Small airplanes are super expensive, but still much less useful than pre-coronapanic

by philg

Light airplanes are still at near-historic values, at least in nominal dollars, which seems paradoxical given that their utility for transportation has been greatly reduced by Americans refraining from work. Airplanes, with their 1950s technology and low production numbers, require a lot more labor than our typical mechanical gizmo.

March 31: I have a client in my shop, G6 SR22T, with a cracked cylinder. We’ve been waiting over a month for a cylinder to become available. Does anyone have one?

March 13: Asking for help. Have an aircraft on ground needing a new cylinder. IO-550 2014 SR22T. Does anyone in the metaverse have a cylinder in the real world we can buy? Service center not promising lead time. Thanks

March 17: Grounded 2 months waiting for Line Cutters from Cirrus for my 2010 G3 SR22. Anyone know other sources to get them from? Part #25347-002 [see also “First Engine, Then Parachute Failed In Cirrus Incident” (AVweb, March 30, 2023)

March 28: I’ve owned a Cirrus SR20 (2007 G2) for about a year now and got my ppl and about 200 hours so far. .. In Feb my shop found a crack on the NLG [nose landing gear] strut and ordered a new part for it from cirrus (2-3 month wait), fixing/welding it isn’t an option because Cirrus wont release the engineering drawings. Now, during annual they found NLG puck issues, which are on a 6-8 month back order.

May 1: My Cirrus is based in southwest Florida and was damaged in hurricane Ian inside a hangar. I waited 6 months for Cirrus to come up with an engineering report to tell the service center how to repair the aircraft. Now they are telling me it’s going to take five months to get a new elevator. I could have told them I was going to need a new elevator the day after the hurricane. My Cirrus is going to be out of service for a year. Just wondering how many other pilots are out there who spent a lot of money on a Cirrus and can’t get the company to support the planes already in the field. Seems like all their efforts are in selling new planes and not supporting customers. Right now all I have is a very expensive paperweight.

Separately, here’s something that you don’t want to see during your preflight inspection…. (Pompano Beach, Florida (KPMP), May 3, 2023)

When do people say, “If the airplane is at risk of being grounded for 6-12 months by what used to be a minor problem, I’m not willing to pay $900,000 for a used one, plus $50,000 per year in hangar, insurance, inspections, etc.”?

(Of course, turbine-powered planes always cost a lot to buy and maintain, but the manufacturers were typically fanatical about trying to ensure parts and service availability so as to minimize downtime.)

11 thoughts on “Small airplanes are super expensive, but still much less useful than pre-coronapanic”

  1. Most parts seem impossible to get. Ordered a new Hartzell Prop in August 2022, took until December to get it. I was originally quoted February.

  3. Maybe this is specific to Cirrus, and other fancy and high-performance planes and not a general problem? I have had a variety of issues with my PA28 over the past 3 years but have always been able to get parts in a relatively timely manner. Either the parts have been available new, or there is some guy who is able to rebuild the old part, or you can scavenge the part from a permanently grounded member of the 60-year old fleet.

    Or maybe I have just gotten lucky!

    • Nope. Drop by BeechTalk and you’ll see the same problems with supply of cylinders, crankshafts, avionics, and assorted random parts for Bonanzas and Barons.

  4. I was considering SR22T as my second one… now I have second thoughts.

    (A propos… this reminds me of situation with Jandy/Zodiac pool equipment parts after the Big Freeze on TX… I now avoid them if I can in favor of Pentair.)

  5. Living in south east Fl*rida & driving to south west Fl*rida to fly the SR-20 sounds insane.

  6. I’ve never owned a plane or a helicopter and I know there are so many aspects to it, but the replacement parts situation and the rock-and-hardplace it puts people in is a disgrace. There is no simple excuse for this that I can buy, particularly when this kind of money is what we’re talking about, not to mention the time and reputational value of the enthusiasts.

    • Recently bought another plane in February. I still have not seen it in person. I am getting some work done on it and it’s been in the shop for 4 months. It will likely be there for a few more months before it is delivered to me. This plane has no practical application and is just for fun. I think that’s why it takes so long. If it was a revenue generating airplane like a 737 it would be fixed by now. Remember to practice gun control!

  7. It’s not just piston-peasants who are affected by this inflation madness, it’s crept up into jets too. Controller.com has a 2017 680A Latitude listed for $17M; in 2017 that jet likely sold for rand new for $16M. Pre-pandemic that was a $11M jet.

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