.  I asked the A&P if I was looking at 50/50 odds, and he was more optimistic - thinking 90% of the damage could likely be cleaned away.  Replacing the cables would be an additional $4.840, so I am highly motivated for some good news here.

A few other comments:

• So I asked - does it really take an hour of labor to remove a wasp's nest?  Probably not.  Come to find out that the A&P prices all tasks at at least an hour, even though many will be a fraction of that.  That way he plans for the worst case scenario and is rarely having to quote a client more.  Originally I hadn't included cleaning the bird and wasp nests out, but upon hearing this, I OK'd him to do it.
• Same with the safety wires.  Legal to do as owner/pilot, which I would have in lieu of paying for an hour of labor, but likely much less than that.  Same for the gaskets.
• I authorized the left magneto work - going to wait on the right.  Enough people agreed that 200 hours past inspection was way too much.  $1,060, but that was based on a high end estimate of the time to overhaul the mag, so hopefully less.
• Nose gear work is going to wait.  The shimmy appears to be gone, so unless it comes back, I'm deferring.  
  
• Current cowl fasteners will have to do for now.
• Yes on the corrosion treatment at $350 - need to keep it manageable.

Requested items:

• Took the windows, return springs and tailBeacon home with me.  Going to try doing the windows myself as I originally planned.  Also found an avionics shop that quoted two hours to do the tailBeacon, including the STC paperwork with the FAA.
• No OAT probe, as I'm not going to be adding an AV-20 before the annual now.
• Will sort out the beacon COM interferrence later.
• Will deal with the rigging later - left hand bank wasn't as big a problem with someone in the right seat.  Want to explore this more.

Final decision:

I'm deferring the annual.  Since the plane is still legal until May, I can fix the items that really need fixing, and wait on some of the items that are required, but not affecting safety.  The crack in the seat pan is the biggest of these - that can wait till May, and the A&P agreed.  The seat belt quote was for replacing all seat belts in order to match.  I'm fine trying to find one on my own, and I may be able to attach it myself legally.  Mag compass can wait as well.  

Of course I'm going to have to pay the annual charge again in 6-months, but that seems like a wortwhile cost to defer some of these MX costs I can't stomach all at once.  

In the end, I'm glad I opted to do the annual early - primarily because the airplane WAS NOT safe to fly in its current condition, but secondarily so I can spread the costs out over a bit of time.

So no longer an annual, but rather heavy maintenance.  If the cables need replacing, I'm probably looking at $14K in repairs right now.  If they can be repaired, I'm hoping it's closer to $9K.  Will know tonight.