Choosing A Refurb Shop
The selection process for a refurb shop is nearly identical to that of choosing a good maintenance shop-finding a facility that is professional, will give estimates for all work, won’t do any work without your approval and will do the refurb process in partnership with you, the aircraft owner.
We began our occasional series on aircraft refurbs last month with an article discussing the benefits and costs. There were twin bottom lines:
- Buying a refurbed airplane may be a way of stepping into what amounts to the performance and equipment of a new airplane for half or two-thirds of the cost of new.
- The need to recognize that the value of refurbing your current airplane is to upgrade and update it for the particular flying you do because you are going to hold on to it for at last five years-you won't recover the costs involved if you turn around and sell it right away.
If refurbishing your airplane makes sense for you, the next question becomes selecting a shop to do the work-how do you make the choice? We're certainly aware of aviation maintenance horror stories, the one-week annual that takes six months with a bill high enough to induce cardiac arrest or the engine that goes out for overhaul and comes back little better than a boat anchor.
The selection process for a refurb shop is nearly identical to that of choosing a good maintenance shop-finding a facility that is professional, will give estimates for all work, won't do any work without your approval and will do the refurb process in partnership with you, the aircraft owner.
To begin with, so far there are no refurb outfits that have an assembly line to bring in airplanes, methodically strip them down and then rebuild them from the bare aluminum outward as Henry Ford did for a little while with old Model Ts. It may be a way to bring down the cost of refurbs and it appears that some operations are targeting that goal, notably Redbird with its RedHawk and Sporty's 172LITE. For now, the process still involves a lot of custom work, so you're going to be closely involved with the shop. Don't expect to just drop off your airplane today, go on vacation for a month and come back to a refurbed bird.
Plan On a Partnership
Getting what you want in an upgraded airplane means working together with the shop. To start with, FAR 91.403 makes you, the aircraft owner, ultimately responsible for the maintenance of your airplane even though the maintenance technicians in the refurb shop put their careers on the line with their logbook signatures. To make things work, you and the shop need to know what the other is doing and have a good working relationship.
As you search, look for shops that have been doing refurbs on the type of airplane you own. That may sound so obvious as to be trivial, but we see owners forget that guidance and pay for a shop's learning curve on an unfamiliar type. Shops that have been refurbing Piper Saratogas beautifully aren't necessarily knowledgeable about the systems of your Mooney 231. There really are different design philosophies between aircraft manufacturers.
Talk With Prospects
At the very least, have an involved telephone conversation with the person running each shop you are considering-if possible make that conversation face-to-face. Plan on talking about communication, experience, written estimates, scheduling, your presence on the floor during work, prices and training while paying attention to her or his willingness to work with you.
Communication
We consider open communication with a refurb shop before and during the work is essential-in our opinion, the majority of serious problems between owners and shops that arise can be traced to lousy communication. If a refurb shop tells you that it will take the airplane and call you when it's done-run away. Fast.
The reality of a refurb is that the initial cost estimate will have to be revised once the airplane is completely opened up and its true condition-and the extent of the work needed-is determined. At the least, figure that there is going to be hidden corrosion uncovered as well as wiring nightmares to be untangled.
A professional refurb outfit will give you an initial estimate, in writing, with the understanding that it will be subject to change after the airplane's vitals are exposed. At that point it will give you a full list of repairs needed with a revised estimate for the work and get your approval before doing any of it.
In our opinion, written estimates and approvals for all work (electronically is fine) are basic elements of a successful refurb. If a shop won't agree to such a practice, we consider it a deal breaker.
A responsible refurb shop will never surprise you with a bill. The shop will have told you what is coming and you will have approved the work and the estimate, in writing, ahead of time.
Because a refurb may take months, the shop should be willing to provide you with regular updates on progress-we think at least weekly. While telephone calls seem fast, they usually take longer than email-good shops know this and will send you updates via email. Also, having a written record helps you track what is going on more easily than trying to recall a telephone conversation of six weeks ago.
Experience
Find out what work the refurb shop has done on airplanes similar to yours. Talk with customers who've had work done on their airplanes. If your airplane is going to be guinea pig for the shop, make sure you know it and go into the process with your eyes open.
Owner-Friendly
Your refurb shop may be some distance from you. If you spend the money to travel to the shop to see how things are going during what may be a several month refurb, we think you should be welcomed and given a full update on what's happening. By the same token, your visit will require a technician to spend time with you, so you should be willing to pay for that time.
Logbooks
As with any maintenance performed on your airplane, we strongly recommend not leaving the aircraft logbooks with the shop. To start with, if they are lost or stolen, the value of the airplane drops from 10 to 20 percent. You should make electronic copies of the logbooks and lock up the originals. There is no legal requirement for the refurb shop to ever see the originals-and it's easy to provide an electronic copy. Once the work is done, the shop makes the needed logbook entries on stickers and gives them to you. You then stick them in the original logbooks and update the electronic copy.
If the prospective refurb shop has a problem with such an approach, we consider it to be a red flag. We've seen too many problems generated because of lost logbooks or shops that have held them hostage over a disagreement over a bill.
Prices
All prices should be made clear to you up front. A cheap initial estimate isn't necessarily going to be the cheapest completed cost. Make sure you know what the hourly shop rate is for technicians and that you get a new estimate once the airplane is opened up and its ills revealed. Yes, we said that before, and we weren't kidding.
A refurb is a big deal, so plan on being required to make progress payments of some sort-the shop can't afford to front all of the money for wages and parts. However, never, ever pay 100 percent of the estimate up front, even if a substantial discount is offered. In aviation, that's almost a guarantee that the work will take forever to get done-there is no incentive for the shop to finish.
We prefer some schedule of progress payments of 50 to 60 percent of the price with the balance due upon completion, training on the new equipment and your acceptance of the airplane.
Do not be surprised if the shop will not release the airplane to you until you have paid in full. It's the mark of a professional refurb shop-besides, they are not in the business of making loans.
Convenience
How flexible will the shop be in scheduling the work to be done? Will it be able to work on it continuously? You don't want your airplane shoved to the side to be worked on between other customer work. That's where paying the last 40 to 50 percent of the price on acceptance helps keep work moving.
Training
If your refurb just consists of a new paint job, ignore this section. However, most refurbs we've seen involve significant avionics and autopilot upgrades. Even if you have viewed all the training videos, you aren't going to be able to step into your airplane and fly away with any level of safety, not to mention even coming close to being able to using the full capabilities of the systems. The integration of the new avionics into your airframe will have unique characteristics that you'll need to learn and understand. If you've had the full King Katmai STOL conversion/refurb of your Cessna 182, learning to use the stunning new takeoff and landing performance is going to require some dual.
We are of the opinion that part of the price of a refurb should include training to proficiency for you. That doesn't mean flying home and having your local CFI go shoot some approaches with you, it means training by someone connected with the refurb shop who has full knowledge of the upgrades to your airplane. That means two things: the cost of training should be an element in the pricing of the refurb package and you should plan on a minimum of several days at the shop, after the work is done to get trained.
Don't ever think you are going to show up and fly away at the end of the refurb. In addition to the training you're going to need, the odds are that some things aren't going to work right and there are going to be some fixes needed. The cost for those is on the shop-and smart shops will incorporate a factor for the shakedown fixes into the price of the overall refurb. That effectively turns your training into a series of flights that ultimately result in you accepting the finished airplane after you have checked every system and capability to assure it works and you understand it.
We think that if your prospective refurb shop does not include arrangements for training and shakedown, it's time to move on to another shop.
Warranty
There is currently no standard for warranties in the refurb biz. We are of the opinion that because of what may be extensive work-often more expensive than the current value of the airplane-that a warranty of a minimum of six months should be offered. We also think that there should be a clear understanding as to how it will be administered, especially if you live 500 miles from the shop and can't reasonably be expected to fly the airplane back for warranty work.
Conclusion
We think aircraft refurbs offer substantial value for an owner who desires to greatly upgrade his or her ride but can't afford to buy new. However, the quid pro quo for the cost savings means that the owner has to be willing to be invest the time in selecting and working with the refurb shop. We think open and honest communication between owner and shop is essential to a successful refurb. When selecting a shop, chose one that understands the partnership between you and the shop, gives written estimates and gets approval before doing any work, has experience with your type of airplane and is willing to train you in the upgrades that are made to it.
Rick Durden is an aviation attorney who as seen more disputes between aircraft owners and shops than he likes to think about and is the author of The Thinking Pilot's Flight Manual or, How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It, Vol. I. Volume 2 is due out soon.