Hours for basic annual?

[JAG]

I think if you can get an annual done in 45 hours, you are getting a fair deal. While I do not know the Skymaster as well, 25 years doing annuals on my aircraft, I would guess that an average time to do a good annual on my single engine aircraft ran around 30 hours (doing it myself) - and that is after years of doing them and knowing the aircraft front to back. Given the complexity of the Skymaster (Retract tests, 2 engines, More panels and interior, etc) - I would think 60 to 80 hours is about right to do a solid inspection at a proper shop.

Don't confuse the price with the man-hours, as many people that have posted the < $2k annuals are doing some of the work in conjunction with an IA, thus saving a bunch of money with their own time.

BTW - I am coming up to the end of an annual inspection on my Skymaster that had likely had the "minimal" annual inspections done for the past 10 years, and I am already 15 months into it (approximately 1000 man-hrs)...I do not want to tell you how much money I have spent. Of course I am doing lots of upgrades at the same time, but the maintenance neglect had certainly taken it's toll - most of which I could not pick up on the pre-buy inspection. Just one example - the shimmy dampener had a leak. Instead of removing it and resealing it, they kept adding fluid until the nose wheel would shimmy again, then top it up again. Sounds logical, right - that damn thing is tough to remove and reinstall. Bad logic...they obviously had some major shimmy at some points, and it caused over $4500 damage to parts in the nose gear and steering system, not to mention a lot of labor to remove the gear, do sheet metal work, and re-installation and rigging.

I think of the annual as the investment to maintain the value and safety of my aircraft - not just an added expense.

Jeff