Mike Hotel Annual Reconciliation

For the sake of posterity, here's the breakdown of what we spent for the first annual of Mike Hotel:

• Replacement gascolator: $240
• Replacement fuel pump and strobe power supply: $660
• Second replacement fuel pump: $240 (but we got a credit for that, so it's a wash)
• Mechanic's time, plus oil and air filters and new oil: $888.

So, that's $1788 for the annual. Overall, probably not too bad considering this was our first annual of a complex aircraft. Certainly there are more systems than in a 172, the annuals for which we had down to a virtual science.

What made the annual of Mike Hotel a bit of a bitter pill to swallow was that we also had the ELT serviced in the same month ($95) and the standby electric attitude indicator installed ($200). Combined with the alternator replacement last month (total cost of $600, mostly because we had to have someone fly it in the same day), it's been an expensive couple months, aviation-wise.

Thankfully, winter's here, so the decreased flight time should give our wallets some breathing room.