On Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:42:42 -0800, wrote:
Do you have a 180hp or something that uses the cs prop?

Yes on both. Avcon conversion, O-360-A with a Hartzell.

For learning, how did they observe the horizontal stab spar cracks?
Looking in from where? Can you see them?

I have not had the time to visit the shop this week so I haven't seen
them myself, but my partner did go to the shop this morning. He said the
cracks are on the forward spar (the one that always cracks because people
push down on the tail). They are "hairline" cracks a little over 1"
long. He said he can understand why our regular IA did not spot them.
They are quite hard to see.

This is reportedly a known weak point in the Cessna design and Cessna
provides a repair kit that apparently prevents the need to replace the
spar. We will have to remove one of the skins to install the kit,
though, and that's a job that will need to be sent out. The plus is my
IA has been through this before and even has a shipping crate on standby
for this...he won't have to build one from scratch (thank God for small
miracles).

FYI, the new Cessnas have this kit installed at the factory, so the
chance of them failing in the same way is somewhat less.

The strange thing about this is we do NOT push down on the tail to move
this airplane as a matter of course. I can count on one hand the number
of times I've pushed on the tail in the 14 years we've owned it, and I've
put virtually all of my weight on the whole tail section and not the
horizontal stab.

I hope to have pictures of the cracks up on my site at some point when we
get the old parts back.

Doug
http://www.dvatp.com/