Service Bulletin Issued For Aft Wing Spar Inspection

Piper president and CEO Simon Caldecott said at AirVenture on Monday that a possible material specification issue had cropped up with the M600, leading to a precautionary grounding of the fleet of 36 delivered airplanes.

Caldecott said that there was a material thickness issue with the aft wing spar that was discovered in one airplane that had been delivered to a dealer. Out of an abundance of caution, an inspection of the spar was recommended for all of the airplanes.

The inspection involves draining the fuel from the fuel tank and measuring the thickness of the spar in the affected area on both wings of the airplane, Caldecott said. A service bulletin has been issued to address the issue. "I would rather be talking to you about doing that than the other consequences," he said.

The company also announced that the M600 demo tour, which began in late March is yielding significant sales success and praise from those who have flown the aircraft.  Following more than 60 demo flights and over 100 flight hours; the Piper European Dealer Network has received contracts for five (5) M600 aircraft to customers throughout the region and with several additional aircraft currently in negotiations as AirVenture begins.  

“The continued success of the demo tour and the resulting market interest in the M600 confirms that there is increasing demand in the European market for an efficient and competitively priced single engine turboprop,” said Vice President of International and Direct Sales for Piper Aircraft, Drew McEwen. “The M600 has performed beautifully with no down time for unscheduled maintenance and the aircraft performance continues to exceed book performance in speed with remarkably low fuel burn.”  

The Piper M600 demo tour recently expanded into the continent of Africa where it visited 11 countries over a three week period and performed 22 demo flights.  

The company also announced the availability of a a personalization program exclusively available on the new Piper M600.  The package, named Expression or EXP, enables customers to have greater involvement in the design of the interior for their new Piper M600 aircraft.

With the M600 EXP package customers have a choice of a variety of interior enhancements including custom appointed ceiling bezels, leather wrapped yokes and cockpit assist handles, as well as seat pattern styles including choice of stitching color and stitching pattern. Also included are choices for embroidered or embossed logos, customized threshold and cockpit plates as well as personalized customer logos if requested.

For the exterior, customers have a choice of predetermined or newly developed paint schemes.  The newly developed paint schemes are exclusively available on the M600 EXP and include 4 custom design options with the ability for the customer to select paint colors from an extensive list of choices. Piper also offers personalized EXP branding / badges.

(Source: Piper news conference and news releases)

FMI: www.piper.com