Waypoints: Polishing the fleet

My comments last month regarding the state of the pilot population generated many responses from readers (“Waypoints: Not One Thing Can Be Done,” June 2015 AOPA Pilot). The challenges of stabilizing the pilot population are immense. It’s a good thing that we pilots enjoy challenges, because there are many facing us, including the state of the general aviation fleet. The fleet is aging even more rapidly than the pilot population; the average age of a GA airplane is 45 years. It makes my 42-year-old Bonanza seem like a schoolgirl!

While today’s GA manufacturers struggle to carve a market out of a small marketplace, there is some good news regarding the fleet. The enormous number of airplanes manufactured in the 1960s and 1970s continues to serve us well, even all these decades later. You may recall that in 1978 the industry built more than 17,000 airplanes. However, the drop-off in production was dramatic. Eight years later Cessna had ceased all piston airplane production and total production fell to just over 1,000 units. Five years later, it was barely half that number.

Passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act in 1994 led to Cessna’s return to piston production and Piper’s emergence from bankruptcy. And while piston production improved, it has never reached even 2,800 units in any year since; 2006 was the highest in recent decades at 2,755. Last year the industry built 1,129 piston singles and twins. While the 2014 number was up slightly from 2013, the first quarter 2015 deliveries were significantly down from 2014, showing that the industry still bumps along the bottom of a recovery. No upward trend yet.

With about an equivalent number of airplanes crashing or being retired as built each year, the fleet is stagnant or slightly declining. With so few new airplanes entering the fleet each year, the average age increases.

The challenges for us as the fleet ages is to identify age-related problems and address them early. Well cared for, our simple, unpressurized airplanes can fly on for decades more. Corrosion and inactivity are what doom more airplanes than anything else—just keep them active and free of corrosion. Besides corrosion, special areas of emphasis should include wiring, which after a few decades doesn’t owe us a lot; and fuel, oil, and hydraulic lines. If you’re flying a 1970s airplane with any original lines and wires, put those on your list of things to replace in the upcoming years.

Through its You Can Fly Sweepstakes, which features a Reimagined 152, AOPA continues to explore aging-aircraft issues and identify opportunities for improving the fleet—just as we have done for decades with our other project airplanes for the AOPA membership sweepstakes. The Reimagined project now has the attention of several companies that are looking to replicate it with other models, which is what we had hoped for from the beginning. The goal for the Reimagined 152 project is to rebuild Cessna 150 and 152s to a level where they will be solid performers for another couple of decades, at least.

While more expensive than a piecemeal refurbishment project that an individual might do, the Reimagined airplanes are rebuilt to a standardized spec in an aircraft factory and come with a warranty. As a result, the insurance and finance companies, with AOPA’s encouragement, have agreed to finance and insure them for the higher values. The airplanes can be a good value for flying clubs and flight schools looking to upgrade, or expand their fleets with a known product. After the rebuild, the airplanes are as close to new as feasible for a fraction of what a new equivalent airplane might cost.

Triple R Affordable Aircraft is another standardized approach to upgrading aircraft. Wipaire, through its Boss 182 project, is rebuilding Cessna 182s, featuring many upgrades and, if you wish, amphibious floats. Powered by a Lycoming IO-580, which can put out as much as 340 horsepower, the Boss project propels the steadfast stock 235-horsepower Skylane into a whole new category.

Look for additional announcements soon from companies recognizing that with the proper care and maintenance, we’ve only begun to recognize the potential in our existing fleet.

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Editor in Chief Tom Haines has overseen the refurbishment of all of AOPA’s sweepstakes project airplanes in the past 22 years.