The current situation is completely pointless.
I need some part. I contact Troyes. They have no part lookup facility. They need me to somehow look up the P/N. Then they send the P/N to Socata who respond with stock / no stock / not recognised / obsolete / superseded / etc. I order it. So Troyes order it from Socata. It arrives; they ship it to me, invoicing two lots of delivery charges. It may be the wrong part but at no stage will anybody check applicability. I can tell them my S/N is xxxx when I order. Makes no difference. By policy nobody will check applicability.
The result is that everything costs probably about 50% more on average, takes much longer to arrive, and may be the wrong part because by policy there is no up to date database accessible to the end customer (whether it is an individual like me, or a maintenance shop). Also the manufacturer makes much less gross profit because they are supporting this reseller, who adds absolutely zero value.
Luckily I rarely need parts, because the aircraft is 2002 and has been looked after. But try something older…
It’s the same in electronics… distributors add zero value nowadays, but that’s another story.
Peter wrote:
It’s the same in electronics… distributors add zero value nowadays, but that’s another story.
Do they really not? If you’re building stuff in prototype quantities, it’s a lot easier to order all the parts from RS in one go and have them show up the next day, than have to order a dozen FPGAs direct from Lattice, the passives directly off Vishay, transistors off NXP, jelly bean logic from TI etc.
Sure, for low volumes, but distis add no vaue to production volumes, and with aircraft parts the mfg ships only your order to the disti. It’s a complete waste of time.
Why do aircraft manufacturers not sell parts directly?
Because they don’t manufacture the parts, but buy them themselves?
I’ve yet to own an aircraft for which OEM parts were still being produced or sold by the airframe manufacturer. New Old Stock, PMA or used serviceable airframe parts are therefore the norm for me and many others, and for that reason I’m pretty happy there are middlemen supplying the market. Over time their role as a distributor gravitates towards sourcing parts suppliers or even manufacturing them in-house under PMA.
Over the life cycle of an aircraft type, at some point the OEM may become a minor factor in maintaining the aircraft, even if the OEM or successor company still exists. This is BTW equally true for aircraft types with designs now owned by Airbus.
Should not be like this. When I need parts for my 50 years old Comanche I contact global aviation in Kassel. Even for parts that cost less than 1 € like O-rings they provide a superb service to double-check that the right part is ordered. I explain what I need and – if possible – give the Piper numbers from the respective catalogue, they check whether it is the right item for my plane, what is the “new” number that Piper uses nowadays and where they get it from. During my first annual I would have been completely lost without them. And when they cannot provide an item, like in my case some exchange hoses for the brake lines, they gave me an address who manufactures those with Form 1 based on the old hoses.
I’m not in any way related, but I feel free to post this positive experience here. Merchants like them with such a good service make it a lot easier to maintain a plane without a shop.
Better question is what manufacturers restrict access to current technical documentation.
It’s dangerous practise and prices offered by ATP are insane.
I’m not sure, if there is any other provider than ATP?
ATP made a huge amount of money, charging ~$1000/year for the CD. This was supported by European regulations stating that you must be “in possession of current data” which every anally retarded “regulation interpreter” interpreted as having the ATP subscription.
It was great (not) for a maint company which works on say 30 different types 
Most I knew ran with old ATP CDs for the less commonly seen types.
ATP paid the manufacturer for the right to republish, obviously. Parts are a big profit centre. You sell a plane just once, but…
Some funny stuff went on e.g. Socata delivered the data to ATP in a low-resolution scanned form, barely readable. Internally they had the 300dpi printouts in A4 binders, and later they had the non-scanned PDFs but only recently these have become accessible to users.
Similar thread here on why have aircraft dealers.
