Jason Sounds like you troops haven't ever heard of Univair in the US? And parts they make under FAA PMA approvals & STC'd kits of parts for the PA25-150 and PA25-235, -260. You can get most everything you need that is of special nature for the Pawnee structure from Univair. The rest is standard steel tube, aluminium, nuts and bolts, cable, etc. OK it will cost, but the notion that you can't maintain a Pawnee airframe into the future for decades for lack of key structural parts is nonsense. You can make fabricated structural steel attachment clusters.
Yes, corrosion in steel tubing is a hassle with aging Pawnees. But at least the Pawnee has decent wall thickness with most all its steel tubing elements. With steel tube framed ultralights the weight reduction is often at the expense of wall thickness. The AUF magazine a year or so ago highlighted the hassle with corrosion in a certain Lightwing with very low hours. Yes, I agree we have a towing launch cost problem & I would like to replace Pawnees with durable cheaper tugs. ...... Enough for now. Roger Druce ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Armistead" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 12:18 AM Subject: Re: [aus-soaring] Tugs of the future > At 04:11 PM 30/01/2003 +1000, Dave Sharples wrote: > >A Pawnee is of rag and metal tube construction, it is easily and > >economically rebuilt back to new quality, then there must be another 30-40 > >years of good work in it. We did it (the airframe was not at GFA expense) > >and our 100 hourlys require little work. > > However, the problem comes from the more complex parts, e.g. wing root > clusters, which I believe can only be obtained as "factory original" > parts. And, depending on the history of your particular Pawnee, it may > just be that certain parts have been quietly corroding away ready to bite > you in the hip pocket when you least expect it e.g. wing struts (as happen > to one of ours at a cost of around $8K IIRC) > > Now that Piper cut the Pawnee loose from it's fleet of certified designs, > having sold the design certification to some Argentinian company whose name > escapes me, it's up to the new owners of the Pawnee design to keep > producing such parts. However, the last time we tried to get the latest > flight manuals for our Pawnees (to appease CASA), they were less than > responsive, and the CASA response to our plight was something along the > lines of "you'd better write a letter to the Argentinian government > demanding some action" - yeah sure, as if they'd be interested in the > problems of a few glider pilots in Australia ! I get the feeling the > Argentinian company isn't that interested in supporting the Pawnee design, > and perhaps are in some sort of financial trouble that might see the Pawnee > being sold to the next "lucky" buyer. > > Just another exciting tale from the thriving global aeronautical industry ... > > Cheers > > Jason > > > -- > * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. > * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message > * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information. > > -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
