Video posted by Gold Standard Aviation of a preflight check on a 1977 Arrow on Friday.

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=LVGr_1524349750

:uhoh:

WOW....................

I wonder if they have instrumented up another school aircraft or to see if the loads the planes are doing are "normal" or vastly over piper predicted.


Was the finding fatigue or was there any mention of corrosion?

If its just fatigue only, your looking at either the loads are higher than designed for or the materials are suspect.

I have noticed that for most pilots, newer pilots in particular, the technique and observation points for a walkaround check have been trained by an instructor, rather than a maintainer. The result can be looking for lesser importance detail items, while overlooking big things.

While training for my helicopter license, I was trained the walkaround. On my own, I added a few checks. The result was I found that the tailboom (SW300) was loose. My instructor was shocked at this condition, and that I had found it, the maintained seemed a little embarrassed that it had not been noticed sooner.

Shake and observe the big things too!

The NTSB has released an update https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/...ive-Update.pdf They have inspected 10 aircraft with similar hours/cycles and found spar bolt hole cracks in 1 :ooh:

Interestingly the report mentions a new inspection procedure developed by Piper, so perhaps an AD is in the pipeline.

Don't like the look of this....

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
14 CFR Part 39
[Docket No. FAA-2018-1046; Product Identifier 2018-CE-049-AD]
RIN 2120-AA64
Airworthiness Directives; Piper Aircraft, Inc. Airplanes
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Piper Aircraft,
Inc. (Piper) Model PA-28-140, PA-28-150, PA-28-151, PA-28-160, PA-28-161, PA-28-180,
PA-28-181, PA-28-235, PA-28R-180, PA-28R-200, PA-28R-201, PA-28R-201T, PA-28RT-201,
PA-28RT-201T, PA-32-260, and PA-32-300 airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a
report of a fatigue crack found in a visually inaccessible area of the lower main wing spar cap.
This proposed AD would require calculating the factored service hours for each main wing spar
to determine when an inspection is required, inspecting the lower main wing spar bolt holes for
cracks, and replacing any cracked main wing spar. We are proposing this AD to address the
unsafe condition on these products.

https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/201...XHkfjxXqQ5D3HA

Final report out here