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Cessna P210, what is there to know about it?

Pilot_DAR wrote:

murmurs that Cessna might build spars as replacement parts again

You mean the in-wing spar caps?

The carrythrough spar forging in the fuselage as replaced in your 210G example has indeed been manufactured (albeit with a milling process vs the original forging) by Cessna and made available to owners/operators as a new replacement part.

A different process for carrythrough spar replacement has been used as reported herein but the additional alignment precautions as reported by @Pilot_DAR make sense to me.

Antonio
LESB, Spain

The P210 lug, damaged by a too long screw, was detected by a really great technician I know. I have done a number of repair approvals and test flights for his company.

The 210G with the corroded spar (Conversion coated (“alodine”) not anodized) had the foam removed and was inspected at my request, based upon the refined understanding of the circumstances of the Australian break up. I was glad I had them strip it, its corrosion was much worse than the Australian 210. The spar was purchased used from a wrecked 210G (nose over in soft field). I measured it for geometry, and when I determined it was straight, I sent it for complete LPI and eddy current. It passed, so was primed, and installed. I designed the repair methodology and jig, and approved the repair procedure. Another client shop, who have excellent staff did the repair. The airplane is otherwise gorgeous, and the owner loves it, so it was worth the cost to him. Most 210Gs would not be. When I test flew the plane following the repair, it flew perfectly! Since then, corrosion defects were found in the lower spar caps of the wings, which we had to blend out, and I had to approve.

I have recommended the scrapping of three other 210s, whose corrosion is too bad to blend out, and replacement spars were not available. I’ve heard murmurs that Cessna might build spars as replacement parts again, but I wonder about the economics of replacing them, it’s a big job!

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

BTW both cases seem to be really beautiful and conscientious repair jobs!

The lug repair picture seems to be a nicely sealed structure with flap cable pressure seals on a ‘P’ whereas the spar replacement pics seems to be an unsealed non ‘P’ airframe with the naked spar visible from the outside.

Was it a new replacement or a salvaged spar that was used?

Last Edited by Antonio at 23 Dec 22:46
Antonio
LESB, Spain

Pilot_DAR wrote:

Yes, fairing 65….

I see…and is it a design issue, or a case of someone using a longer screw than they should have? I did find several similar cases on the aftmost screw on that fairing hitting on the LE of the flap upon retraction causing a dent and subsequent crack warranting repair. Again a matter of using the proper R8 screw (vs R10).

The IPC calls for some combination of R8 length and R6 length screws to be used on that fairing…

Either way, kudos to the technician that did find the historical contact on that lug, as again, not easy to see! Was it yourself?

Antonio
LESB, Spain

Pilot_DAR wrote:

Cessna glued on foam
Pilot_DAR wrote:

Yes, it is true that you cannot expect I/A’s to remove the foam at every annual inspection and what happens is that some aircraft went fifty years without the proper inspection in the area, and then you find too far grown corrosion fifty years on…

Again on the positive side:

a) Later aircraft have ZnCr protection vs anodizing, minimizing the problem. Also foam was not glued any more on the later years of production from about 1978-1985
b) A lot of aircraft did have the infamous foam removed a long time ago, especially on those aircraft which had interior renovations.
c) P210’s do have the spar under a sealed lap joint so moisture ingress is not a problem and the foam is no longer glued in place, so it can be removed for inspection

The one aircraft which did have a spar failure not only had corrosion but also several years of intensive, high-speed, low-level, mining survey work on a heavily modified airframe with longer tail and wingtips, so not your typical private operation…

The pictures above do show the massiveness and overbuild of the structure in question…

OTOH this is actually a better situation than a lot of other types of similar age from the safety stand point, since the AD is forcing the fleet to correct the issue once and for all. The negative is of course that owners are incurring a cost of about one AMU to inspect, and the risk of 20+AMU’s to repair…but at least:

a) the risk is rapidly going away from the whole fleet, and
b) there is an OEM solution

Antonio
LESB, Spain

Isn’t that spar the object of the mandatory inspection ? Visually and then eddy current? We had that done on our club C210L and it came out fine.

Antonio wrote:

OTOH one could say that corrosion is something that should be detected during regular maintenance if done in compliance with manufacturer’s recommendations and FAR 43 App D before it develops to the situation you mention.

Well…. not so easily… Cessna glued on foam to cushion your head when it hit the spar through the older fabric headliners. There was no instruction to remove the foam to inspect the spar for corrosion. Worse, water from outside the cabin roof can run down the lap joint of the spar and roof skin, then soak into said foam. Interestingly, when I contacted Cessna about this, they denied that the foam was ever installed (it’s not referenced in the parts catalog at all), but it does say in the Cessna Service Bulletin to remove the foam to inspect. It is just an imperfect design, with horrible inspectability…

C 210G:

Replacement spar being installed – big job!

Last Edited by Pilot_DAR at 23 Dec 19:22
Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

Yes, fairing 65….

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

Pilot_DAR wrote:

210’s are great planes, but certain models (least the "P"s) left the factory with inadequacies which are now potentially fatal to the structure of the plane

I would say that the design was never intended to last half a century, which is the minimum age of most of the affected spars. OTOH one could say that corrosion is something that should be detected during regular maintenance if done in compliance with manufacturer’s recommendations and FAR 43 App D before it develops to the situation you mention.

On the positive side of things Cessna:

a) Learnt to protect the structures better in the later models of 210.
b) Researched and developed a replacement spar carrythrough made of milled aluminium rather than forged and made it available to 210 owners and operators.

Most other 50+YO aircraft wish they had such level of support available for their continued safe operation.

Last Edited by Antonio at 23 Dec 14:54
Antonio
LESB, Spain

Hi @PilotDAR: I never heard of the first issue you mentioned.

Are you referring to the attachment screws for fairing #65 in the figure below damaging the attachment lug I have marked ?

Antonio
LESB, Spain
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