FabricGATOR Posted April 17 Report Share Posted April 17 Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Kurt and I am in Stuart, Florida, "The Sailfish Capitol of the World" or so they say... I am an A&P and a Rotax iRMT. I am looking at a Piper Sport Cruser in the WPB area. I am curious how I am going to be able to maintain the S-LSA certificate, that is a concern. Being an A&P, I can 'fix my own' but what about the availability of acceptable parts? I look forward to reading about these aircraft and discussing these maintenance issue with you all. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted April 17 Report Share Posted April 17 Welcome to the forum Kurt. There are a lot of very helpful folks on here. I haven’t been in the LSA community but a couple of years now but from everything I see parts for the Sportcruiser can be difficult in the US. Mine is E-LSA and I’m sure you will get told to go that route. Again, Welcome, best of luck, and keep us updated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnM Posted April 18 Report Share Posted April 18 Hi Kurt and welcome to the forum. I’m over in Clearwater, home of the best beaches in the US, or so they say. Are you looking at a PiperSport or a SportCruiser in West Palm? I ask because the PiperSport is going to be a 2010 only and the SportCruiser could be as new as a 2019. I can possibly see why you’d want to keep a newer SportCruiser S-LSA as maybe you want to keep it and use it for flight instruction. If it’s a 2010 PiperSport then you will definitely want to convert it to experimental to be able to make some needed upgrades. Every piece of avionics in that airplane has been discontinued and you’d be better off as E-LSA for those upgrades. As for parts for either of the airplanes, you could be waiting many, many months, if not years for crucial parts if you order from the factory. I’m not trying to scare you away from the airplane because it’s an amazing airplane rather just letting you know the hard truth about the factory and parts orders. It’s been extremely difficult over the last few years getting any response or parts from the factory for this airplane. I’m also a member of the European SportCruiser forum and they are having a difficult time just getting email responses from the factory, how hard do you think it’ll be getting parts? The dealer here in the US will tell you they can get parts but how long will you have to wait? All that said, the aircraft rarely needs factory specific parts. Anything for the engine you can get right here in Florida at Lockwood. As you know, it’s an all metal airplane and with your skill set there’s nothing on it you couldn’t fix/repair. There are procedures in the maintenance manual for making repairs. I’ve owned my 2007 SportCruiser going on 11 years now and have not ever needed a factory specific part. I converted to E-LSA maybe 5 years ago to be able to make my SportCruiser safer and easier to fly. It was the best thing I did. You’ll have some people tell you that it will decrease the value but those people are dead wrong. Good luck with your decision and if you need any more info about the SportCruiser it’s all here on the forum. We have a great bunch of guys on here with an abundance of knowledge to help answer any question you might have about it. The last thing I’ll say is if you decide to buy one have it looked over by someone who is familiar with the SportCruiser. And of course don’t let the seller recommend someone to do the pre-purchase inspection. There have been some critical service bulletins over the years that you need to know about and other details to look out for. If you buy it right and cheap enough then none of those really matter as you’ll have money left in the bank to do those service bulletins as some of them are rather pricey. Again, good luck in your search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnM Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 Hi Kurt, I was hoping to get a response from you on the plane you were looking at. I did some poking around for PiperSports for sale in West Palm. I like to know what's for sale in and around Florida to help stay on top of the market and current prices. If you are looking at N458S for sale in West Palm by Scott MacDonald Aircraft Sales that's not a 2009 PiperSport. It's a 2009 SportCruiser. There's no such thing as a "2009" PiperSport as the only PiperSport aircraft are 2010 aircrafts. The fact that it's being marketed as a PiperSport is not accurate if this matters to you. The owner may be trying to inflate the market value of this plane with some cheap vinyl decals. Or maybe he's a poser. I have first hand knowledge of this airplane as I personally flew this "SportCruiser" when I lived in Orlando when they were doing demo flights with it in Florida. Look at the FAA registry, it's even listed there as a "SportCruiser" with a 2009 serial number. Here's a pic of me in the pilots seat flying this "SportCruiser" in October of 2009 when it was new out of KISM airport. There are no "PiperSport" decals on it.....because it's not a PiperSport. If this is the plane you are looking at PLEASE do you due diligence and inspect EVERY tiny detail on this plane. If you are not that familiar with the SportCruiser please find someone who is to look at it with you. It was a demo aircraft and it has nearly 3000 hours on it. She's got to be tired. Lastly, it's still a S-LSA aircraft and it's being listed with a Uavionix Echo UAT device for ADS-B out. This is not an approved device by the aircraft manufacturer and there is no LOA for this ADS-B box to be installed in this aircraft. There never will be so "legally" that installation voided the airworthiness certificate for this SportCruiser. Whoever signed off on the install and subsequent annual condition inspections doesn't know LSA aircraft and has no business doing condition inspections on LSA aircraft. Buyer beware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FabricGATOR Posted June 5 Author Report Share Posted June 5 Hey ShawnM, thank you for the reply and info. I am again, looking at this airplane. Very interesting points you all have made about these beloved aircraft. How do we even go about finding a person that is knowledgeable about these. How many hours can we expect these aircraft to be flown? What are some historically known points of failure and how can I learn about where to look. How about (AD's) service bulletins. Can I find a list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velocity26 Posted June 5 Report Share Posted June 5 Not all hours are equal, airplanes that are used for training and demo tend to fly more and have harder hours on them. An aircraft owned and flown by an individual is likely to have fewer hard landings and have more care taken in it's maintenance and repairs. Most of the personal use aircraft of that age would likely average ~1,000 hours of use in this timeframe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnM Posted June 5 Report Share Posted June 5 Send me a private message with your number or email and I'll call you if you like. I'm in Clearwater. There are a few LSRM's out there with SportCruiser knowledge but I'd start with the logbooks. Get a copy of all 3 logbooks and go over them with a fine tooth comb. If you get it as a PDF you can send me a copy if you like. I know EVERY square inch of this plane inside and out. Since this aircraft was a trainer and a demo, I might have bounced it off the runway once , you'll want to look at everything very carefully. Especially the landing gear. All three legs. Were they ever replaced? Again, the log books will tell you almost everything. All the Service Bulletins for the aircraft can be found on the website here: https://cruiseraircraft.cz/tech-publications/?tp=1 There are several items and SB's to look at and a few of the SB's were VERY expensive. There is really only one historically known issue and that's the NLG. Nose Landing Gear is known to be the weakest link on the plane and cannot be abused without it breaking. There have been several revisions on the NLG so you'll want to know which one is on the plane. There are more incidents and accidents with the landing gear on this plane than anything else. There's also a European version of the NLG that is even stronger but there are only a couple of E-LSA SportCruisers in the states with that leg. I know because I have one on my plane. If maintained and not abused you could fly this airplane the rest of your life and never have to worry about too many hours or a life limit of the plane. It's a non-issue. As Velocity26 pointed out, if it wasn't a trainer and flown" regularly" (which MANY aren't) it should have 1000 to 1200 hours on it given it's age. My 2007 has just under 1000 hours on it and it had low hours on it when I bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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