Cubdriver

Looks like some high time 210s are showing spar cracks just like the Cessna light twins did some years ago. You have to wonder, should these airplanes be expected to enjoy such extended service lives to even be having these issues? How many 1960-1980 cars and trucks are still on the road? Aircraft have generally always been overbuilt for safety, yet the same principle creates problems when they are expected to last forever. I agree with Mr. Goyer the problem is not with Cessna, it is with the artificially high expectations we hold for these airplanes. Some years ago the popular aviation writer Richard Collins scrapped his perfectly functional 210 for this exact reason- high airframe hours. Collins got a lot of flack for scrapping his bird, but when a senior teacher like Collins does something so drastic you have to take notice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Cessna ADs Surrounded by Suspicion

(5/22/12, Flying, R. Goyer) The announcement last year by Cessna that it was going to begin issuing, in conjunction with the FAA, airworthiness directives (ADs) on many of its airplanes has been greeted with skepticism by owners associations. The worry that some members expressed was that the ADs were a veiled attempt on Cessna’s part to create new spare parts business for itself. One commenter on a Cessna forum wrote that it wouldn’t be “the first time Cessna's lawyers tried to sell parts thru (sic) the AD system” or the “first time the FAA has turned an inspection into a major repair...