At age 41 I began my aviation journey on the west coast of British Columbia, along with our 14 year old son in Piper Cherokee aircraft. My journey continued and I became a flight instructor and our son flies passenger jets in Australia. 19 years later and I have amasted over 3000 hrs on training aircraft, most of which is on Cherokee and Warrior aircraft. Piper build a wonderful series of aircrafts in the 60's and 70's, the vast majority of which are still in operation today. I had never given a second thought to their integrity due to the rigorous maintenance programs practiced by reputable flight training institutions. HOWEVER, metal fatique is insidious and not always easy to detect! You may or may not already be aware of a recent failure of a control column in a Piper Cherokee on approach at St. Andrews airport in Manitoba earlier this year in February. (2016.02.13) to be exact. I encourage all Piper Cherokee owners to check out Transport Canada CADOR (Canadian Aviation Daily Occurence Report) 2016C0338. As the flight instructor in this incident I can say that the failure was immediate and resulted in a complete loss of control column authority. Moreover, a "magnetic partial imaging" inspection of the T-Bar junction wleld of another decommissioned Piper Cherokee control column revealed cracks in the same location as the failed aircraft. Both Cherokee were very high time (21,000 and 18,000 hours) respectively. It should be noted that even a rigorous visual inspections of a Cherokee's T-Bar control assembly can not reveal any diminished integrity of the junction weld. This is because the T-Bar is painted black. A simple glance behind the instrument panel at the T-bar would unlikely identify developing integrity problems with the weld. I would encourage any owner of an aged, high time, Cherokee to have the T-Bar assembly removed and subjected to MPI to assess the integrity of the control column. Since the incident, I have been advised that there is a Canadian Aviation Safety Advisory notice being created regarding this catastrophic failure. As pilots we need to do our part to keep each other safe. Please pass the word regarding this failure onto fellow Cherokee owners and pilots. I know my confidence is a little shaken on the integrity of the T-Bar on older Cherokees. My personal commitment is not to fly one unless I know the control column has been subjected to MPI. Tom Larkin
Last edited:
