For those in the area this is just a heads up that Sac Sky Ranch is closing. The owner is retiring and closing the store on May 8th. I guess we are all going to have to find somewhere else to buy our oil and airplane parts.

Sad day.
Does anyone know of another places in the Sac/SF area that has parts?

They are (or were) pretty much the only game in town. Sad. I have spent a lot of money in there over the past several years; pretty lucky to have Sac Sky Ranch there for everything from miscellaneous hardware to custom fuel hoses and so much more. There aren't many people more knowledgeable about aircraft engines and systems than John. His engineering manual is quite an impressive reference tool.

Must be a sign of the f'd up situation the nutjob voters in this state have gotten us into. I called the gun shop owner/FFL I have always used in the past for out of state gun purchases to transfer a rifle in from Alaska, and he too is shutting down operations within the next month. Won't be long until all of the valued small businesses are taxed and regulated out of existence here. Meanwhile we are building worthless bullet trains to nowhere. Rant off.

Flynengr

That's terrible. Sky Ranch has been a great resource for local pilots and mechanics as well. Quick repairs will definitely be more of a challenge now.

I'm probably going to start selling oil cases at Cal Aggies, KEDU. We buy in bulk already, but we've never had ppl interested in more than the occasional quart.

Over the counter sales in aviation have been doomed for some time. The internet killed it. We all want cheaper prices for everything from soap to condoms, yet still want a store to go to. Well, you can't have both. Most folks do not patronize their local FBO with their purchases, then expect to be greeted by a host of services for free. Well only in the magic land of OZ does that system work. Yes small business is squeezed, I myself, will most likely sell my interest in the repair station and paint shop this year. I already got rid of the FBO. It isn't only taxes, we are being regulated, not restrictive regulations, but carloads of compliance forms, surveys, inspections and nitpicking fees and programs we must have.

The Feds have led the way in the last 10 years with BS make work programs for underutilized civil servants. Example; Drug programs. We have to participate in a drug program (albeit less than .01% of aviation workers ever tested positive, can hospitals say the same?). We have to pay a private firm to monitor our drug program and choose workers to be tested (annual cost is high, for essentially a random number generator). They also provide us with the current government issued posters concerning the big bad drug problem. We cannot get them from the government, they must come from the program manager. Well, we had an audit last year, took up 2 days of our time, for exactly nothing. They found our posters out of date and wanted to fine us $10,000. After days wasted dealing with this, we had to get congressional intervention. We have no control over the posters, why are we being fined? Anyhow, about three weeks of time wasted to satisfy some peg at the washington pegboard. So, wonder why small business is being done in?

Small business do not have Human Resources departments, It comes out of hide. So time spent with a government martial aid, is not devoted to making money, killing margin. Couple that with owners looking to lower their costs, yeah many will disappear. I feel very sorry for my buddy and his repair station in California, he is going to throw in the towel in a year as well. Little or no profit in the last 5 years and he spends even more un-productive time with the aids in that state.

Oh, have not even touched the Federal Amusement Administration…

Of course, there's a flip side to the "support your local FBO" argument. The guy who owns the FBO on my home field overheard me talking to another guy about who had the best prices on aviation oil, and asked me rather belligerently why didn't I buy my oil from him? He was having a hard time of it, nobody buys from him, yada yada yada. I told him that the next time I needed oil, I'd buy it from him, which I did. But, as I pointed out to him, I can buy the same case of oil for quite a bit less from the local bulk plant (where he buys it) and they'll even drop it off at my house for free. He grumbled about how they're cutting his throat, but I know that he's buying it at wholesale prices-- it's not my fault (or the bulk plant's) that he marks it up as much as he does. BTW this is the same FBO that rents a 1973 c172 out for $139/hour, and charges $50/hour for instruction while paying the CFI $30. From what people tell me, annual inspections are usually quite a bit more than one would expect too.
I'd like to support the local aviation businesses, but they're gonna have to be priced competitively. Why should I take money out of my pocket just to keep someone else in business if they won't do their part? BTW there is another shop on the field (mechanic service only) that does make an effort to wprk with you and to keep costs reasonable-- he's the one that'll get my business when I need work done.

In no way defending your local guy. You have to do the math, he does have to pay for the bricks & mortar. While you see the $30 to the CFI, do you consider that there are other expenses in providing instruction, like insurance for both the CFI and the aircraft. Some counties or municipalities want a cut in the business you do on the field for the privilege of doing business in their facilities, in addition to rent. I have folks on our field doing business in T hangers as well. I do not really care one way or the other. The folks they maintain do not actually pay enough to cover the overhead of doing the work. Kind of why we stick to higher end aircraft and structural repair. The downside, well one of these little groups, while competitive on price actually turned out some rather poor quality work. The IA had been signing off annuals for the last 5 years improperly, now all those aircraft he did are grounded until he re-does all their logbooks. I break even on a part or product I mark up 10%, most business need about 15% net, to make it even worth while, heck 2.5% of every part sold goes to liability insurance.

So it isn't the flip side it is exactly the reality you just illustrated. Personally, I wouldn't even consider owing an aircraft if I couldn't work on it, they are expensive. There just isn't enough volume in aviation to give consumers the price they expect on products. Think how much an iPhone would cost if they only sold 100,000 a year!

When fuel prices spiked in the 70's aviation was killed as a private pursuit. Part of it was caused by the military ceasing operation of piston aircraft. So the cost of refining and transporting of AVGAS went up when the volumes declined. Cessna went from selling thousands a year to only scores of airplanes annually. With no sales to help out FBO's and fuel volumes declining, it is a death spiral. In the last three years the number of ramp mummies has increased. You don't even see the ones entombed in hangers, out of annual. Our local FISDO is increasingly worried that soon most airports will have no live service, just a self service kiosk on a lonely airport. The days of landing on saturday meeting a bunch of folks just hanging out at the airport, getting a free beer and a ride to the motel may become dim memories.

Up here in Northern Arizona roughly 3/4 of all the airports have disappeared. You can still find their dim outlines on Google Earth, there is a trend. If the municipalities that own these things cannot get tenants to pay the rent and deal with the airports, they will close, due to budget pressure. It will make all flying, "backcountry," no where else to land. All the money is being diverted to the big airports, they make money on them. They don't want us in the pattern.

Painful, but Sac Sky Ranch is having a yard/store sale
Saturday, April 13, 2013, 9 AM to 4 PM

--Bill

Economy of scale. It's just like Walmart versus your local hardware store. Aviation is not immune. I really wish regulation would be relaxed a bit allowing more modern components to be retrofitted - if it were reasonable we would all be running jet-a powered turbo diesels and enjoying mo-gas like prices and considerably more efficient engines.