Is it hard to find a qualified Cessna 140 mechanic? How much will an annual cost? How much for an overhaul?
November 13, 2008
Any piston A&P Mechanic can work on a 140. Most of the Cessna singles have been basically the same for many years. Cessna quotes annuals for aircraft of this size at 16-18 man-hours for their Single Engine Service Centers, not including squawks. It will also depend on if it's AD status is current. As for the engine overhaul, it depends on who does it. The overhaul will not be cheap. Most piston shops have an hourly rate at $55-75 and hour, depending on the shop and area.
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4 Responses to “Is it hard to find a qualified Cessna 140 mechanic? How much will an annual cost? How much for an overhaul?”
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Any licensed A&P mechanic is qualified to work on any airplane. To do an annual, they have to have, or have access to, an airframe inspector.
The cost of the annual can vary greatly depending on the shape of the airplane, where it's based, how long it's been out of annual.
An overhaul on an engine? Again, depends on where you have it done, how bad a shape the engine is in, what all needs done.
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The C140 has an opposed engine, if I'm recalling correctly. It's also a reasonably simple aircraft.
There not being much to it, there's not as much to an annual inspection as there would be for a 172RG.
The annual inspection for the aircraft should be straigh forward enough to be completed in a day, maybe a day and a half tops. Buget for an annual is probably less than a thou, figured at 12 shop hours at $70/hr. (Bear in mind that you're going to be paying the I/A that signs off the inspection to spend a few hours going through your logbooks and the AD's on the aircraft.)
If you mean overhaul by prepurchase inspection, you're talking about a couple hundred bucks and a test flight. If you mean reduce the aircraft to component parts for individual inspection and testing, as simple as the 140 is, you're looking at a few grand.
And if you want a qualified mechanic, your best bet is to find a large training facility such as Monarch, that has a cranky old IA in charge of the maintenance on the leaseback airplanes; the older the man is the better he likely is; if he was working on airplanes before turbine engines were the standard for airlines, he knows what the hell he's doing with your airplane.
Monarch at KADS has two of the best mechanics I know, Chuck Davis and Robert Johnson.
The fun part is that both men have absolutely no qualms showing you around your airplane as they do an annual. I've long held the belief that it is impossible to be too intimate with your airplane.
I learned that as I cleaned up after a trio of corporate pilots, a captive jet fleet, and learned that you don't want to know how corporate pilot's handle things. When the pilot calls from halfway across the country to tell you that the lav lid is missing, and you happen to know that the honey pot for the aircraft is removed for maintenance, it's time to hang up the phone and go on vacation.
It should be fairly easy to find a mechanic that knows your airplane better than you, check out KADS on http://www.airnav.com for the contact for Monarch. If you can't get the airplane there, chances are that either Chuck or Robert knows someone that you can get the airplane to that you can trust.
Happy Flying.
References :
Any certified A&P mechanic can work on the C-140. Part of the training involved in getting the certification is in how to read technical manuals required to mee the specific requirements of any given aircraft.
The costs… you should just call the local airport and ask. They will tell you the base price of the annual, but they will also tell you that any needed repairs will add to the cost.
An overhaul for an aircraft engine will be expensive… Again, this varies with the engine condition.
References :
Any piston A&P Mechanic can work on a 140. Most of the Cessna singles have been basically the same for many years. Cessna quotes annuals for aircraft of this size at 16-18 man-hours for their Single Engine Service Centers, not including squawks. It will also depend on if it's AD status is current. As for the engine overhaul, it depends on who does it. The overhaul will not be cheap. Most piston shops have an hourly rate at $55-75 and hour, depending on the shop and area.
References :
13 years as an A&P Mechanic, and former Supervisor of Cessna Single Engine Service Center.