Cost of Flying

Why do parts cost so much?

If your Piper PA-28-series aircraft "Runs Like a Deere," there may be a good reason. It has some of the same parts as a John Deere tractor. The alternator belt, for example, is common not only to the tractor and a PA- 28, but a Porsche and BMW. Yet the farmer and luxury-car owners pay $10.70 for their belts, while the Piper owner pays $32.50 (soon to increase to $33.66). How come?

Parts prices anger aircraft owners and discourage renters from buying their own set of wings. "Reading a few pages of a parts catalog should discourage anyone," says new pilot Gary R. Steiner, a commercial artist living in Denver. "I have no hope of ever owning my own plane." While Steiner is concerned about parts prices, he is even more amazed that fellow pilots shrug it off as "the cost of flying."

His concern grew from horror stories told by a Piper Navajo mechanic and his own experience helping to restore a friend's experimental aircraft. The Piper Navajo uses an aluminum tee joint (where three hoses join) that costs $98 from Piper but only $43 from an aircraft parts house. Looking into it further, he spotted a similar but sturdier stainless steel heater hose tee at an auto parts store for $10.42. Pilots risk safety, a $500 to $1,000 civil penalty, and the aircraft's airworthiness certificate by using unapproved parts. That said, the $10 auto part still peaked Steiner's curiosity. Granted, the auto part is either illegal, unsuitable or both. But if the auto industry can make a higher quality, similar part for $10, why should aircraft owners pay $100?

Steiner is not alone in his concern. Even those who work in the aviation maintenance business term parts prices "outrageous" or "exorbitant."

The parts mentioned below illustrate a variety of reasons given by manufacturers in recent interviews for high costs: Parts purchased in small quantities cost more; those out of production must be specially made; stringent inspection and paperwork requirements add to overhead; lack of competition allows manufacturers to charge higher prices; complex manufacturing processes mean higher costs; and, costs associated with product liability defense are rising dramatically.

Product liability costs have reached center stage in Congress, where the House is set to consider legislation later this month. A few years ago Safe Flight Instrument Corporation of White Plains, New York, told Beech Aircraft and others it was forced to increase prices on stall warning vanes due to rising product liability premiums. The vanes, called flappers, now cost nearly $700 for some single-engine Beech aircraft. Shaw Aero Devices of Fort Meyers, Florida, maker of gas caps for aircraft of all sizes, now spends 35 percent of its total corporate insurance budget on product liability coverage — double what it paid four years ago. The Timken Company of Canton, Ohio, found itself dominating the commercial aircraft landing gear bearing market after a product liability lawsuit in the early 1980s (not against Timken) helped scare off competitors. The Gates Rubber Company of Denver will not supply belts for applications critical to the safety of flight, except in one case where the aircraft manufacturer agreed to share the risk. Gates was sued a few years ago — in a case still pending — by a pilot injured in the crash of a homebuilt experimental aircraft. Teledyne Continental Motors President Bryan Lewis said the amount TCM pays for product liability costs in a year would provide for the recapitalization of much of the manufacturing floor or the cost of developing an advanced engine. Product liability insurance premiums grow so fast they negate the results of many new efforts to reduce costs, Lewis said.

The increase in parts prices has desparate fixed base operators and owners scrambling to find less expensive parts — if they can find them at all. As "The Miracles" sang in a 1960s rock song, you better shop around. That may be difficult, however, in the first example: a Cessna Hawk XP cowling.

Cowls and cables

In your wildest dreams, how much could a new engine cowling for a Hawk XP cost? Take a ridiculous guess and double it. Did you say $1,000? $5,000? $10,000? Nope, not crazy enough. The cowl comprises five parts: two upper halves, a lower cowl, and nose cap halves. Just the lower cowl alone is more than $8,600 — almost as much as an entire 172 Skyhawk nose cowl. No, the XP nose cowl costs $20,387 — twice the overhaul value of the engine it covers.

Cessna's Ron Chapman, vice president for parts distribution, admitted not even he would want to pay that. It turns out the cowling is not in stock because it is a low-demand item made only in response to an order. Cessna must take the tooling out of storage and set it up, an operation consuming several thousand dollars in itself. Perhaps, after going to all the trouble to set up the tooling, Cessna would make three or four and divide the cost among them, but that still doesn't dilute the price to a reasonable level. And Cessna must still make a profit.

Are there alternatives for owners who don't wish to pay the cost of a luxury car for an XP cowl? The best bet is to shop used. Generally the price is less than half the new price. A used cowling for a 1977 Skyhawk, for example, is $4,500 at Wentworth Aircraft in Minneapolis, a price that reflects an increase during the preparation of this article. Skyhawk cowlings are getting scarce.

Cessna, like other manufacturers, has high overhead costs. For example, 46,485 parts for propeller aircraft valued at $62 million are kept in inventory for models going back 50 years. (What if General Motors had to store parts for a 1944 Chevy?) The parts warehouse, located at the Pawnee plant near Wichita, is manned around the clock, seven days a week. That adds to the overhead.

Another example of the "made to order" problem comes from a set of battery-to-starter cables for a Cessna 182. Bogert Aviation in Prosser, Washington, manufactures and sells the set for $199, but the same set of cables is priced at $320.94 by Cessna. The majority of the Cessna price comes from just one of the seven cables, the "master contactor to starter solenoid." Why? That cable is "made to order" and costs $232 by itself, more than the entire set made by Bogert. Bogert's price is lower because the company has lower costs. The four people working there take orders in the morning and make the cables in the afternoon. "We don't have expensive overhead costs," Richard Bogert said.

Belts and filters

Now for the question posed earlier: Why should an alternator belt cost three times as much as an identical belt at an auto parts store just because it is approved for aviation?

Piper officials explain that they must meet Federal Aviation Administration requirements to inspect the belts, even though they were inspected rigorously by the manufacturer. That costs extra money. Also, Piper sells parts through distributors, so prices must be high enough to provide profits for both itself and the distributor.

Of the two belts photographed for this article, one was purchased at an auto parts store and the other was purchased through an aircraft parts house in the Midwest at triple the price. The only difference is that one arrived with the Piper parts number written on it in ballpoint. The belt from the auto store — which came in the identical box used for the aircraft part — is officially an "unapproved" part in the eyes of the FAA because it hasn't been through Piper's quality assurance program.

Piper has been asked by the FAA to begin marking the belts, so inspectors will be able to determine if they are approved. Interestingly, the belt purchased by AOPA Pilot through an official aircraft supply source — which came with a certificate of authenticity — turned out to be unapproved. The distributor has now removed the alternator belts from its shelves.

How do you find an approved belt for under $33? You don't. The price seems high, but includes the peace of mind that comes from knowing the belt has been through a quality assurance program, distributors said.

Not all parts have to receive an expensive blessing at the aircraft type certificate holder's plant, of course. Federal Aviation Regulation Part 21 allows for the manufacture of parts under a parts manufacturer approval (PMA) certificate. There are even parts that can be used off the shelf, such as bolts or nuts, "conforming to established industry or U.S. specifications," the FAA says. PMA manufacturers generally have lower prices than original equipment manufacturers.

How can PMAers do it? Less regulation is one reason, Cessna's Chapman said. He added he has no quarrel with PMA manufacturers; in fact, Cessna sells a lot of PMA-made parts. But the regulations give PMAers an advantage over Cessna, he indicated. "We might wish there was consistency in the regulations in approving a part," Chapman added. "The standards for the type certificate holder [Cessna] are rigorous. But [the requirement] for the PMA firm is identicality, period. There is no flight testing requirement."

Air filters for the PA-28 series offer an example of a PMA part with a lower price. The Piper price for a PA-28R-180 or -200 air filter is a sticker-shocking $80, while the price at Aviall in Dallas is $40. The filter — used on Piper aircraft and the 1957 Chrysler DeSoto V-8 — was once made by Fram but is now made by the Facet Filter Products Division of Purolator Products in Greensboro, North Carolina, under PMA authority. The price of a comparable Wix filter at an auto parts store is $8.92. Piper is now examining Wix filters to see if they are suitable for aircraft use, but will never be able to offer them for $8.92. The quantity Piper needs is so low that Wix may end up charging Piper $20 just to buy them wholesale. "We may not be able to afford to sell filters," a Piper official said.

The paper trail

Adding to the cost of all parts is the increasing demand by the FAA that there be a paper trail of documentation. The move is driven by several factors: the need to standardize with European parts regulations; demands for crackdowns on counterfeit airline and helicopter parts by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Department of Transportation inspector general; recent television network news documentaries about counterfeit airline parts; and, product liability concerns. Parts dealers are worried that millions of dollars of inventory on their shelves will become worthless because it lacks the proper paper trail. There are even FAA officials who think the new policy amounts to overkill. "Some [FAA regulators] are following a purist interpretation of the regulations," one FAA official said. "At any point in the processing of a piece of aluminum, they think you should be able to show the source clear back to the mine."

The gear handle boot

Beech Aircraft sells a leather cover for the V-tail Bonanza's manual-gear handle — little larger than a pitot cover — for $107. It is made by hand in a complex nine-step process, in low quantity, using expensive leather. By shopping around, a cheaper boot was found for $20 but was later discovered to lack proper PMA authorization from the FAA. Until the manufacturer receives it, there is no legal alternative to the $107 boot. Beech now makes a different handle cover with less expensive technology for newer Bonanzas. The cost has dropped to $18.70.

Electric motor brushes

It's not always low volume that is the culprit. Sometimes it is just pricing policy, like the brush for an older model Beech Bonanza electric landing gear motor. A brush is a chunk of carbon about the size of the tip of your little finger, with a spring attached to one end. Beech charges $76.75 for the brush. Owners complain they can buy them for less than $2 at an auto store (actually, they have to buy four at a time for $5). In fact, an auto parts store in Denver — part of a national chain — reports it has sold some for use in aircraft. At least one of those aircraft is a P- 51 classified as Experimental and therefore not required to use aviation- approved parts. The cheapest alternative found for the Beech brush was a factory-new brush costing about $30 from Teaero of North Hollywood, California. Beech declined to identify the price it pays its subcontractor, but it is believed to be close to $30. Again, better shop around to brush away high parts costs.

Landing gear bearings

It isn't always true that identical auto parts are cheaper than aircraft parts. Look at a Timken tapered bearing race — the part in which the bearings ride.

Timken tapered bearing race number 29710 costs $5.76 at Yingling Aircraft, a national distributor for Cessna parts in Wichita, and $10.20 at a NAPA Auto Parts store 10 miles away. (However, Beech prices the part at $16.) This part has an interesting genealogy. There are actually three Timken bearings with part number 29710, it turns out. The least expensive is the one now used by Cessna, Beech, and other light aircraft manufacturers; the second, called a "629 code," is intended for aircraft and costs about $6.50 but is not yet in wide use by general aviation manufacturers; the third — which costs about $15 — is intended for precision machine tools and printing presses. Timken is now encouraging the use of the aircraft version in the general aviation industry, which means prices are going to go up slightly. The "629 code" bearings are made to tighter standards and receive a higher level of inspection, Timken officials said. So for a few extra cents, you get a more reliable part.

Cessna's Chapman offered another example of a part that costs more for a car than an airplane. A Sanden International air conditioning compressor used in the Cessna 402, 404, and some Citation models, is $361, but the same compressor in a Mazda 929 luxury car is $1,600, according to a Mazda dealer in Frederick, Maryland. Asked why, the dealer said, "It's a $30,000 car."

Seat belts

Seat belts offer an example of parts prices that are moving in the right direction. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Beech offered kits for adding shoulder belts to the pilot and copilot seats in older aircraft that were not originally required to have them. The cost of a typical kit for a Baron, for example, was once more than $2,500. To encourage owners to install them, Beech offered the kits with a 30-percent rebate in 1990. Once the rebate expired in 1992, Beech continued the lower price at $1,800.

Heated windscreens

The owner of a Cessna 310 was shocked to discover that a "hot patch," a heated deicing panel — approximately 6 x 20 inches and placed on the outside of the windscreen — would cost $7,975. Actually, he was lucky he didn't own a Piper Navajo, for which a heated windscreen costs $9,620. Both are made at the aircraft products division of PPG Industries in Huntsville, Alabama. PPG officials cited two reasons for the high cost: low-volume sales to aircraft manufacturers and an expensive, labor- intensive manufacturing process. PPG considers a large order to be 50 windscreens a month, but Piper requires only 12 Navajo windscreens a year. Owners have few alternatives to paying the high price. Used ones are available, but one owner says older windscreens he has purchased are prone to delamination.

Engine parts

A revolution is under way in engine parts pricing that directly benefits engine overhaul shops and, indirectly, the aircraft owner. That benefit, lower prices, also has a downside, however: Lower profits mean less money for research on more efficient engines.

Superior Air Parts got into the engine parts business during the heyday of general aviation: 17,500 new aircraft were manufactured each year and they all needed new engines. Spare parts were only a small part of the engine manufacturers' profits. But when the sale of new aircraft went downhill in the 1980s, engine companies looked to parts sales as a source of new profits.

"Only they found Superior already there," recalls Superior President and Chief Executive Officer David J. Sisson, "so they did the all-American thing: They sued Superior, and Superior sued back." The lawsuits, which covered restraint of trade, patent infringement and other topics, were eventually settled out of court. But that wasn't the end of the battle between Superior and the engine manufacturers.

"In the mid-1980s, Lycoming lowered prices on just the parts we made by 30 percent. We followed them." Sisson said. "I call it the great Lycoming price war. Finally, in 1990 somebody blinked, and prices rose. We stayed right under them. But current prices are still below those charged in 1985."

Just two years ago, Superior started making cylinders for the O- 200 and O-235 engines. As a result, prices charged by the engine manufacturers dropped to half those listed when Superior first offered the cylinders. Merely the announcement by Superior that it would offer cylinders for the Continental 520, and the Lycoming 360 and 540 engines, was enough to cause Continental and Lycoming cylinder prices to drop 40 percent, Sisson said. The cylinders will be offered by Superior later this year. Superior itself now has competition with the formation of Aircraft Technology Corporation by Chuck Dedmon, former president of Superior.

According to Continental, however, the company was able to reduce cylinder prices on its 520 series and other engines by 45 percent after streamlining the manufacturing process. That occurred at a time when there was no competition for the part, TCM's Lewis said. Continental expects the new system will also reduce costs for crankshafts and crankcases. TCM has also installed a new computer system designed to save the company money while improving product support to distributors, owners and FBOs.

Lycoming officials said they face a constant battle just to keep prices on raw material and parts from increasing. Because Lycoming no longer buys parts and components in the quantities seen during the late 1970s, the company does not qualify for discounts offered on larger orders. There is progress to report, however. Lycoming changed the brand of magnetos it uses on many of its engines, resulting in a $500 savings.

Companies doing something

Dave Jacobson, general parts and service manager for Beech, said Beech has completed a review of 4,700 slower-selling parts and found most of them could be reduced in price. In April, Beech reviewed 2,000 better-selling parts; more reductions are expected. In the past, Beech has routinely reviewed parts costs every spring and fall; in the history of those reviews, nearly all resulted in price increases until now.

Learjet has instituted a similar program for out-of-production aircraft parts and has lowered 300 prices over the past two years, product support logistics director Larry E. Sherrill said. In some cases, Learjet has decided to sell these rare high-cost, low-volume parts at or below cost to keep the customer happy, he said.

Cessna has lowered prices on windscreens for single-engine aircraft 30 percent over the past three years, Chapman said. Additionally, the manufacturing process for exhaust components was simplified to reduce costs 20 percent. Cessna also standardized its control cables, eliminating some parts numbers in the process, and decreased prices 20 percent.

Cheyenne owners who need a rubber windscreen wiper blade find they must also buy the metal holder that goes with it, raising the total cost to $266. All they want is a rubber blade similar to the $5 rubber refill used by trucks. Piper is now working with the vendor to offer only the rubber refill, Piper official Susie L. Stringfellow said.

The willingness of manufacturers to initiate parts price reviews bodes well for future aircraft owners. In the meantime, shopping for less expensive parts may offer relief from high prices. Check with the repair shop before buying your own parts, however. Shops may refuse to install them, either because they suspect the quality of the parts or because they depend on parts sales to survive. But when parts prices get to be 100 to 500 percent out of line, consider the advice of The Miracles.