Rib replacement/Piper SB 1161 update

I was just down in Stockton at the Mooney facility there. They showed
me a rear spar that looked a lot like your rib. Total repair cost was
$40,000 (just to replace the spar). The spar is visible in the rear of
the wheel well. The service center is saying that the problem was
either introduced or not correctly caught by the paint facility that
repainted the Mooney 1 year earlier. Not sure if the same may apply to
you.

Pix of the Mooney spar
http://www.topgunaviation.net/topgunaviation/id7.html
The damage was noticed when the rivet heads started popping off the
spar as the corrosion expanded the Aluminum.
-Robert

Robert M. Gary wrote:

I was just down in Stockton at the Mooney facility there. They showed
me a rear spar that looked a lot like your rib. Total repair cost was
$40,000 (just to replace the spar). The spar is visible in the rear of
the wheel well. The service center is saying that the problem was
either introduced or not correctly caught by the paint facility that
repainted the Mooney 1 year earlier. Not sure if the same may apply to
you.

Pix of the Mooney spar
http://www.topgunaviation.net/topgunaviation/id7.html
The damage was noticed when the rivet heads started popping off the
spar as the corrosion expanded the Aluminum.
-Robert


Wow, kind of points to an inadvertant drawback of the "one-piece wing"
design. While arguably a stronger setup, sure makes this kind of issue
a much bigger deal than it would have been on a more typical GA
aircraft. $40K to repair some spar corrosion? Ouch!

Happy Flying!
Scott Skylane
N92054

Maybe. However, the factory service center that did the work said they
didn't know how to bid the job. Mooney was unable to locate any other
facility that had ever had to do this job before, so the shop had to
guess at the hours.
Apparently this hasn't happened before, at least not to Mooney's
knowledge.
-Robert

Wow, kind of points to an inadvertant drawback of the "one-piece wing"
design. While arguably a stronger setup, sure makes this kind of issue
a much bigger deal than it would have been on a more typical GA
aircraft. $40K to repair some spar corrosion? Ouch!

Ouch, that's ugly. 40 AMUs...wow! Fortunately, our corrosion was
limited to a much smaller piece of metal.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

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