On 9 Jun 2005 09:26:57 -0700, "Ben Hallert"
wrote:

Here's the details:
There was a wing spar AD controversy in 87/88. A high time Archr
(7,500 hours) lost a wing, so the FAA issued an airworthiness directive
saying that all Cherokees with more then 5,000 hours had to have their
wings pulled for inspection. After a few hundred inspections that
showed the rest of the fleet was essentially fine, they rescinded the
AD and Piper issued a 'mandatory service bulletin (Piper Service
Bulletin 866) that recommends that high time, extreme usage (eg,
pipeline inspection) or aircraft that have encountered severe damage
(such as what you mentioned?) need this inspection within 50 hours of
the event and every 1,600 hours later.

If this service bulletin applies to you, you may want to factor the
cost of having the wings popped off every 1,600 hours (and how long has
it been since the last one? Will you get stuck with this on your next
annual?) for this.

Just to point out - you do not have to comply with SBs to remain
airworthy. However, non-complied SBs may become a financial issue
upon resale as many buyers consider them AD-like in their importance.