Piper .

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing that owners of nearly 42,000 piston-powered Piper-built aircraft have their right and left control columns inspected and possibly repaired due to faulty factory assembly work.
The directive, which covers the PA-28, PA-32, PA-34 and PA-44 models, is the result of two incidents that occurred on twin-engine PA-34 Piper Senecas
In the first incident, the right hand control wheel on a Seneca broke off due to a mis-drilled hole in the column at the universal joint, a situation that could leave a pilot with no direct pitch or roll control.
In the second incident, a ground inspection of a Seneca revealed similar flaw on the left control wheel.
Investigations revealed that the control wheel shafts “had been incorrectly assembled at Piper and holes were mis-drilled even though they may visually appear acceptable,” says the FAA. “The hole in the shaft may be too close to the end of the shaft, causing a significant reduction in joint strength.”
Piper has since added a step in the manufacturing process to correct the error, and issued a service bulletin (SB) for the in-service fleet on 1 September.
The FAA estimates the proposed AD affects 41,928 US-registered aircraft and will cost $40 per aircraft for the 30min inspection. Owners would have complete the inspections within 100h or 60 days, whichever comes first, of the date the AD becomes final.

Expansion in Asia/Pacific is a priority for Piper Aircraft’s new president and CEO, Kevin Gould, who is
seeking to restore the company to the “14 aircraft per day” level of activity it peaked at three decades ago.

Late last year, Gould promised that Piper would increase production rates by 50% in 2010, but at the show this week, he upped his “optimism rating” by declaring a “more than 50%” hike to be in the cards.

Piper, on Stand H53 and in the static display, has taken a first step towards improving its Asia/Pacific presence with the formation in Brunei last December of Piper Aircraft Asia, headed by managing director Mary Messuti.
HQ location is important, for one of Messuti’s first tasks is to oversee formation of a flying academy in Brunei—Piper equipped, of course.

Gould assured customers for the PiperJet personal jet that the slightly delayed aircraft is moving ahead with the hiring of 50 additional engineers and revision of first delivery date to 2013.

However, the main news this week is the world (outside U.S.) debut in the Changi static display of the PiperSport, optimized for the American LSA (sub 600 kg/1,320 lb T-O weight) category.

The 100 hp, two-seat tourer/trainer is an extensively modified, but still low-cost version of the Sport Cruiser, previously marketed as a kit by Czech Sport Aircraft (CSA).

Fabrication of the aircraft will remain in the Czech Republic, but CSA has relinquished its rights to continue with separate marketing of the kit version, on which the aircraft’s reputation was built.

Piper thus goes head-to-head with Cessna in the factory-assembled LSA market.
However, unlike its arch-rival, Piper has chosen an established design and has not had second thoughts about employing a foreign (Rotax) engine.

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