Parts Prices

[Pinecone]

What makes the part below be over $600????   

The rod end is $35 for one from Aircraft Spruce.  The clevis is about $20.  The tubing, $2 - 3.   Time?  Maybe 30 minutes to fabricate.

BTW, it is an adjustable brake link.  It seems that my plane has the 3" extensions, but the wrong, non-adjustable, links.

The knobs are a bit better.  One is from Mooney.  One from Mouser based on the part number in the IPC.   But the Mouser one was $5 plus $10 for 2nd day.  The Mooney one was $10 (not bad, but double), but $50 for 2nd day shipping.  It seems Mooney does not have a shipping contract with anyone, that is more than if I ship it from my local UPS store.

 

[PT20J]

Sounds like you have never worked in a manufacturing environment. 

Somebody has to take the order. Someone has to schedule it into the production flow. Someone has to pull the drawing. Someone has to pull the parts from stock. A machinist and a welder are likely involved to make the part. Someone has to paint the part. Someone has to inspect the part and make sure it conforms to the drawing. Someone has to package it and ship it. There is record keeping involved. There is shipping cost. Mooney has to make a profit. Mooney only sells parts through MSCs and they have to mark it up. There is a lot of labor in there and it is good old USA labor that even in West Texas is a lot more expensive than Chinese labor. They're cheaper each if you are making 200 of them, but nowadays Mooney is probably making parts to order. They would probably love to make 10 and have nine for stock and ship one, but they probably don't have the cash to do so. No one but Jonny knows how many bills the previous owners left unpaid on his desk. 

In the grand scheme of airplane ownership $600 isn't much and I suggest that we all suck it up a bit and buy stuff from Mooney to help them out. If they go completely dark, it will get hard to get some parts which are not so easily owner produced. 

BTW, Mooney is not the worst. My A&P recently was quoted TWENTY THOUSAND dollars by Beech to make a throttle cable for a Sundowner. He ended up having McFarlane make one. 

Skip

[carusoam]

The cool thing is…

When you have worked in machine manufacturing…

You know all the parts you didn’t build in house…. Or at a subcontractor…

are available on the shelf… somewhere….

 

As a ‘lazy’ manufacturer… you put a label over the oem’s part number with your part number on it… 

If you are less lazy and manufacture thousands of machines… you have parts made and printed with your part number on it already….

Doing this unwisely… like with small air filters used with the avionics vacuum system…

You get your wacky pricing strategy… exposed to the world to see…

Everybody replaces the same filter often, and has peeled back the label…. Everybody knows the source…

Chance of continuing to sell it at wacky prices diminishes…

 

Places like MS can help make the pricing strategy get a bit stronger… and more logical…

Places like Mouser can help keep parts from collecting dust for decades…

 

It is tough buying NOS parts….. you wonder if they will fall apart from age…

Best regards,

-a-

[Guest]

Time to build an RV10.  A couple hundred thousand in parts and a few hundred thousand in labour, (albeit your own) spread over 5-10 years and after that all the cheap parts you can afford to buy from the retirement home.

 

[67 m20F chump]

For the parts price of an RV-10 I could buy a Bravo and save years of my time building.  I have never been able to talk myself into building a plane.

[Pinecone]

I am all for supporting Mooney.  And I did order the part through an MSC from Mooney.

And yes, I have been around manufacturing, but still.....

 

[PT20J]

When I was volunteering at the museum, we bought parts for our P-51B from Cal Pacific Airmotive. Cal Pacific is similar to Mooney in that they are supporting a relatively small fleet of an out of production airplane. Cal Pacific owns the P-51  type and production certificates, so they can make whatever part you need. But they aren’t cheap. If Mooney ends up just being a parts and service business, I would expect parts to remain pricey. 

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[Marc_B]

It would be nice if Mooney had a way to say "hey everyone, we're making a batch run of X & Y, so get your orders in if you need or anticipate needing in the next year."  I wonder if there would be enough orders to have a staging strategy to parts...you need to order and pay (to give capital up front), but have a list of what they intend to crank out in the next year and group the build orders.  At least that might 1) give them volume/bulk, and 2) not have to focus on a single part at a time.  This might also give MSCs a chance to "order a few extra" based on their typical demand during that period.

[Pinecone]

For parts they fabricate, I am fine with them fabricating on demand.  Less overhead.  And while I did start by complaining about the price, 

However, I would think, if they have time, to make some stock parts based on the orders over the past few years.

For parts they source from other companies, if they are not going to stock them (no-back spring for instance) that they open up the agreements to allow owners to order directly from the company that makes them.  

Or even, notify everyone that they are going to place an order and let everyone join in to reduce the cost by increasing volume.  And do this at least annually.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

For parts they fabricate, I am fine with them fabricating on demand.  Less overhead.  And while I did start by complaining about the price, 

However, I would think, if they have time, to make some stock parts based on the orders over the past few years.

For parts they source from other companies, if they are not going to stock them (no-back spring for instance) that they open up the agreements to allow owners to order directly from the company that makes them.  

Or even, notify everyone that they are going to place an order and let everyone join in to reduce the cost by increasing volume.  And do this at least annually.

I doubt Eaton will want to deal with a bunch of Whiney Mooney owners directly.  Mooney offers them a layer of insulation.

[Schllc]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

For parts they fabricate, I am fine with them fabricating on demand.  Less overhead.  And while I did start by complaining about the price, 

However, I would think, if they have time, to make some stock parts based on the orders over the past few years.

For parts they source from other companies, if they are not going to stock them (no-back spring for instance) that they open up the agreements to allow owners to order directly from the company that makes them.  

Or even, notify everyone that they are going to place an order and let everyone join in to reduce the cost by increasing volume.  And do this at least annually.

It would seem easy enough for them to publish any open orders they currently have for either in house parts or outsourced, and identify the lead times in relationship to the quantities needed for an order. 
if everyone wanted to have a back spring on hand for the day it goes down, to see that 50 need to be ordered and only 20 people have stepped up, may be an incentive for msc’s or owners who would be willing to pay up front for a good idea of a delivery date. 
would also be a huge savings for Mooney to be able to set up a jig for something like a gear door, and to make 20 instead of one. 
This would just be good business and wouldn’t cost that much to add to as a page to the website. I am certain they have a database to track orders internally that could be queried. 

[carusoam]

2 hours ago, Marc_B said:

It would be nice if Mooney had a way to say "hey everyone, we're making a batch run of X & Y, so get your orders in if you need or anticipate needing in the next year."  I wonder if there would be enough orders to have a staging strategy to parts...you need to order and pay (to give capital up front), but have a list of what they intend to crank out in the next year and group the build orders.  At least that might 1) give them volume/bulk, and 2) not have to focus on a single part at a time.  This might also give MSCs a chance to "order a few extra" based on their typical demand during that period.

That was a guy named Stacey…

he has the parts knowledge, and customer knowledge to get things communicated and completed… and out to the customers…

unfortunately there are only so many ownership changes that a human being can withstand… 

The current ownership has been the most communicative than any other… 

One day the sun WILL shine again…

best regards,

-a-

 

[PT20J]

5 hours ago, M20Doc said:

I doubt Eaton will want to deal with a bunch of Whiney Mooney owners directly.  Mooney offers them a layer of insulation.

Eaton has a repair center in Grand Rapids MI, and the website lists the Mooney actuators as something they have the capability to repair. I called them several times. The repair selection on the phone menu always goes to voicemail and they never return my call. I think that tells me how interested they are in dealing with airplane owners - and I didn’t even get a chance to whine 

https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/services/aero-repair-centers/grand-rapids/eaton-grand-rapids-repair-capabilities-list.pdf

[Guest]

1 hour ago, PT20J said:

Eaton has a repair center in Grand Rapids MI, and the website lists the Mooney actuators as something they have the capability to repair. I called them several times. The repair selection on the phone menu always goes to voicemail and they never return my call. I think that tells me how interested they are in dealing with airplane owners - and I didn’t even get a chance to whine 

https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/services/aero-repair-centers/grand-rapids/eaton-grand-rapids-repair-capabilities-list.pdf

I rest my case your honour!