intergrandular corrosion of wing spar

Jay Honeck wrote:
: A good friend of mine went through this exact problem with his 140. It is
: not a good deal.
: As others have pointed out, it is a non-repairable problem -- the wing spars
: cannot be replaced economically. The only fix is to replace the wings, and
: that is not cheap.
: My friend's experience was a long series of nightmarish problems with
: unforeseen consequences (One example: The first set of replacement wings he
: found were crushed in shipping, and the shippers refused to pay to replace
: them.), and the plane was "down" for well over a year.
: You've really only got two choices: Part the plane out, or fix it. If you
: want to fix it, call Wentworth, bite the bullet, and pay their ridiculous
: price for serviceable wings. Have them ship the wings directly to your A&P,
: and get it done as quickly as possible. Having watched this ordeal from
: afar, it seems that attempts to find alternate sources for wings will end up
: taking far longer, and cost far more, than you expect, and the aggravation
: factor is not to be underestimated.
: Good luck.

I will second what Jay said. I also have a friend who went through this. He
bought replacement wings from Wentworth. The second set were servicable.
The A&P keeps the old wings for show & tell: you could flake pieces off the
wingspar. It "only" took about 3 months for this guy's plane to get fixed.

Wentworth and the other salvage companies probably have a goodly supply of
easily repairable wings now! You can check google for aircraft salvage yards,
there are a few around. I think there's one in the Carolinas.
--
Aaron C.

Aaron Coolidge wrote:
: easily repairable wings now! You can check google for aircraft salvage yards,
: there are a few around. I think there's one in the Carolinas.
: --
: Aaron C.

I've gotten a bunch of small things from US Air Salvage in Johnson City, TN.
There's an airport about 1/2 mile from them and they'll come out and pick you up.
They've been fair, but like any junkyard (aircraft or not), haggling is a must and
"stealer-deals" are hard to find. We bought a baggage floor out of a Cherokee 180 to
install in our 140/180. Pretty cool watching them take out a huge gas-powered
circular saw and cut a 3'x4'x6" chunk out of the fuselage of a plane. Even cooler was
watching us load the chunk into the aircraft it was going to be installed in and fly
home. A topological problem, to say the least.

-Cory


************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 04:16:59 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

My A&P has dignosed this condition on my 1964 (Piper)PA28-140. Has
anyone dealt with this? Can the wings be repaired or rebuilt? Is there
a good source for spare wings? I'm in North Carolina.

A good friend of mine went through this exact problem with his 140. It is
not a good deal.

As others have pointed out, it is a non-repairable problem -- the wing spars
cannot be replaced economically. The only fix is to replace the wings, and
that is not cheap.

My friend's experience was a long series of nightmarish problems with
unforeseen consequences (One example: The first set of replacement wings he
found were crushed in shipping, and the shippers refused to pay to replace
them.), and the plane was "down" for well over a year.

Scumbags! Name the shipper for us all!

My friend's experience was a long series of nightmarish problems with
unforeseen consequences (One example: The first set of replacement wings
he
found were crushed in shipping, and the shippers refused to pay to replace
them.), and the plane was "down" for well over a year.

Scumbags! Name the shipper for us all!

Good idea. I'll ask my friend when he returns from vacation...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Williams Airmotive in IN (Fort Wayne?) will rebuild your wings with new
spars for $2000/wing. I think that's about $1000/wing cheaper than you'll
find replacement wings at Wentworth. FWIW they rebuilt my 140's wings and I
was pleased with the results.


-Brian
N33431

"ChrisH" wrote in message
oups.com...
My A&P has dignosed this condition on my 1964 (Piper)PA28-140. Has
anyone dealt with this? Can the wings be repaired or rebuilt? Is there
a good source for spare wings? I'm in North Carolina.
Thanks,

Chris Hight

N6414W
JQF

Thanks Brian,

I just gave them a call. Around $7000 for rebuilding both, but that
means I won't have to paint them. They said the spars themselves are
$2000-2500 apiece. So how long ago were yours done (that the price was
so much higher?

I would feel better about knowing the condition as opposed to buying
used.

Chris

-Brian
N33431

Hey -- you're supposed to be on vacation! Whaddya doing here?

(Typical computer geek -- goes all the way from Iowa to California to escape
the cold, and ends up sitting around pecking away on his laptop... ;-)

So who *were* those scumbag shippers that ripped you off, anyway?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"