o. m. g.

Impressive, but I still think the autopilot servo shear pin (Cessna 300A), weighing in at about 0.25 gr and priced at $65 still takes the award for highest cost/weight.

Jeff
 
Just got in a Cessna flap cable for my Cardinal. The 3rd party item was about $100 but was too flimsy, and both my A&P and I agreed to go for the Cessna cable. The Cessna is only a bit sturdier, could not have cost more than $5 to make, and retails for... $625.
 
Thanks for the reminder why I need to include experimental airplanes in my search when I get around to buying an airplane.
 
Jim Logajan said:
Thanks for the reminder why I need to include experimental airplanes in my search when I get around to buying an airplane.
Click to expand...

The only people who buy these fittings are the people who are stupid enough to throw away their old ones.

But when you build an aircraft you must buy new ones, or search the salvage yards, and they know they are expensive. and they have always been expensive.
 
Ok, I'm ignorant enough to ask. What is special about this fitting? The material used to plate it? I can buy a 3/8x3/8npt 90 at the local parts store for 5 bucks for brass. or I can get nickel plated for about 8 bucks. I certainly understand why only quality parts should be used for airplanes, but that is ridiculous.
 
mikeinbama said:
What is special about this fitting?
Click to expand...

It has a bunch of letters and numbers stamped on it that says it has been approved for use in aircraft. In a lot of cases, it is the exact same part you can get for 5 bucks.

Occasionally, it's not.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
It has a bunch of letters and numbers stamped on it that says it has been approved for use in aircraft. In a lot of cases, it is the exact same part you can get for 5 bucks.

Occasionally, it's not.
Click to expand...

Any fitting in the vac system is bent in a manner that is condusive to air flow

the regular AN hydraulic fitting are bent at a sharper radius, and restrict airflow at the low pressures of the vac systems.

using one of these http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/hapages/an842.php will not work in a vac systems.
 
mikeinbama said:
Ok, I'm ignorant enough to ask. What is special about this fitting? The material used to plate it? I can buy a 3/8x3/8npt 90 at the local parts store for 5 bucks for brass. or I can get nickel plated for about 8 bucks. I certainly understand why only quality parts should be used for airplanes, but that is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Mandrel bent (probably high grade steel) fitting with a yellow chromate anti-corrosion plating. It is probably leak checked, possibly checked for flow, with other quality checks. At low volumes, I'd guess between $15 (for the larger one) and $60 (for the smaller one) to make.

One thing I've learned working at an OEM is that two identical looking parts are NEVER identical. Its the little things like material quality, part cleaning before plating, that bite you in your A$$.
 
Fair enough. In a past life I was in the automotive repair/parts business and a fitting was a fitting. I am learning that these fancy flying contraptions are a whole 'nother world.
 
If the catalog said that the fitting was equivalent to AN-XYZ or conformed to some other spec, I say yes maybe you had some guarantee of conformity to some technical requirement, I don't see that in the Spruce Catalog. I just see a Spruce P/N.

Does Spruce have PMA approval to manufacture parts that are replacement parts for aircraft? There is a category of PMA parts approval based on open specifications, but I don't see how with this situalion would apply.

In the part 121 world, as soon as you sell it under a proprietary P/N the only way to represent it as a replacement for an an airframe OEM part is for the part manufacturer to have PMA for the part.

I don't know how it works with GA, but how does anyone trace the Spruce P/N to the raw materials and manufacturing craftmanship required to make an aircraft part? I would have expected the FAA MIDO would have to approve it.
 
kontiki said:
If the catalog said that the fitting was equivalent to AN-XYZ or conformed to some other spec, I say yes maybe you had some guarantee of conformity to some technical requirement, I don't see that in the Spruce Catalog. I just see a Spruce P/N.

Does Spruce have PMA approval to manufacture parts that are replacement parts for aircraft? There is a category of PMA parts approval based on open specifications, but I don't see how with this situalion would apply.

In the part 121 world, as soon as you sell it under a proprietary P/N the only way to represent it as a replacement for an an airframe OEM part is for the part manufacturer to have PMA for the part.

I don't know how it works with GA, but how does anyone trace the Spruce P/N to the raw materials and manufacturing craftmanship required to make an aircraft part? I would have expected the FAA MIDO would have to approve it.
Click to expand...

BT, read the top of the page. It's not anAircraft Spruce part, it's an Airborne part, bearing the same PN that appears in my Cessna parts catalog.

Paul
 
Thanks Paul, I didn't pick up on that.
 
PaulMillner said:
Or, know enough to buy this part from Tempest, not Airborne! :-)

Paul
Click to expand...

Hmm; thanks for the heads-up. I see the same Airborne part is available here (http://www.airsuppliers.com/shop/search.asp?searchterm=1K1-6-6) for $50.70 (less than 1/6th the asking price of $328.40 at Aircraft Spruce http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ha/fit_zairborne.html) - unless I have the wrong part numbers? Both look to be 1K1-6-6 fittings from the same manufacturer. Just different distributors. What gives?
 
Typically it takes a P/N and vendor code to unambigusly define a part.

The P/N traces to a DWG (or document that defines the part, sometimes it's even an airframers spec) and vendor code tells you who's drawing or document it is.

It's been years since I've looked at a Cessna IPC, does it list vendor codes for parts like this?

Approving less expensive identical parts (or just available parts) is bread and butter work for airline engineering groups.

It's also possible for an operator to manufacture their own parts, you still have to work through a logic diagram to ensure it qualify as an FAA minor change, and the part must be marked so it cannot be mistaken for or ever sold to anyone as a replacement for the OEM part (if that's as far as you take it anyway).
 
TripleZ said:
Mandrel bent (probably high grade steel) fitting with a yellow chromate anti-corrosion plating. It is probably leak checked, possibly checked for flow, with other quality checks. At low volumes, I'd guess between $15 (for the larger one) and $60 (for the smaller one) to make.

One thing I've learned working at an OEM is that two identical looking parts are NEVER identical. Its the little things like material quality, part cleaning before plating, that bite you in your A$$.
Click to expand...

and don't forget the lawyers, plus the mark up at all levels.
 
Jeff Oslick said:
Impressive, but I still think the autopilot servo shear pin (Cessna 300A), weighing in at about 0.25 gr and priced at $65 still takes the award for highest cost/weight.
Click to expand...

I don't know... I'll have to weigh the Piper stall switch (nothing fancy, it's JUST a switch in a housing)... OEM prices at around $1300. Luckily there's a company making a PMA replacement that's "only" $600.
 
mikeinbama said:
Fair enough. In a past life I was in the automotive repair/parts business and a fitting was a fitting. I am learning that these fancy flying contraptions are a whole 'nother world.
Click to expand...

Not really they aren't. There are more regulations, but in the end it comes out the same. Trust me, there are "redneck airplanes" out there. It's amazing what some people who live "out country ways" keep and fly. I remember going to go get an old Bonanza off a property in Mississippi. I showed up with my truck, trailer and another driver/helper who was also an A&P so I could either ferry or haul it out depending on condition. I took one look...:eek: and the first thing that came to mind was "Trailer Trash Airplane...". The guy had been flying it all the way until he died a few months prior. Testimony to how solidly built a Bo is...:nonod::nonod::nonod:
 
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