Price and availability of wing lift struts

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

As of Saturday Morning... Hurricane Dean is headed toward Brownsville Texas packing 140-150 mph winds. Since the Taylorcraft has a "Never Exceed" speed of 140... wind tunnel testing can be done in mass beginning Thursday of Friday of this coming week. Although I suppose this new weather development will affect manufacturing and shipping more than advanced engineering and quality control.

With regards;
ED OBRIEN

[mikerice]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

The raw streamlined strut material is very expensive, and must be ordered and fabricated in large quantities. It is available from only 1 or 2 suppliers in the US.

I doubt that there is inventory sitting on a shelf anywhere. It will take some time to fabricate the raw material and then deliver it to Brownsville. The crew at Brownsville will probably be working double shifts to get the new strut orders filled. There is only one factory strut fabrication tool and it needs to be secured (along with all the other Taylorcraft tooling) prior to the arrival of Hurricane Dean.

Those of you who live on the Gulf coast know that hurricanes 1 week out are very unpredictable. I was in Brownsville in 2005 when Tropical storm Emily went into Mexico just south of Brownsville. It caused local flooding in BRO and winds were only 40mph. No telling what damage a direct hit would do.

The old facilities at the BRO airport took on a lot of water. The new facility should be better, as long as the whole area does not flood.

[Guest]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Backlogged so soon? How many orders have they gotten?
Seems to me they weren't ready...hmmmm. Looks like those buying struts from the factory will be waiting a long time. Don't know if others will fare much better. Hope we're all not legally grounded while waiting.

Arithematic:

There are about 1800 planes as I counted registration so that's 7200 struts

T-craft can make 4 struts per day per Harry

Univair says they can make 6 struts per day

That's 10 struts per day total.

7200/10=720 days

There are 250 workdays per year so that 720/250= 2.88 years until the last T-craft is out fitted if everyone buys struts

Make sense?

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Wag-Aero is supposed to join the battle too. How many units will they produce? I would imagine that there will be 3 different groupings:
1. "I need Struts NOW 'cause my-bad struts didn't pass inspection" -- PMA/Factory will gear-up for a big push. This is the good business, gotta have it now crowd. The factory will take people off small projects and fill the front end "gotta-have" strut orders as quickly as humanly possible. The competition is limited and the market primed. They'll (PMA/Factory) do this... because there will be a big initial push. The AD will expose all the plane that MUST have new struts. First to market to satisfy this demand will be profitable.
2. "I'll take new struts down the road"... The next group... will inspect and try to get by for awhile. These folks will wait for a rebuild, big annual, or long down-time. They'll come into the system in ones-ies and twos-ies. They'll buy when they can afford it and likely not buy full sets all at once.
3. "I don't care about no damn struts" -- There are people flying experimental, clipped wings, or just finished rebuilds... they'll take advantage of a loop-hole in the AD
(I fly a L2A and it looks like I have a loop hole for the moment. Mine was rebuilt last year. That said, I'm having mine tested next week.) These people may never buy struts... they'll fly what they got until the bitter end. Some will phoney up inspections. Some will lie in the log-books. We've all seen mistreated Taylorcrafts with suspect inspections. Please count me in group 1 or 2 depending on how my inspection goes. AND, let's weed out those in group 3 because if we're crashing Taylorcrafts because of group 3... we'll all pay the price with an even more restrictive AD down the line.
With regards; ED OBRIEN

[M Towsley]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

With all the machinations of a certain person who perpetuated this mad rush for struts you would think he would have ramped up production first. Just my thoughts at the moment, I'm naturally suspicious, though.......

[flybikefarm]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Streamline tubing is formed from round tubing pulled thru a die. It is done right here in Streator. I have watched the process many times. The dies can be changed out very quickly from one size or shape to another. The only limiteding factor would be having the correct size and thickness round tubing available. If the steamline is a standard, size I would think they would have the dies. George

[Gary Snell]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Aircraft Spruce has the sealed struts. Not sure who their supplier is but noticed their online price is about $100 more than their newest catalog. Guess they saw this coming too.

[M Towsley]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

George,

What business in Streator is doing that work? I was unaware, though I don't know the town that well. Only visited a couple of times with my friend to visit his father.

[flybikefarm]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Plymouth tube. I taught one of the night shift guys there how to fly. Up until a couple of years ago one could get tube from there, not any more because of liability. George

[NY86]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Aircraft Spruce has the sealed struts. Not sure who their supplier is...

Probably Univair.

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Probably Univair.

A/C Spruce sells Univair Parts.

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

My T-Craft was in the shop anyway for some work so I asked for the initial strut inspection as per the AD/SB. Well, my AI found corrosion in my struts. I'm actually thankful for the AD -- I take my responsibility as a pilot and owner seriously, and don't want to fly an aircraft that has a higher than normal risk of failure. I have no wish to be the pilot of the first T-Craft to experience in-flight failure of a wing strut. So I agree with grounding my ship until the struts are replaced.

I called Univair: They responsed that their struts have PMA approval for the BC-12D only, not for my BC-65. So I ordered a set from the factory. I hope Kevin and others are right that the factory is now being straight with all of us. I wish them well. IMHO, it would be a great benefit to us if they can produce enough parts at a competitive price to keep us flying.

The factory has a backlog now, and quoted me 3 weeks until ready to ship. Stay tuned...

How much more inspecting did your mechanic do on your struts because you asked? Was the corrsion apparent from just looking a them, or did he do something more invovled?

Mike

[DanBrown]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Mike,

He probed the drain holes (not all could be found) with a wire which came up coated with rust. I may be a chicken, but in my uneducated opinion, I'd rather be safe and replace with sealed struts and avoid future inspections and worries.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

Those of us who replace our struts need to NOT destroy the old ones. I have a feeling that when this settles down many of the removed ones may be found to be perfectly serviceable, or at least the end fittings may be usable to make new struts with replacement streamline tube stock. DON'T just bend them in the middle to keep them from being used. Paint "RUSTED" down the length and they can at least be used to hold the wings up while the others are being inspected or are on order. I would LOVE to have a set of "bad" struts to hold my wings while I painted my "good" ones. (At least I HOPE they are good!)
Hank

[perryv1]

Re: Price and availability of wing lift struts

To comment or ad a 4th senario in Eds post,is the aircraft that are modified as per STC as mine is (Wings with Springs),the aircraft is not held to the AD as written,but the owner still inspects the airplane as if it did apply.
PerryV