(Snowbird) wrote in message . com...


The real issue is: what do A&Ps with expertise and owners in the
type club say about parts? If those folks say there are problems,
there are problems. But I've heard the same "ding" re Grummans,
and typically it was either pilots speaking on general principles
(small production run, out of production at the time), or mechanics
who lacked experience w/ Grummans and didn't know who to call.

The problem with parts avialbilty on a particular a/c should be looked
at from two different points of view when we ding it. By far, the
average pilot wants to be able to go out and get into the bird and go
any day of the week and at any time. When it breaks, he wants his
mechanic to walk over to the parts room and get the part or call the
supplier and have it fed-exed in and the a/c back in the air as soon
as possible. This type owner is going to consider the ding on parts a
major problem.

Now flip over to guys like me that build and restore airplanes for a
living. All our restoration work is on a/c that are over 50 years
old. We expect to have problems finding parts or plan on fabricating
our own. For us it doesn't matter too much if it takes us a week or a
couple of months to find parts. To us and the owners that we work
with, the ding means that parts availibility is not as easy as most
newer a/c and might require some effort and time to find and get them,
but there is a solution.

Then you filp to guys like me personally. I have a restoration project
where a pair of rudders are the only known spare parts in exsistance
for the airframe. Everthing else, I get to either rebuild the parts
that I have or fabricate new ones. That's part of the reason that this
restoration is taking many years to get done.

I look at it this way: If someone likes a particular a/c enough, we,
as mechanics and restorers, can find some way to safely keep it in the
air. It might not be the least expensive a/c to maintain or have the
fastest turn around when it needs attention, but we can keep it
flying.

Craig C.