UPS MD-11 crash at SDF

Richman said:
It was bad then, much worse now. Any of those complicated piston twins, and you'd have better luck maintaining Migs without metric tools.

Parts are starting to dry up for even the more common birds, and priced accordingly. But I think the day of the certified piston aircraft is coming to an end. In 10 years, and there will be LSA/MOSAIC birds, and turbines, with nothing in-between. If you have anything like a GO-480, or a Beech electric prop, forget it. Shops won't touch them even if you have a stash of unobtainium parts.

You see sporadic PMA activity, but only for consumables, wear items and very occasionally significant parts that require know how, but not significant infrastructure (ex. ruddervators for Bonanzas). Anything that is complicated that requires some real industrial/machining mojo, like center spars for 177s/210s or bathtub fittings for Bonanzas/Barons, and yea, you get them from Textron or salvage, or you part out what you have.

You'd think some enterprising soul would step in and buy the parts chain. But manufacturers aren't willing to part with the IP.
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There was one repair station authorized to work on cowl flap and windshield wiper transmissions and I very much got the vibe that it was one old guy working out of his garage with an FAA CRS letter hanging on the wall. That was pushing 10 years ago and a lot of those guys either retired or straight up died during Covid. In fact one of the legendary Alaska Chieftain guys did die of Covid, he had a bunch of specialty PMAs, STCs, and AMOCs for some of the various aging aircraft issues. You couldn’t get a replacement flap track, someone was looking into getting the specs of the metal stock and CNC cutting some as owner produced parts but I don’t know what happened with that.

In one respect, time and technology move on as they always have and you’d be hard pressed to find any sane person who says that a caravan or a Pilatus isn’t objectively a far better airplane than a 402/PA31/421 but in another respect it’s a bit sad because damn they were fun and rewarding to fly. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age, as they say.
 
With a FEW exceptions, everything with pistons and/or props can be melted down tomorrow and I'd never look back.

(except for Pilatus products)
 
I dunno how a Chieftain compared, but i was always rather happy with the way that the old training SEL pipers flew. I imagine it was several orders of magnitude more demanding though
 
///AMG said:
I dunno how a Chieftain compared, but i was always rather happy with the way that the old training SEL pipers flew. I imagine it was several orders of magnitude more demanding though
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J-3's are fun. Clipped wing Cubs are better. But to me, of all the Piper singles I've got time in, a PA-12 with a 150hp Lycoming is a REALLY nice airplane. Followed by a Pacer if you want to take 4 people. But if I had to choose one Piper Single I'd take a PA-12 with 150hp. Good on you for calling out Piper singles though!
 
DropTank said:
With a FEW exceptions, everything with pistons and/or props can be melted down tomorrow and I'd never look back.

(except for Pilatus products)
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They are looking for a test/demo pilot for the 24 out in the motherland. I almost applied. Almost.
 
Richman said:
While I love all things from the shop of Olive Ann, a plane that has “accelerate-slow” charts vs stop left me scratching my head.
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Speaking of, did you see the announcement last week that Beech is discontinuing the Bonanza and the Baron? Out of the piston engine biz now.
 
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