Thank you. Makes good sense...
Kim Blackseth
1946 415-D
N2332H
On Sep 29, 2009, at 4:57 PM, univair wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Sellers
To: [email protected]
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.
Kim Blackseth, ICC, CASp
310 17th St
Oakland, CA
510-839-1760
