Less Gloom

In article om,
Jay Honeck wrote:
In my opinion, Mr. Bass was either floating a trial balloon idea about
cutting off support for old, out-of-production aircraft, or he just
got carried away during his speech and injected his own personal
opinions. Either way, this reaction -- sudden, vociferous, succinct,
loud, and unanimous -- from the pilot community has effectively and
surely shot it down.


Quite frankly, I don't see anything in Piper's statement that retracts
anything. All the statement appears to say is that Piper hasn't set a
piston-engine "date for death" right now. Noticeably absent from the
statement is any long-term commitment to the piston business, probably
because there isn't any.



JKG

Quite frankly, I don't see anything in Piper's statement that retracts
anything. All the statement appears to say is that Piper hasn't set a
piston-engine "date for death" right now. Noticeably absent from the
statement is any long-term commitment to the piston business, probably
because there isn't any.

Wow -- just when I thought that *I* was the most cynical, hard-headed
******* out there, you guys go and prove me wrong. Thanks!

:-)

Seriously, I think you're being too hard on them. Piper has been
forced to respond to what we heard Bass say in that speech last
weekend. They are publicly denying that there are any plans to cut
off support for older planes -- which, unless they are REALLY being
diabolical, can only be good news for those of us who are flying
around in "antique" planes. (What *is* the defininition of "antique"
now, anyway? My plane is now 33 years old -- where's the cut-off?)

(And, hell, while we're at it, why is "publicly" also properly spelled
"publically"? Inquiring minds on a sunny June day.... ;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

They are publicly denying that there are any plans to cut
off support for older planes...

But that talk is cheap. The expensive talk is what we don't hear.
"Piper =will= =continue= to supply parts for =all= the airplanes it has
=ever= manufactured, for as long as we are in business." (and even that
doesn't say that they won't charge $700 for a $2 microswitch.)

Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

In article om,
Jay Honeck wrote:
Wow -- just when I thought that *I* was the most cynical, hard-headed
******* out there, you guys go and prove me wrong. Thanks!

:-)

Seriously, I think you're being too hard on them. Piper has been
forced to respond to what we heard Bass say in that speech last
weekend. They are publicly denying that there are any plans to cut
off support for older planes -- which, unless they are REALLY being
diabolical, can only be good news for those of us who are flying
around in "antique" planes. (What *is* the defininition of "antique"
now, anyway? My plane is now 33 years old -- where's the cut-off?)


I'm not being cynical, I'm just trying to be a realist. Though I'm not
intimately familiar with the aircraft industry, I doubt that Piper can
sustain themselves as a new airplane manufacturer on a piston-engine
parts business. They were late to the game with modern avionics in
their airplanes, all of which are 30+ year old designs. They could
innovate in the piston market and compete with Cirrus and Cessna, but is
there really that much room? My guess is that Piper is staking the
future of the company on moving away from pistons (and ditching the high
liability, low return associated with them) to focus on the young VLJ
market. Honestly, I can't say that I wouldn't consider the same if I
were running the company.



JKG

I'm not being cynical, I'm just trying to be a realist. Though I'm not
intimately familiar with the aircraft industry, I doubt that Piper can
sustain themselves as a new airplane manufacturer on a piston-engine
parts business. They were late to the game with modern avionics in
their airplanes, all of which are 30+ year old designs. They could
innovate in the piston market and compete with Cirrus and Cessna, but is
there really that much room? My guess is that Piper is staking the
future of the company on moving away from pistons (and ditching the high
liability, low return associated with them) to focus on the young VLJ
market. Honestly, I can't say that I wouldn't consider the same if I
were running the company.

I agree 100% with you. In fact, I fully understand why Bass and
Piper would want to cut ties with the piston market, and only pursue
jets. Hell, it's Economics 101, if their only goal is to make more
money.

But then, don't come to a fly-in for CHEROKEE OWNERS, for
chrissakes. Just say you're "unavailable", and leave it at that.
The guy is an idiot for giving that speech in that venue.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article . com,
Jay Honeck wrote:
But then, don't come to a fly-in for CHEROKEE OWNERS, for
chrissakes. Just say you're "unavailable", and leave it at that.
The guy is an idiot for giving that speech in that venue.

Hey, if he doesn't show up, he's blowing you off. If he shows up and
doesn't reveal anything "exciting," then you're ripping him to shreds.
So he shows up and tells you what's going on at Piper, and you're still
not happy? Geez, you guys are like a bunch of women! Can't please you!

From what you've described, I agree that it sounds like his message was
not well-matched to his audience, but then again, I'm not sure that he
really had any other good news. You guys probably wanted to hear about
PIper's plans for a "Cirrus killer," which is obviously something that's
not in the cards.

In the end, I'm not too worried about the parts issue, even if PIper
were to stop selling parts tomorrow. Where there's a will (and money to
be made), there's a way. I honestly don't think Piper has much to gain
by trying to ground the existing piston fleet, nor do I think that they
would be successful in doing so.


JKG

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:48:22 -0700, Jay Honeck wrote:

They
are publicly denying that there are any plans to cut off support for older
planes

I missed that. All I saw was a claim that there was no set date. That
would be consistent with "until our inventory is gone".

- Andrew

Andrew Gideon wrote:
They
are publicly denying that there are any plans to cut off support for older
planes

I missed that. All I saw was a claim that there was no set date. That
would be consistent with "until our inventory is gone".


You can read into it what you want, but IMHO, until Piper actually starts
making money selling jets, they need to keep making parts. They're not
really making much selling a new piston airplane here and there. Parts for
the existing fleet are currently a large part of their overall revenue.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

--
Message posted via AviationKB.com
http://www.aviationkb.com/Uwe/Forums...ation/200706/1