Well I could see the photograph real well.
But the problem looks quite bad, I am checking my Archer in the same area.

--
Roy
N5804F - PA28-181 Piper Archer II




"xyzzy" wrote in message
...
C wrote:

On 05 Apr 2005 15:58:08 GMT, (Jay Masino)
wrote:


C wrote:

Working on a 100hour just a month before the annual is due -- my
mechanic and I lifted the back seat to look at the cabling underneath.
Lo and behold -- we found a "tear" in an aluminum bulkhead under the
back seat.

The bulkhead is under the back of the rear seat and doesn't appear to
be structural as it is thin aluminum. But there is a steel brace
coming in from the flap area of the wing and rivited to the lower
outside corner of the aluminum bulkhead.

I'd be carefull jumping to the conclusion that's it isn't structural.
That steel plate is the rear wing attach fitting. And I believe the
bulkhead that it's attached to is considered the "rear spar carry
through"
(like a "mini" spar). Cherokee's have a large center spar, but also have
a front and rear attach point and carry through. The front carry through
is behind where your heels sit when you're in the pilot's seat (under the
plastic trim pieces). The rear one is where you describe.



However on mine, just next to the steel brace on the baggage door side
-- there is a inch long tear up from the bottom of the bulkhead and a
small buckle in the aluminum brace above the tear. Its like there was
a terrific upwards stress on the bottom corner of the bulkhead where
the steel is rivited and it tore the aluminum bulkhead upwards.

There was a person on the Cherokee Chat (see Jay Honeck's post) a few
weeks ago that had very similar crack and he posted pictures. I hope
this
isn't the beginning of a trend, or we'll be seeing an AD soon.

You're correct in assuming a "terrific upward stress", although I would
have hoped that a hard landing or bad turbulence wouldn't have caused
such
damage. You'll want to make sure you have a very competant mechanic fix
this. Wing departure, or severe twist, while in flight would really
suck. You might want to show this to your local FSDO, too. I hate to
encourage
and AD, but this could be a problem we might not want to ignore.

--- Jay


Funny you mention that...

I talked to the maintenance person at the FSDO today about this
problem. As soon as I mentioned that I had a Cherokee with a damaged
"Frame Assembly Lower Station" -- he replies "The one under the back
seat?". WOW! I'd hate to think this is a common problem.

Its looking like I'll either have to replace it with the same part
scavenged from another Cherokee, or call in a DER to design a fix and
then do the fix. Either way -- its going to be expensive!

I'm thinking that I'm going to go after a A&P for the cost though. I
paid a A&P for a pre-buy/annual less than a year ago. This problem is
not new -- someone tried a half-assed, partial fix with some rivits.
So, the problem was definitely known, not in the logs, not repaired,
and NOT identified during his annual inspection. And this was
something a regular A&P spotted as soon as we lifted the rear seat.
So, I think I'm going to AT LEAST get my payment for the pre-buy back
if not get full payment for repairs.

See attached picture. Sorry for the grime, I haven't had a chance to
clean up under that seat yet.


Chuck


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