Unapproved Plastic Elevator Tips Question

Alright, here is a good one for you. Stene in Montana manufactures and
sells very nice fiberglas tips for elevators, stabilizers, wings, and
rudders, mostly for Pipers and Cessnas. You can find these parts advertised
in TAP and on the internet. I have inspected, painted, and installed
several of these fairings and was impressed with their workmanship. They
are very well-made. The plastic parts replaced by these Stene parts are
probably from Cessna. They are probably Royalite. Besides being
ill-fitting and ugly, they are brittle and crack and break of easily,
especially at the rivet holes. After a few years they get brittle and break
away.

An aeroplastics company in Texas sells these fairings too, and they are
PMA'd. I do not know how much more costly they are than Stene's but
understand the extra expense is substantial.

Now why should you be stuck with PMA'd parts when Stene's, which are NOT
PMA'd are just as servicable, just as durable? And if Stene's are not
legal, then how does Stene get off selling them?

Yesterday I looked at a 172 with all new Stene tips on the empennage
surfaces. They were quite beautiful. And, by the way, I saw this
aircraft's sister ship flying with most of the tips broken off and gone back
in the summer, so you can't very well say that the absence of one or more of
these fairings, or one having cracked and broken, is a hazard, can you?

What am I missing here, Gene?

" jls" wrote in message
...

Alright, here is a good one for you. Stene in Montana manufactures and
sells very nice fiberglas tips for elevators, stabilizers, wings, and
rudders, mostly for Pipers and Cessnas. You can find these parts
advertised
in TAP and on the internet. I have inspected, painted, and installed
several of these fairings and was impressed with their workmanship. They
are very well-made. The plastic parts replaced by these Stene parts are
probably from Cessna. They are probably Royalite. Besides being
ill-fitting and ugly, they are brittle and crack and break of easily,
especially at the rivet holes. After a few years they get brittle and
break
away.

An aeroplastics company in Texas sells these fairings too, and they are
PMA'd. I do not know how much more costly they are than Stene's but
understand the extra expense is substantial.

Now why should you be stuck with PMA'd parts when Stene's, which are NOT
PMA'd are just as servicable, just as durable?


Because non-PMA parts will cause the aircraft to fall out of the sky without
warning.



And if Stene's are not legal, then how does Stene get off selling them?


Probably because no law is broken until the parts are placed in service.

Isn't part of your A&P authority the ability to determine that the
parts you have are identifcal to the original, and therefor approve
them? We don't get PMA's on screws and bolts.

In article . net,
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:


Because non-PMA parts will cause the aircraft to fall out of the sky without
warning.

unless, of course, the paperwork has been properly completed.

--
Bob Noel
looking for a sig the lawyers will like

On 28 Dec 2004 16:47:05 -0800, "Robert M. Gary"
wrotD:

Isn't part of your A&P authority the ability to determine that the
parts you have are identifcal to the original, and therefor approve
them? We don't get PMA's on screws and bolts.

An A&P can only install approved parts - that includes screws of a
type approved by the manufacturer. The manufacturer builds the parts
under their manufacturing authority and not via the PMA process.

An A&P does not have the skill set or engineering degree to make that
evaluation. Maybe they are being installed via an STC which is an
engineered and approved package. As long as the A&P follows the STC
he can install them, documenting the work with a 337.

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"Don Hammer" wrote in message
...
On 28 Dec 2004 16:47:05 -0800, "Robert M. Gary"
wrotD:

Isn't part of your A&P authority the ability to determine that the
parts you have are identifcal to the original, and therefor approve
them? We don't get PMA's on screws and bolts.

An A&P can only install approved parts - that includes screws of a
type approved by the manufacturer. The manufacturer builds the parts
under their manufacturing authority and not via the PMA process.

I have read that they can install owner manufactured parts?

If this guy says he is an A&P, he's just trolling Don't feed the
trolls. A&P's know not to ask these types of questions. He's from
the manufacturer and is generating interest. Let him go through all
the **** like everyone else and get the PMA.

On 28 Dec 2004 16:47:05 -0800, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote:

Isn't part of your A&P authority the ability to determine that the
parts you have are identifcal to the original, and therefor approve
them? We don't get PMA's on screws and bolts.

An A&P can only install approved parts - that includes screws of a
type approved by the manufacturer. The manufacturer builds the parts
under their manufacturing authority and not via the PMA process.

I have read that they can install
owner manufactured parts?

They can but the owner needs to show that the part is identical to the
original. Not better, not different identical. A writer for Lightplane
Maintenance documented how he made is own fiberglass rudder tip for his Cessna
right up to installing it and then removing it on advice from the FAA that it
did not meet their definition of an owner produced part. Of course your FAA
may vary depending on location.

You can of course by and install Stene's parts and in all likelihood most
future A&P IAs will not notice or ignore them. But you or a future owner might
well run into someone who is more than normally observant and determined to
document the condition of the aircraft and the owner might find himself having
to decide all over again if Stene's were really worth it.

John Dupre'

" jls" wrote in message
...

Now why should you be stuck with PMA'd parts when Stene's, which are NOT
PMA'd are just as servicable, just as durable? And if Stene's are not
legal, then how does Stene get off selling them?

What the f*** are you talking about? Stene's parts _are_ PMA'd. From their
web site:

" jls" wrote in message
...

Now why should you be stuck with PMA'd parts when Stene's, which are NOT
PMA'd are just as servicable, just as durable? And if Stene's are not
legal, then how does Stene get off selling them?

What the f*** are you talking about? Stene's parts _are_ PMA'd. From their
web site:

http://www.steneaviation.com/aboutus.html

"Stene Aviation started manufacturing replacement fairings for Cessna
aircraft in 1992 and now have the most complete line of PMA'd parts to be
found outside of Cessna ."

And you call _me_ clueless?