AIRCRAFT UNLIMITED
The breaking news is that Andrew Lester has purchased a controlling interest in Aircraft Unlimited, whilst at the same time Jason Beamish has joined the team so that the AMO can look after some of the more unusual aircraft types, including aerobatics aircraft. Jason is presently licenced on the Extra range of aerobatics aircraft and under Tom Willows’ direction he will soon have several other aerobatics aircraft on his licence.
Tom says: “One of the many problems we face in our sector of the aviation industry in South Africa is the absence of experienced engineers. At present, most of the highly experienced engineers are well over 60 years of age. Presently there is a flood of apprentices on the market, this is good news as there has been a dearth of training for decades, but unfortunately there are limited opportunities for these apprentices because the aviation industry is shrinking and employment opportunities have diminished. Problems arise in the industry where ‘product knowledge’ is limited with these youngsters who are trying to catch up with the last 30 years of experience obtained by their over 60 seniors”.
Tom continues: “An example of this would typically be asking the difference between a Cherokee ‘B’ and a Cherokee ‘C’ or a 172C and a 172L. Mostly this cannot be answered as these changes to the aircraft happened even before us high timed engineers started in the industry. Having been around for some 46 years and having spent almost my entire time in light aircraft, it would be immediately apparent to me that a Cherokee ‘B’ for instance has a different exhaust system to a ‘C’. Youngsters may not know this as the change happened in the 1960’s. Cherokee PA28-140/150/160/180 ‘B’ models end on a specific serial number. Some significant cosmetic changes took place; i.e. cowling, engine control configuration, dorsal fins and windows amongst others. So, the question arises, would a low product knowledge engineer be able to determine that a PA-28-180 ‘B’ has got a PA28-180 ‘C’ exhaust system fitted? Probably not.
A Cessna 172G could come into your hangar with a with a Lycoming engine and considered to be normal by a low time engineer. However, an experienced engineer would immediately know that this is in contradiction to the Type Certificate Data Sheet as the 172G was originally fitted with a Continental O-300 engine. In both above cases there would have to be a STC for the modification.” At Aircraft Unlimited are fully committed to training our staff on the type differences and to pass on over 40 odd years of knowledge to bring these ‘newbies’ up to speed.