Page 43 - EAA78.Newsletter.Archives.(February.2017-July.2021)

CHAPTER CHATTER, EAA Chapter 78 7

Piper has grounded the in-service fleet of M600 single- Are You Busting A Regulation If You
engine turboprops after production workers identified a
section of the aft wing spar that did not meet designed Take These 6 Flights?
measurement tolerances. Piper notified the FAA of the
discrepancy and ordered wing spar inspections to
determine if the issue affects other airplanes, according
to Piper CEO Simon Caldecott, who provided an
update at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, this
afternoon.

“An issue with a vendor-sourced part was
discovered in the wing,” he said. “Piper voluntarily
decided to issue a mandatory service bulletin out
of an abundance of caution. We hope to get the
fleet back in the air very shortly.”

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Because the vendor did not have detailed data on the
aft wing spars in the rest of the M600 fleet, there is no
way of knowing whether the parts meet tolerances
without checking them, Caldecott said.

The inspection procedure requires draining the fuel
from both wings and measuring the thickness of the aft
wing spar on both wings in 32 in-service airplanes and
another eight in dealer inventory.

If the wing spars on other airplanes are found to be
within tolerance, the M600 fleet will be cleared to fly
again. Caldecott did not speculate about what remedy
would be necessary if other spars are found to be out EXAMPLE: What are the 4 lights to the left of the runway called?
of tolerance.

Introduced last year, the M600 is an updated version of
the PA-46 Meridian that features an all-new wing
design.