How long do your annuals take?

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michael.g.miller
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How long do your annuals take?

Post by michael.g.miller »

I have a DA42NG, and have found my annuals take at least 2 weeks end-to-end (including squawks, etc.). It seems that, at least historically, the shops I've used have been significantly understaffed.

Is this typical? My preference would be to do the annual in a week (as I bring it over from to the mainland from Puerto Rico), but not sure if it's possible at any US shop.
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by yl472401 »

To make you feel better, my da42 NG has been in the shop since end of -April.
It’s probably better to have the shop to take a look at the logbook and pre-order those parts that are need to be replaced instead of waiting and wasting time and good weather and have the aircraft sit in the shop .


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mhoran
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by mhoran »

Apparently it's possible to get a DA40 annual done in a day: https://diamondaviators.net/forum/viewt ... 669#p96669.

Personally I've never gotten my plane back in less than two weeks, and a month is average. I've had similar experiences with shops being understaffed.

Reviewing the logbooks ahead of time and preordering parts (as was done in the thread above) would make sense, but the aforementioned staffing issues prevent that from happening.
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by gyro3816 »

Annuals for my 2008 XLS take 3days. 1 extra day if IFR certs are due. Maybe its time to find a new shop ?
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Colin
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by Colin »

I have had my mechanic pre-order the parts that he knows he will be replacing. In one case he had me pre-order a gearbox (two?) because he knew they would be due by the *next* annual and they were set to go up in price 15%.

Good mechanics with sufficient staff are really difficult to find.
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by michael.g.miller »

Colin wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 5:26 pm I have had my mechanic pre-order the parts that he knows he will be replacing. In one case he had me pre-order a gearbox (two?) because he knew they would be due by the *next* annual and they were set to go up in price 15%.

Good mechanics with sufficient staff are really difficult to find.
Did pre-ordering help with the timing of your annual from drop-off to pick-up?
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Colin
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by Colin »

Did pre-ordering help with the timing of your annual from drop-off to pick-up?
Hugely. There were landing gear seals one year, there's always an oil change kit. All of those things can get delayed and then the airplane sits. One year I did the control rod roller SB, or whatever it was. They got those parts all ahead of time.
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by michael.g.miller »

Colin wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 5:29 pm
Did pre-ordering help with the timing of your annual from drop-off to pick-up?
Hugely. There were landing gear seals one year, there's always an oil change kit. All of those things can get delayed and then the airplane sits. One year I did the control rod roller SB, or whatever it was. They got those parts all ahead of time.
How many days did it take from drop-off until your bird was signed off?
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by Chris »

My last DA42NG annual at KFTW was a week and two days. They started it on Monday, Jan 9th and had it done by Wednesday, Jan 18th. I dropped it off the Friday before and picked it up the day after, so it was down there for almost two weeks. However, the extra padding was mostly due to my schedule availability and weather.

That also included a couple of extra tasks (replacing door locks, upgrading USB ports), but there thankfully weren't any big items due this year. I was pleased with the turn-around time compared to prior years elsewhere.
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Re: How long do your annuals take?

Post by MarkA »

This year I dropped my DA40 XLS off Sunday afternoon and the annual was done by the end of the day on Wednesday.

This was a first for me in that all my previous annuals have been 2 weeks or more (sometimes much more :( ). As always, I pre-order and provide all the parts that are expected to be needed. The only thing out of the ordinary this year was I had the extra fuel line fire sleeve described in RSB 40-094 REV. 1 installed.
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