Mike,
You are indeed a brave man, stepping into this bear cage. I, for one, am appreciative of your (Univair's) efforts to minimize the potential of an AD that goes far beyond anything that may actually be needed while protecting both us and your company. I also can appreciate the need for not making statements that might be used against you at some future point. And yes, I am one of those people who have at times been less than impressed with an answer, or lack thereof, to a question I posed. However; I have always received a return call or e-mail with the information I needed. I have also benefited from the knowledge and patience of your personnel, who have at times no doubt wished, "that idiot on the phone knew what he wanted." I will ask that you (Univair) consider one additional item in this and future situations: Communication. Even if there is no real information that can be shared, at least let the fleet know that you are aware of the situation. I believe a short email to this forum simply acknowledging a problem, or potential problem, would go a long ways towards good customer relations and keeping us calm. One last point: In your message you referred to "your forum." It is also your forum. A forum is a discussion, a give and take of ideas and information; should you have questions about what is going on with the fleet; you can ask. Should you see bad or wrong information being propagated, you could caution to "check the manuals." Of course, that would be during your spare time after memorizing the part numbers for that upside down, left handed, whatzit, that is screwed to the gizmo. For now; all we can do is await the FAA's next move. As for myself, consider the "credit" given. I thank you for what you have done thus far. Tommy Terry N93929 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of univair Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 6:58 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Let's step back and take a deep breath here. ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Sellers To: michael.sellers@ <mailto:michael.sellers%40comcast.net> comcast.net Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 3:52 PM The Coupe series had several spar cap designs in the course of its manufacture. There is no one single drawing that states the number and size of holes. However, the bucket seat installation was approved from s/n 113 through the end of production. There were several spar caps. All had holes. Some had more than others. Some had bigger holes than other. Center sections have been swapped, spar caps replaced, 337 installations made and a lot of installations with no documentation. There is no single souce of information. Our position puts us in a situation that none of you have and we cannot fulfill every request for information because we have multiple responsibilities in matters such as this. You have a disclaimer on your forum that none of you are engineers or have any official status in providing technical information. Well, we do. There is likely litigation that will arise from this accident. An unguarded comment, speculation or just general B.S. becomes fodder for a lawyer. We have been doing our job for 63 years. We know how this process works and we also know we cannot just go running our mouths. None of you would want to be served to testify in a trial. I don't want to be either. Every time one of these service issues come out, regardless of aircraft, we are sorry S.O.B.s for providing airplane parts. Then, some of you find out that there is merit to these ADs and then things die down. After 31 years I look forward to ADs and Service Bulletins like a root canal. I wish you could understand all of the challenges we face on a daily basis to provide parts for your 60 year old aircraft. The Cessna 120 is just as old as your aircraft. The original manufacturer of the aircraft is still around. Cessna has resolved this same problem we have by discontinuing most of the parts for that aircraft. We have to play by the same rules they do. We could sell parts cheaper if we operated out of our basements and did this in our spare time, but we are 50 people doing our jobs in a 66,000 sq ft building. We are regulated by an agency who can padlock our front door if they so choose. We supply parts for over 40 airplanes. I didn't know what gauge wire was used on the instrument panel lights for a 108-2 when asked one day. I had to take a bunch of crap over that by a customer because as type certificate holder, "I am supposed to know this." Well I do know the thickness of J-3 struts and the part number for the engine mount rubbers on an O-320. We know that. This is our job. We know the part number for the rubber doughnuts on the Coupe. We sell those all the time and thousands of other bits of information. There is about 75 years of collective aviation experience in our sales office. I didn't count my years growing up in the business in that figure. I could fudge that and put us over the 100 year mark. We need to sell parts to stay in business. However, I was expected to know this all important information about wire off the top of my head. Also, it would result in no sale. Not knowing it makes us suspect and stupid in the eyes of some individuals. In 31 years I have only been asked that very important question about Stinson insturment panel wire once. Nobody else has ever been asked. 18 gauge for those who need to know. Now, for the important stuff: Roger Caldwell was here today. Engineering and the company President and CEO were part of the meeting. It lasted about 90 minutes. As I mentioned before and want to emphasize, we will not speculate or debate this matter in a public forum. I am not at liberty to discuss the details of this meeting. I will say that I think we made a fairly compelling case. What the FAA does at this point I do not know. I don't know if an AD if forthcoming or not. If one does, there will be the NPRM process in which to state your concerns. What I will share with you is this: We were very emphatic that any AD that results from this matter needs to require compliance with existing Ercoupe Service Bulletins 57, 58 and 58A. We know your concerns about this issue. Please give us a little credit here. Regards, Mike Sellers Marketing and Sales Manager Univair Aircraft Corp. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.115/2403 - Release Date: 09/29/09 17:56:00
