Thomas McIntosh

My wife and I are the owners of a PA28-180. We did the inspection when Piper SB 1197 came out, and found that our aircraft did NOT have the problem referenced in the Service Bulletin or in this proposed AD. We have three opinions about this matter: 1) This is CLEARLY a factory defect, unless the yoke shaft has been replaced at some point. The cost of remediation for a factory defect should be borne by the factory, just like it would be for any other recall campaign. 2) Two airplanes out of forty-three thousand have been found to be defective??? The FAA wants an inspection of the entire manufacturing series?? Statistically, that seems REALLY out there! That amounts to less than 1/200th of 1 percent. While it is true that a control yoke separation could be a huge problem in-flight, a significant problem would have shown a much greater incidence level than two units by now. 3) There is a Service Bulletin already issued and once revised for this potential defect. No plane should have gone through annual without that Service Bulletin already having been addressed. That should be more than sufficient to assure fleet safety, which is the FAA's mandate. Let the Service Bulletin stand, put this proposed AD into the shred bin.