Wow, 40 hours.... I am not a mechanic but I can remove one wing tank in about an hour. If you had all the material, hoses, corrosion treatment etc. on hand, probably thirty minutes max, then reinstall the tank. One person takes about an hour. Two people could knock it out faster. Maybe you should get with your mechanic or a mechanic on the field and see if he will let you do some of the work, i.e. removing the tank. The fun part is when the screw heads round out. I used a small vise grip pliers on the stubborn ones and was able to remove every one that way. There are other post that give several options for removing the stubborn screws. That could add some time but surely not 40 hours.
I thought it was very ridiculus. This particular shop claims to be big on twin pipers - Lake City, FL. I was hoping to find people with experience to do the work, but these guys clearly don't want it.
I am still trying to find anyone who has done the work who knows what a shop should reasonably charge in terms of hours.
Another shop made an off the hip guess at 8 hours for SB 1006, but they clearly had no idea what SB 1006 was all about - they said they would look it up. I guess they think they can figure it out in 8 hours. Even that seems long to me.
BTW - Airward has an SB1006 kit that has everything needed for about $200
Sooo...
My '76 Archer had the SB1006/646A performed in 1998.
I think the recommendation is for every 7 years so it would be past due by a year now for the second go around.
My gut feeling is that this is probably not indicated given that the plane lives (has always lived) in a very dry climate and has been hangared most of it's life.
> My gut feeling is that this is probably not indicated
> given that the plane lives (has always lived) in a very
> dry climate and has been hangared most of it's life.
I'd agree with that, especially if you did it the last time.
