October was the best

Oh, the irony. October will be N194SP’s last full month on the line at Trade Winds Aviation. It was also the best month the aircraft has had yet. For the first time in the eleven months on the line, it turned a profit for the month. Not a lot: about $600. And it’s a long way from digging the plane out of the hole. But I’ll take it!

The hours on the craft were good. 45 Hobbs hours were flown, though about 3 were not charged out of that due to maintenance and flight school use. Very little went wrong, either. The only maintenance to the aircraft was one hour of labor, split between readjusting the engine for the winter and connecting a plug that had fallen out the back of the CDI.

Even I got to fly N194SP! A couple coworkers and I took a great flight out to Columbia Airport (O22) and enjoyed lunch in the town. A hefty 5.3 hours of flying was a great way to spend the day. We even got a chance to see a Ford Tri-Motor fly out of San Carlos.

Advertisement

January was slow

Poor weather seriously affected the number of hours N194SP flew in January. At only 17.4 Hobbs hours (12.4 on the tach), it wasn’t enough to overcome the fixed costs of keeping the aircraft at Trade Winds. I owed them $370, resulting a total loss for the month of about $2300. So far, not a great start to this leaseback thing. However, that was a known risk. The combination of having a plane to work bugs out of and winter weather meant a loss in this business.

February is liable to be slow due to the Superbowl TFRs, continued wet weather, and a short month. Additionally, I’m coming up on the 100-hour inspection, which will pull the plane down for three days at a minimum. It may happen in February or it may happen in early March. It’ll also be at that time that the plane will get a new vertical card compass and have the seat upholstery fixed!

In the maintenance side of things, the aircraft was actually quite reliable. I’ve updated the squawks page with the newest items. Basically, the flatspotted tire continues its saga, with the other tire now replaced. Pricing has gotten better, so this only ran $240 including labor, which is a nice improvement over last month’s $295.

Wheel bearings on this ex-Florida plane continue to be a problem. Both the nose and the remaining main gear bearings were replaced. This should end the mess with wheel bearings, as this means all new bearings at every location in landing gear. $575 corrects this problem for the foreseeable future.

The rest of the items were very small. The compass card become unreadable and was replaced. The AI needed a tweak to level it. The pedestal lamp bulb burned out. All that was less than $50. It consumed only one quart of oil at $6.50/qt.

The plane consumed fuel at the rate of about 11 gallons per tach hour. Sadly, I didn’t fly the plane myself for even one hour. I’m correcting that in February, as I already have a Valentine’s flight set up with my wife.

First month on the line

Wow, 2015 is done and N194SP has had it’s first full month on the line at Trade Winds. I just got my first ever statement from the club. Surprises were included, some good, some bad. I updated the squawks page with what I learned.

After all was said and done, I got a check for $141. I estimate that means I actually lost about $1850 this month, as I have about $2000 in other expenses that Trade Winds does not pay. This wasn’t unexpected. The first couple months will be losses as I deal with bringing the plane up to full-time rental spec.

The plane flew 49 hours in December. Unfortunately, 7.1 of those hours weren’t profit generating. 0.1 was maintenance and 7 was my flying for the month. I estimate I need 50 hours of income flight to break even, so it wasn’t a great month. That was expected, as the students needed to get familiar with the new plane. Most have favorites and they all cost the same, so I’m guessing January will be better. 22 pilots took 29 flights.

Maintenance held some surprises. I knew about several of the higher dollar items on the list, but the blown left tire was news to me. Apparently it blew on the runway, probably on landing. Upon disassembly, it was discovered that the wheel bearing was dry. So far, I’m less than impressed with the quality of service that Bender Aviation in Clearwater, Florida provided this plane before I owned it. Fortunately, Tom here at Trade Winds is being much more complete, and all these problems are falling by the wayside, one by one. Lots of dollars attached, but still, going away. The tire is new now, the tube is new now, and the wheel bearing is new and well lubed.

In addition to the wheel bearing, Bender should also have caught a fuel line that was bent tighter than AD2015-19-07 allowed. They should have caught the intake leak on the #4 cylinder. They should have caught the dry jackscrew on the co-pilot’s seat adjustment. I’ll give them a pass on the fuel injector, as that wasn’t showing any symptoms when I got the plane. All of that is corrected now, but it cost me $1400 that I should not have had to deal with. The joys of plane ownership!

I was also surprised by the insurance. $570 per month is steeper than I was anticipating. I’ve got an email in to Walt asking if this was an anomaly because it’s my first month. The $110 tie down was expected, and the $145 for detailing was also expected. Maintenance, at $2850, was a bit higher than expected, but not by too much.

Next month will be the first 100-hour inspection. I expect the MX to be high again in January. Let’s see what happens!