Evaluating high-time airfames

On 10-Jul-2005, Andrew Gideon wrote:

So is that 10,000 a line beyond which one starts to expect an aircraft to
not be "going strong"?


My (then) partners and I bought a 1974 C-172 that had more than 8000 hours
on the airframe, and we flew it for about 1700 more before we sold it. The
new owner refurbished the plane and put it into service as a primary and
instrument trainer, and it appears that it is still soldiering on today in
that role.

With good maintenance and conservative operation, there is no reason why an
airplane can't last far more than 10K hours. When we bought our 172 it had
spent its entire previous life as an instrument trainer (no primary), which
is pretty benign duty. We didn't have any serious maintenance issues, but
we did find out that just about every moving part will sooner or later wear
out. In some cases (like the trim tab hinge) replacement can be
labor-intensive.

Corrosion is an obvious worry, but we never had any to speaK of even though
our 172 spent its entire life tied down outdoors in the relatively damp
Pacific Northwest.

--
-Elliott Drucker