|
 Savvy
Owner Notebook:
Just Say No To Overpriced Parts
Every aircraft owner complains about the
high price of aircraft parts. With a little effort and ingenuity you
can avoid paying extortionate parts prices by finding lower-cost
alternatives.
by Mike Busch (mike.busch@savvyaviator.com)
 The Saturday morning flight from Texas to Kansas City would have been
absolutely perfect except for the failure of the left-hand dry air pump over
central Oklahoma. The Beech Baron was equipped with two pumps, so the pilot
continued to the destination as planned. The FBO at MKC is a Beech service
center, so the owner asked the shop to replace the failed pump while he and his
family attended a relative’s wedding.
The shop had a new 442CW pump in stock, and the Baron was closed up and ready to
go by the time the owner and his family arrived at the airport on Sunday to
depart for home. When the owner asked to pay for the work, he was told that the
invoice wouldn’t be ready until Monday when the shop’s secretary was back at
work. The owner left his credit card number, loaded his family into the
airplane, and took off.
$1,400 dry air pump?
$75 spacer?
$1,900 stall-warning switch?
$600 pressure switch? |
Days later, the owner received a copy of the maintenance invoice in the mail. He
was floored to find that the FBO had charged his credit card $1,400 for the air
pump plus nearly $400 for labor. A quick check on the Internet revealed that
manufacturer's list price for the 442CW pump is $1,090 and most parts
distributors sell it at a 25% discount from list ($817.50).
The Baron owner was not pleased. He contacted his credit card company to dispute
the charge, wrote a protest letter to the owner of the FBO, and posted some
choice comments to various Internet sites. But chances are he’ll wind up having
to foot the bill.
Absurd parts prices
On that same weekend, the owner of a Cessna 182 was working on the installation
of a new instrument panel. The flight instrument sub-panel is shock-mounted, and
the parts manual calls for seven 3/8”-diameter, 3/8”-long spacers (part number
NAS42HT6-19) between the shock mounts and the panel. The owner looked up this
part number and discovered that it was available only from Cessna, at a price of
$75.30 per spacer!
Floored at the prospect of spending more than $500 for seven little spacers, the
owner decided to search the Internet for lower-cost alternatives. Within
minutes, he located identical Mil-Spec spacers at hardware supplier
McMaster-Carr for 58 cents apiece.
Another Cessna 182 owner found during pre-flight that his aircraft’s stall
warning sensor was inoperative. Cessna’s price for a replacement sensor was more
than $1,900. A salvage yard offered to sell him a used sensor for $700. Further
investigation revealed that the problem with the sensor was a bad microswitch.
Cessna’s price for that switch was $400. The owner found an AMP part number
printed on the switch, and was able to purchase an identical AMP switch
from Newark Electronics for less than a dollar.
When exhausted, use...
Years ago, I was undergoing the annual ritual on my 1979 Cessna T310R. One of
the squawks was that the little annunciator light on the instrument panel that
indicates inflation of the tail deice boots was not coming on. A little
troubleshooting quickly revealed that the problem was a bad pressure-operated
switch in the tail cone of the airplane. When I removed the switch, it was
obvious that it was suffering from terminal corrosion and could not be saved.
I wrote down the part number of the pressure switch and looked it up in the
Cessna parts microfiche. The price was listed as $150, but the fiche indicated
that the part was no longer available, and showed a “WEU” (“when exhausted,
use”) followed by another part number. I looked up that part number, only to
find that its price was $300 but it too was no longer available, and showed
“WEU” followed by a third part number. I looked up that third part number and
found that it was available ... at a price of $600!
Since I knew that the deice system on my airplane was manufactured by B.F.
Goodrich, I decided to telephone BFG customer support to find out what the real
deal was with this switch. I wound up speaking to a BFG old-timer, who related
to me the entire history of that part. Turns out that the original part
installed on my airplane in 1979 was a modified automotive brake light switch
that cost BFG only a few dollars. However, in the wake of a few lawsuits, the
manufacturer of the brake light switch decided it no longer was willing to sell
its switches to BFG for aviation use. So BFG went to Hobbs and purchased a
modified oil-pressure switch (that was the $300 part). But after a few more
years, Hobbs decided it no longer was willing to sell its switch to BFG. So BFG
wound up having to buy a pressure switch from an aerospace firm (that was the
$600 part).
I then telephoned
Preferred Air Parts, a big
aircraft salvage yard in Ohio that specializes in twin Cessna parts. I gave them
the three different part numbers and asked them to check to see if they had any
available. A few minutes later, they called me back to say that they had one of
the original switches (the $150 part) in stock, used and in “as removed”
condition, and offered to sell it to me for $75. I bought it on the spot.
The switch arrived and looked every bit of 20 years old and a bit rough around
the edges. But I bench-tested it and it worked just fine. So I cleaned it up as
best I could, sprayed it with zinc chromate primer to protect it from corrosion,
and installed it in my airplane. That was ten years ago, and it’s still working
like a champ.
Just say no
Aircraft ownership is expensive enough without being victimized by absurdly
inflated parts prices. A little homework can save you big bucks. Here are some
basic guidelines:
- Never authorize a shop to replace a part or incur labor charges without first
obtaining a written estimate. Make sure the shop knows that they are not
authorized to exceed their estimate without first obtaining your explicit
approval. If there are any surprises, you want to know about them beforehand
(when you still have options), not afterwards (when you usually don’t). This
goes double or triple when you’re away from home and dealing with a shop or
mechanic you don’t know. Ironically, auto repair facilities are required by law
in most states to furnish such written estimates to the customer, but those laws
do not apply to aircraft repair facilities.
- Never pay list price for any expensive part. You can almost always get 20%
or 30% discount from list by shopping the Internet or Trade-A-Plane. Your shop
can often get 40% off, so if you prefer to purchase parts through them, ask them
to “split the difference” and give you a 20% discount from list.
- Check with salvage yards. Many owners think of salvage yards only when they
need to replace a wing or rudder, but they can be a wonderful resource for
smaller parts, too. If the part you need is one that doesn’t normally wear in
service, there’s no reason that a part removed from a salvaged airplane can’t be
just as serviceable and durable as new ... and a whole lot cheaper. As a general
rule, you can expect to pay one-third to one-half of new list price for an
as-removed part from a salvage yard.
- Buy standard parts from a non-aviation source whenever possible. Standard
electrical and electronic components (like that stall warning microswitch) are
usually a lot cheaper if you buy them from an electrical supply house like
Newark Electronics. Standard fasteners and similar hardware (like those steel
spacers) are usually a lot cheaper if you buy them from a hardware supplier like
McMaster-Carr. Why pay inflated aviation prices if you don’t have to? Just make
sure that the parts you’re buying are truly identical to the originals in form,
fit and function.
A savvy owner who does his homework can easily save thousands of dollars on
parts. In my weekend Savvy Owner Seminars, I spend hours on the subject of how
to save money on parts, but these four guidelines are some of the most
important.
| Do you have a maintenance-related
"war story" that you'd like to share with fellow
aircraft owners? If you do, I'd
love to hear from you. The most interesting stories
I receive each month will be rewarded with highly prized Savvy
Aviator coffee mugs, so please include your
shipping address. Also be sure to let me know if you'd like
me to "change the names to protect the innocent"
when sharing your story. |
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