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How much time spent on maintenance?

ravenstar

Well Known Member
This is probably a question I should have asked before I began building, but I've been wondering lately how much time I should expect to invest in maintenance after I've completed my aircraft. It seems like rental aircraft are always going to the shop to have something fixed, but given they're used for primary instruction it's hard to know if that's what I should expect of my own. And of course reading the forums all one tends to see are problems.

So for those of you who have already finished your projects and flown off the phase 1 hours, how much time do you spend doing maintenance and repairs, or tweaking things that are quite right versus actually flying?

Thanks!
 
I have a 2010 RV12 that I'm third owner, The only things I find myself doing is carb sync's and prop dynamic balance after tweaking prop pitch, nothing seems to need my attention. Rotax engine issues are rare, had one ignition module fail and two Ducati voltage regulators. However Vans comes out with plenty of SB's now and then.
 
Thanks, this is what I was hoping to hear. I'm in the seemingly endless wing rib preparation stage now and that's given me lots of time to imagine that I'll spend more time building and fixing than flying. A little encouragement once in a while is helpful!
 
My -12 is a 2016 and I'm the 3rd owner.

Ditto the post above, I find very little maintenance other than scheduled oil changes, lubrication every couple months, ELT checks every 3 months, monthly Dynon updates and a few simple recurring SB's. I've owned a bunch of planes over the years and so far the -12 is by far the easiest to maintain. Most of the action happens during the C.I. once a year. I spend far more time flying than doing mandatory maintenance.

Having flown radials for quite a number of hours, I still have to get over the idea that no oil dripping doesn't mean it's out. :D

I do like to spend rainy days opening things up and inspecting just for peace of mind, but I have yet to really find anything.
 
With some planning and spare parts/disposable items on hand, you can get the annual condition inspection done in 2 full days. For instance, have the next set of tires on your shelf months in advance, have the next fuel filter ready..etc. You know you're going to need it at some point..may as well buy the next one now before prices go up next month/year/etc.

An oil change seems to still take me better part of a day (every 50 hours due to using 100LL). However, I like to do a good job of cleaning out all the lead deposits at each oil change, in exceedance of what the Rotax manual recommends. Its the safety wire that seems to still take up most of my time.

Typical Service Bulletins are just a few hours/half day of work.. I order the parts as soon as I can and then pick a day in the near future that has crappy weather.. or sooner if it is an important update.

The best thing though is to stay on top of your maintenance and don't defer things unless there is some benefit (e.g. waiting an extra week or month because your "annual" is coming up anyway).
 
Other than annuals and oil changes I would say I have on the average 1 honest to God repair of something minor every year. SBs have been a wild card usually “fixing” a problem I don’t have.
 
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