Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

What are the obligations of an EASA TC owner, when it comes to supporting the type (Socata parts especially)?

Thielert went through bankruptcy proceedings so there was no point in suing them. Nobody got anything really.

Yes but it wasn’t the engine that people bought

They bought a whole plane.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I wrote to Socata to clarify the matters raised in this thread.

Initially they totally denied there is any truth in it, but a later response confirmed the situation, which I will paraphrase as follows:

They have not officially stopped making the parts which they make, but production of those parts stopped almost 10 years ago. Since then they have managed to supply peoples’ requirements from stock and by reprocessing parts from parted-out and crashed aircraft.

This situation is identical to e.g. Cessna who have not officially stopped making any parts but in reality many parts are not ever going to be made again, and IMHO this is the Socata outcome too.

While Socata are taking the path of neither confirming nor denying that parts manufacture has stopped, Cessna’s approach is to quote a (say) 6 month lead time and if you order the part they just keep extending the time frame without actually doing anything to make the part.

This is similar to Socata not confirming TB aircraft manufacture had stopped, till 3 years later – 2005.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

There is more evidence from owners that Socata no longer make or supply major airframe parts e.g. landing gear components.

If you need some of these you either scrap your plane (and part it out) or try to obtain them from another parted-out TB.

It’s not a good situation but probably similar to many other GA types.

A good incentive to look after your plane

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Such is the beauty of the classic Piper Cub and it’s younger brother the Super Cub. Piper long since stopped making any parts. However you can buy all the bits to make a new Super Cub from Univair and on many parts you have a choice of other suppliers as well. The UK CAA certainly accept these parts without question. The Super Cub is Annex 2

Darley Moor, Gamston (UK)

I suspect the issue here is that Socata will never officially announce they have stopped making anything.

It took them about 4 years (2006) to admit they stopped making the TB range. And still they delivered some planes with 2003 paperwork, even some 2004 and I think 1 which was 2005 or 2006 (discussed here) which was actually 2002 but they took it back and regenerated the paperwork.

And until Socata state officially they are out of the parts business, in specific areas, nobody is going to tool up for making the stuff. Airframe parts are often a lot of work.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
26 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top