All Activity

Sure that makes sense. This less so. In today's age with computers, especially now with quite useful AI this paperwork stuff should be an easy problem. Perhaps it's not attempted by people who excel in this sort of stuff but by people that are savvy in other relevant areas. Hopefully Lasar knows how to get these steps done cheaply enough so that the manufacturing process itself can be feasible. This parts problem is another huge concern of mine regarding the future, like AVGAS phase out, that makes me very motivated to only think about how I should find a way to drive a turbine Piper asap.

Parts support, combined with the aging out of the ownership population, will be the death of this brand.

That sounds exactly like what Arcline/Hartzell and other various Private Equity that are consolidating General Aviation businesses & FBO’s think and say….

If you do an internet search on "what does it take to receive FAA PMA authority" you'll find the information and reference data that will help answer your questions. In addition to cumbersome and slow, the process is expensive, especially for a shop that doesn't already have a documented formal quality assurance program. And that assumes the shop can obtain the production engineering data from the original manufacturer, or have the capability to reverse engineer the data to the FAA's satisfaction. Then there is the cost/benefit analysis that accompanies any business decision. Economy of scale is difficult or impossible to realize in our niche market, so a business needs to recoup all of the administrative, testing, tooling and setup costs in the price they charge for the limited quantity of end product. This price needs to allow the manufacturer to be profitable while remaining affordable for the end customer. We've just seen this with new production of no-back springs for the gear actuators. Affordability is in the eye of the consumer. And altruism isn't a trait commonly found in significant measure in a successful business, so if in the C&B analysis the part(s) can't be produced at a cost that allows for an affordable price, it doesn't get produced.

For an “in current production” example- my friend’s SR22T was AOG for 1 YEAR when he needed a new nose gear strut. Nobody is completely safe from parts availability issues. We should support Lasar’s goal to keep our planes in the sky!

I just sent mine to aero accessories based on what I've been reading here. I get my plane back on Monday, so we'll see how it goes. http://aeroacc-vny.com/

Its calle Its called "traceability" and PMAs And yes it is cumbersome and time consuming and costly to get the approvals And the market for the investment is only 7000 possible customers I see it took 9 months to get PMA approval for the SRS Beech skins plus 10s of thousands of dollars And the approvals came just last July. Learned something new. Up until then Bonanzas were paper weights if the ruddervators were junk. Less$$$$ maybe but still $7100 just for the part - A piece of stamped magnesium sheet metal If its so easy to make parts why did it take so long. ANY decent stamping plant should have been able to do it - right? If we don't have parts how will we get a "stretch formed" wing leading edge skin if we bang into a fuel truck? Who will pay the $$$$ involved to set up a PMA SYSTEM to stretch form wing skins for a few airplanes every year? How much do you think those would cost?

This is Maxwell's hot start procedure, but it may suggest an approach: https://youtu.be/jbRYqS-fRo0

Several available on controller.com… https://www.controller.com/parts/search?PartNumber=AW2-3%2F4-16

There are three Mooney's based at TCL. I haven't yet met the owner of the plane that flew this mission, N7132V.

I think that getting the FAA ‘stamp of approval’ can be a very cumbersome process. Look how many hoops LASAR had to jump through when they moved to Oregon and had to start working with a new FSDO. My guess is that they had to reaccomplish FAA approvals on every part they touched. The ‘F’ in FSDO might be a pseudonym for Fiefdom.

And the 8130 is signed by the 17 year old behind the counter :-)

To close the loop on this, the one-piece seal the A&P installed seemed to solve the leak. I did notice that the oil return tube rubber couplings on the bottom of the engine were very loose and could be spun by hand. The hose clams holding those in were tightened and a noticeable decrease in belly/gear door blow-by was evident after a few hours.

How can it be so difficult to transfer manufacturing to modern practices? Are regulations really that stiff and the process to obtain approval that cumbersome and slow? I'm pretty sure any decent shop manufacturing parts could manufacture any part for our planes. Where's the catch? And why doesn't someone just do this?

Bumping this back from the dead. Where are people sending their D4LN-3000 magnetos for inspection/repair nowadays? Thanks in advance.

National Aircraft Parts Association has many parts for our Vintage birds!

Nice trip. Thanks for sharing.

@cliffy ruddervator skins are now available for V-tail Bonanzas from SRS Aviation. They are also selling them for LESS than when they were last available from Beechcraft. Hmmm?? What? Less? How can that be?

Nice description! This will help someone else with less experience.

UNTIL you realize that that 30% increase DOESN'T include LASAR's 500% markup..

Did you buy the airplane from a person with no name or phone number?

d&b is not reliable for much. They publish alof of speculation. The owners have to answer questions for reliable data and many do not. Also, you could not run a company with 18 employees on 1.2 million in revenue. The facility in kerville cost to maintain is more than that per year alone. But you are still correct, lazar and Mooney are both small company. typically, anything under 500 employees is considered a “small business. personally I find that to be silly, considered probably 80-90 percent of small businesses have less than 50…. Nothing wrong with using AI, but proofreading and editing for personal style is a must. Kinda like seeing your doctors shirt had a button skipped and are all off by one. Bottom line is that anything that keeps parts moving is good for the fleet and a 30% across the board rails in prices, is barely even keeping up with the inflation we have seen the last several years.

Thanks for the tip on BAS. I run a die casting business with CNC machining. I offered to quote making them. Apparently many people on the waiting list.

Mine backfires doing that

But then there is no aviation markup