Wow.

http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/safety/programs/sups/upn/media/2016/upn_2016-2013nm460018.pdf

Don't you just hate it when the FAA loses your cheque and considers you unsafe do to not sending them their money. As we all know being certified is all about the money. Put enough money in the right place and everything will be safe.

As is usually the case in these stories, drama is not short in supply.
[url]
http://www.latimes.com/tn-hbi-me-1225-a ... story.html[/url]

I think the point of the disapproval notice is that AmeriKing fudged on how they manufactured these items. They claimed that they were built to a proper standard using proper parts, but that wasn't true. If indeed that's what they were doing, who knows what bits and pieces they stuffed into their boxes? It's not an issue of comparing experimental to certificated--it's an issue of who knows what's there?

Cary

I cannot comment on the political or financial side of this argument.

But I have been through FAA STC and PMA certification and I can tell you that at after all the paperwork and manuals and regulations... at the end of the day the FAA is sticking their neck out and TRUSTING that you will do what you promised them you would do.

If you do that, they will support and empower you and let you make a small fortune in aviation.

But just like dealing with "Fat Tony" Salerno and "Jimmy the Butcher" Buchakaris, if you betray their trust you have a fairly significant problem.

The people I worked with at ACO and MIDO were fantastic, supportive, professional, approachable, and they genuinely gave a shit about aviation safety. I'll bet that most of the other people here on BCP that have been through an STC-PMA certification will feel the same way.

EZFlap wrote:If you do that, they will support and empower you and let you make a small fortune in aviation

...after starting with a much larger fortune.

Bottom line is...Ameri-king may have cheated, and they bet the company on it, a more honest employee found out and was fired, and the company may vaporize for their stupidity. The only thing novel about this aviation story is that someone had the fortitude to say something and they got found out.

There is a lot of shady stuff anywhere you look where a lot of money is involved along with trust with little real accountability, and aviation has its share.

Assuming for the moment that the accusations are true, Some folks over there need to go to jail. A POS Chinese knock-off altitude encoder that goes wonky at the wrong time easily has the capability to put one airplane into another airplane. Chances are, with our luck, it would be presented to the pubilc as a tragic case of someone's Cherokee running over an innocent 767. Five seconds later some cockroach bureaucrat will sieze on the career opportunity of getting all of these pesky little airplanes out of the sky at election time.

It doesn't matter that it wasn't a connecting rod or wing spar this time. It matters that there is an established pathway and an open door for something like this to happen, and next time it may be a spar cap.

I actually met "Jimmy the Butcher" once, as a kid many years ago, and I'd cheerfully support the FAA sending him over to Ameri-King to administer some old-school justice. It would need to be on Youtube, with an FAA order for all Production Certificate holders to watch.

Thsi isn't a small thing IMHO.

175 magnum wrote:
As we all know being certified is all about the money.

Absolutely not true in my personal experience.

My $.02 worth on Ameriking. When I bought my current plane I installed an Ameriking AK-450 ELT, because it was the cheapest unit on the market at that time and took Duracell D-cells for batteries. It lasted a few years, then died at annual, it cost $10.00 less to buy a new one from aircraft spruce than their flat rate repair service, so I bought another one. That one died after about 6 months, so I sent it in for warranty repair. Warranty repair from Ameriking took 14 weeks, when I finally got it back the paperwork said they replaced it with a "new serial numbered unit", what I actually got was a used unit that had the serial number label scraped off and a new label stuck on it. When that one died at annual last year I replaced it with a different manufacturer. When I sent it in for repair I got a phone call and 2 emails offering me a trade-in allowance on a new AK-451, when I said no just fix this one they stopped answering emails. Their 1-800 phone no. goes to an answering machine that no one returned calls from, when I looked up a local no. to call they did answer that phone, but their answer was always "we'll ship your unit out this Friday", for 5 weeks in a row. If Ameriking does survive this incident, it will snow in hell before I buy another one of their products.

EZFlap wrote:Assuming for the moment that the accusations are true, Some folks over there need to go to jail. A POS Chinese knock-off altitude encoder that goes wonky at the wrong time easily has the capability to put one airplane into another airplane. Chances are, with our luck, it would be presented to the pubilc as a tragic case of someone's Cherokee running over an innocent 767. Five seconds later some cockroach bureaucrat will sieze on the career opportunity of getting all of these pesky little airplanes out of the sky at election time.

It doesn't matter that it wasn't a connecting rod or wing spar this time. It matters that there is an established pathway and an open door for something like this to happen, and next time it may be a spar cap.

I actually met "Jimmy the Butcher" once, as a kid many years ago, and I'd cheerfully support the FAA sending him over to Ameri-King to administer some old-school justice. It would need to be on Youtube, with an FAA order for all Production Certificate holders to watch.

Thsi isn't a small thing IMHO.

I wish you'd learn to tell us how you REALLY feel.....

But, I fully agree, though I've never met or heard of "Jimmy"...guess I've led a sheltered life

MTV

Has anyone heard any new news on this??

Rich