CESSNA SIDS
 

Sorry if I'm in the wrong place.. but I have an Aerobat C150 located in Australia with SIDS looming.. My little Aircraft has always been perfectly stored and always Well maintained .. I can't afford to spend thousands on CASA AD's that aren't even legislated to the rest of the world..not happy. Anyone else in this position?

Plenty of people in your position.

You should see some of the SDRs lodged on SIDs from "perfectly stored" "corrosion free" Cessnas.

If it's good, your SIDs won't cost you too much.

If it's bad, your aircraft might be throw-away...

Good luck!

Hi Flopter, I own a 150M, and have considered the SIDs. They are not mandatory in Canada, but upon review, I find that my normal inspections and work over the years, have covered nearly all of the SID items. To be honest, the SIDs hit the nail on the head, for what I know the weak areas of the 150 to be. I don't feel that a well maintained Cessna is excessively burdened by the SID inspections. It's Cessna's reaction to the issue of aging aircraft, which no one though would ever last this long, and were not designed to. If they had not done this work, it is certain that the FAA would have mandated something which could have been even more burdensome.

Not CASA AD's
 

Flopter,

Your first misconception is that this SIDs is only a CASA AD in so far as it mandates that you comply with the actual SID's document which comes from the Cessna factory. The SID's document states that for compliance it assumes that all of the Cessna service bulletins and FAA AD's have been complied with before you start the inspection. For most light aircraft maintained in Australia under CASA Schedule 5 this is not the case so you are behind the eight ball already. By complying with the inspection you are actually dragging your aircraft up to speed maintenance wise. Additionally you are raising the level of your own safety to acceptable standards. My advice is pay for an inspection only and then make a decision as to the economic viability of having any defects repaired. You may have a nice clean airframe and get away with it but don't expect to get out of this for under at least $15-$20K.

Groggy

I have seen now quite some "perfectly stored and always well maintained" Cessnas that I do not believe that statement first sight. There are some sweet areas you won't have recognized before and there probably will be an issue somewhere.

If your bird is really well, then the SID inspection is not a big deal - if you don't do it as a celebration event, but add the few things to each standard inspection 50/100/200 where it fits. By this the SID will take several inspections, but the additional costs are in the low 4-digits in sum (our training 152 came back from Czech with a 2500 bill for the SID event and minor work found, adding the labor to the ordinary inspection was not possible due to - we ****** up the schedule and needed it in short term, would have been less). I say, worth the money.

If your SID turns out to be expensive, there are two possibilities. You have been ripped off, or there were serious issues with your aircraft. The first is really bad, so avoid it, but the second could safe your life sometimes.

Sadly come the deadline some aircraft are going to end up being scrapped. Low time aircraft are the aircraft that are probably going to be the worst impacted, simply because they haven't been under the scrutiny of engineers as much. Aircraft that have been rebuilt recently will probably also get through the program reasonably cheaply.

There is also rumour that Beechcraft are working on a SIDs program for their fleets.

Has there been a single recorded case of inflight breakup of
any Cessna high wing aircraft anywhere in the world?

Absolutely yes... Plenty. But mostly related to VFR into IMC. Can't seem to find any attributed to corrosion.

I have been involved with 4 SIDS inspections, all older aircraft. All needed some level of structural repairs but one high wing aircraft was horrifying due to severe corrosion in the wing attach points.

Its clear by the lack of factory corrosion protection, that Cessna never intended the aircraft to fly for 50+ years and certainly didn't build them for that life.

Wunwing

Most of the Cessna owners I know who have put their aircraft through the program, have had very positive comments to make about the inspection and repairs. Positive in the way that their aircraft is now in a safer airworthy condition than it was before it went through the inspections.

Our 97 R had some total time and years in service SIDS triggers...which were done over 2 x 100 hourlys... Good thing there was nothing wrong with it.... Only cost about $20K.......

I really wish you had documented evidence of this.

Given that no aircraft have fallen out of the sky due to this poor maintenance it must mean that for 2 decades the rest of us have been over maintaining and wasting our money.http://cdn.pprune.org/images/smilies/boohoo.gif

$1,000 for a CASA Schedule 5? When was this?

Smallest Cessna with paper work is + 22 hours @ your local rate + parts and consumables and environmental costs.

The Cessna that I referred to as really bad was at that time a recent US import when we discovered the wing attach problems. Guess the good old boys aren't always so good.

Wunwing

Not really, we just spent the frequent money on continuous maintenance and the once without proper maintenance now may get one 20 years bill ... There have not been many incidents caused by poor maintenance, but from the SIDs I saw I would say, not yet. One example: there are birds out there where the gear U-bolts have no time restriction and I have seen two now, where it would have been only a matter of little time until doing the gras bite on landing.

It is not rumour, it is fact. I know, and many here would also, a chap who has an office right across the car park from Beech. The Textron folk invited him in for a chat and so the story goes…….. ;)


Wunwing……your post above and your user name :ok::}

CASA made a very good decision in making it mandatory for all Cessna's to go through the SIDs program, just hope they follow suite with the rest of the older GA fleet if the manufactures implement a program. If they don't, it won't be CASA reducing the GA industry, it will be the old aeroplanes falling out of the sky and killing people.

The defects found aren't like those found on a normal schedule 5. You wouldn't remove tail feathers or wings in a scheduled check.

All manufacturers are going to do that as part of the aging aircraft initiative and I guess all the aircraft around with dead vendors will have the biggest problem and the strongest inspection hand cuffs in the end.

I don't know what your regulators are like, but on our 421B in Canada we negotiated some alternate methods of doing the SIDS, they agreed that some of the items, if conducted the way Cessna wanted them done, would in fact cause more problems than it would cure. Our biggest problem is getting parts on time when we do find something amiss.