Video Shows That Piper Cherokee Wing Spar Inspection Isn‘t As Scary As We Feared

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We ran across a really useful video from HangaRatz that shows exactly how an eddy current test is performed on the wing spar of a Piper PA-28R-200 with more than 10,000 hours. In it, the host, the knowledgeable and hilarious "Bill," takes watchers through the entire process, including getting the eddy current testing company out to do the inspection. It's not a piece of equipment most A&Ps have in the bottom drawer of their rollaway.

As you might know if you're a pilot and as you DO know if you're a PA-28 or PA-32 owner, the FAA came out with an airworthiness directive last year for the wing spars of most of those aircraft. The actual AD is here.

The FAA issued the far-reaching required inspection for thousands of these aircraft in response to the crash of a PA-28-200-R in Florida in 2018 that killed a young pilot on a checkride and the FAA examiner who was administering the test. The NTSB discovered cracks in the wing structure. Further investigation found additional PA-28s with similar wing issues.

As we reported in a previous story, the cost of the inspection itself, the FAA estimates, shouldn't be too bad, around $730, it says. But if the spar is bad, that's a whole other issue.

Check out the video, and if you enjoy it, don't forget to like the video and subscribe to their channel.