Thielert files for insolvency

WacoFan

WacoFan

Bigly
Question for flight schools operating the twin star: What happens if Thielert can not restructure and goes TU? I have heard that the twin star motors need a lot of maintainance and are not particularly reliable (just heard that, no first hand experience). What happens to your fleet if you can no longer get parts? Would seem to be a huge risk to any school or even private owner - what market value will your Thielert equiped plane have now? Can a Lycoming or Continental somehow be fitted to these airframes?
 
One of their creditors would end up owning the design and could license Lycoming or Continental to produce spare parts or entire engines if the market warranted that. Other than that -- used parts markets, and if all that failed you'd have to get the part fabricated (expensive.)

Diamond would have to be involved for creating a STC for an engine swap I believe.
 
That would be heaven

Having a manufacturer that actually admits when there is a problem and works to fix it.

Did you know that Thielert actually said that the problem was that we were shock cooling the engines??????

Exactly how do you shock cool a liquid cooled engine????
 
Ice water!

I wonder how much more expensive the TwinStars are going to be to operate now that the tax on Jet A for GA aircraft is increased with the new legislation going through congress.
 
Does anyone know what is actually happening at Thielert / what went wrong? Looking at the website I gather that:

- They reported in Nov / Dec 07 that the aircraft engines division was growing like crazy, and that it was a profitable operation, but had liquidity issues (which seems strange because the reported EBITDA was positive).

- Now they say the financial statements for several years are incorrect

- Their share price is close to zero

This sounds like a situation for Warren Buffet.
 
Looks like AOPA kills another one!

Seriously. May's AOPA Pilot magazine has a feature on the Thielerts.

October 2007's cover airplane was the Columbia 400, and look what haqppened to them!

It's a conspiracy, I tell you!

I'm glad I turned them down to be the 'featured pilot' on the last page. :sarcasm:
 
NickH said:
Looks like AOPA kills another one!

Seriously. May's AOPA Pilot magazine has a feature on the Thielerts.

October 2007's cover airplane was the Columbia 400, and look what haqppened to them!

It's a conspiracy, I tell you!

I'm glad I turned them down to be the 'featured pilot' on the last page. :sarcasm:
Click to expand...

You definitely don't want to be in the AOPA Magazine 'featured pilot' thing- I remember a stretch where three of them got into accidents after being featured. Two didn't survive.
 
cre8flyer said:
Does anyone know what is actually happening at Thielert / what went wrong? Looking at the website I gather that:

- They reported in Nov / Dec 07 that the aircraft engines division was growing like crazy, and that it was a profitable operation, but had liquidity issues (which seems strange because the reported EBITDA was positive).

- Now they say the financial statements for several years are incorrect

- Their share price is close to zero

This sounds like a situation for Warren Buffet.
Click to expand...
When you produce a produce that breaks, a lot, people don't want to buy your product anymore.

I think the big problem is that for almost a year Thielert was in denial that there even was a problem with the 1.7L and did very little to support customers that had problems. They eventually had to do a lot of warranty replacements and that basically means they were giving their engines away at a net loss.
 
I beleive the stink of some creative accounting and bad executive decisions finally caught up to them.
 
TexasFlyer said:
I beleive the stink of some creative accounting and bad executive decisions finally caught up to them.
Click to expand...

Amazing too because if they had just played a clean game they were on the verge of having it all.

When Cessna is looking to use your product how can you lose?

Well, they found a way.
 
Frank Thielert is going to jail. The scam he was running was basically Enron on a smaller scale. The company will be fine; they have a full order book from Cezzna and the US government (Thielert powers one of the UAVs the military uses). I wouldn't fret the future of the company.
 
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