Years like the just past one make one doubt one’s sanity about aircraft ownership.

This year, GXRP has been grounded, undergoing maintenance, for a record amount of time. The list of events was like this:

month	reason	downtime
January	bad magneto again	1 week
February	leaky fuel bowls	1 day
May	50hr + avionics upgrade	3 weeks
May	heater fuel valve crack	1 day
June	nose oleo flat	1 week
June	50hr	1 day
July	bad magneto again	1 day
August	magneto overhauls	3 weeks
September	annual inspection, propeller overhauls	4 weeks
October	right alternator overhaul	1 week
December	50hr	1 day
December	left alternator overhaul	2 weeks
December	cylinder ignition problem	2 weeks

The grand total, in terms of downtime, was 18 weeks out of 52, many of which were around prime flying season in late summer and early winter. The grand total, in terms of cost, was entirely too high to quantify and archive here. Only about a third of that time was discretionary. About half of it was related to what might be called “collateral damage” during prior maintenance, i.e., stuff that became more broken than it was. The rest was due to parts simply wearing out.

I hope 2006 will be better, and I don’t have to frequently answer people who ask … “no, the plane is still down …”. Perhaps I will move to another town & airport, where I can have timely attention of local mechanics. That would have made about a month’s difference of extra uptime.