Seneca maintenance in the UK

[Duchess_Driver]

Anybody give me some rough numbers for annuals and intermediate servicing for a 34-200T on the N reg.

Ball park for no-rectification work, straight forward parts and labour would be handy - and if so - who you get to do it at that price.

Thanks in advance.

[wsmempson]

Hello stranger!

Have a chat with Ian Chaplin at general aero services down at Thurrock; he looks after several, including one of his own. I think he can do the work but needs the sign off from a third party licenced on November register machines.

s

[Pilot DAR]

I recently was involved with a Seneca, which turned up quite a problem during an inspection. There are left and right splice plates which join the lower wing spar flanges to the fuselage spar carry through. These plates are the subject of an AD, and are a possible location of a crack. This crack would be a result of (what is in my opinion) a poor design feature. Worse than this, these plates are in an area of the airframe, where one might expect to find corrosion, which was the case with the subject aircraft. The result was that the plates were no longer airworthy, and required replacement. Piper no longer makes these plates available as replacement parts. I asked Piper what they suggested to return this aircraft to service. I was politely told: "That is a 40 year old aircraft and Piper does not know what condition it has come to be in over that period. Piper will not support this repair." = Grounds the plane permanently.

I did create an approved repair for the aircraft by replacement of these parts, but it was a BIG, COSTLY job, and all of us associated lost money on it.

Based upon this experience, and my belief that perhaps other Piper aircraft critical parts would be similarly treated by Piper, I would be very cautious taking such an aircraft to a new maintainer, who is not entirely familiar with these issues. It could result in the aircraft being grounded. This was the situation I was associated with.

[Duchess_Driver]

Afternoon S

Thanks for that...I'll give him a call, but I think DAR's comments will be worth heeding!