Check this on your 2010 seats

[nohippychicks]

I meant to take a picture before posting, but life got in the way; I'll get one later and post it here so you guys can see what I'm talking about better.

Anyhow, under your forward seats are a pair of tubes running left to right.  There's a forward and an aft tube.  I've been seeing a troubling number of the aft tubes deforming and, in some cases, breaking.  You can easily check this from the aft door with a good light and an inspection mirror.  You don't even have to be a gymnast for this one!  If your seats are out, it's even easier to see by turning them over.

Anyhow, look towards the very outboard and very inboard sections of that tube on both the pilot and co-pilot seats.  Any bending will be very obvious.

I'm still looking into a cause but, so far, I believe it's a poor design on Tecnam's part.  It looks like when the seats are in the fully lowered position, there's a pretty good amount of tension caused by a couple of plastic bushings not lining up with the frame of the seat base and over time the aluminum tube fails.  I don't THINK it has anything to do with pilot weight as I'd originally thought. 

In one aircraft, the co-pilot tube had broken into three neat pieces.  I wasn't able to personally follow up with the seat occupant so I don't know if it happened suddenly, but I worry that if this happened to a pilot seat during rotation that an unexpected stall could happen. 

I hope this wont turn into a debacle like Cessna's seat rails, so I wanted to get the word out.  In my experience, during an annual inspection, the portion of a seat most likely to be inspected is where the rollers are so I wanted to have you owners point this spot out to your mechanics. 

If any of you guys notice any problems in this area, I hope you'll reply to this and maybe put up some pictures!

[nohippychicks]

  

Ok, here are a couple of pictures I snapped today. 

I think they speak for themselves, but the first one is seat removed, showing the damaged bar near the top of the picture.  I should have put an arrow on the picture, but I think everyone here will be able to see it.  The other end of that bar is bent in the same way as the end pictured here.

The second picture does not show a damaged support bar, it's just reference for how you can look at this without removing the seat and paying an A&P.  The lighting isn't the best, but I was juggling a camera, light and mirror and I only have three hands.

[fpkone]

You state "I've been seeing a troubling number of the aft tubes deforming and, in some cases, breaking."

So what does that mean when they are deformed or broken? Seats don't move? Seats don't lock? What exactly?

Also what is a "troubling number?" How many exactly? In the US or Italy? And when? After 100 hours, 1000 hours?

[nohippychicks]

Good questions, thanks for asking! I knew I was leaving something out.

In the cases where the tubes have broken, pilots reported that the seat felt "Different," and "Soft." I noticed when I would try to figure out what that meant, that the aft portion of the seat kinda sat lower than I was used to and that I could grab the seat and lift it a little bit. Its hard for me to describe, so I hope that makes sense. None of the squawks indicated that there was a definite "Oh, that just broke for me right now," moment.

This is in the US, and since January of this year, my shop has replaced four of these tubes in a fleet of about 20 planes, two broken and two bent like in the picture. I'd have to look to get exact times, but one broken was just a hair over 500 hours, one a little under 1000. Of the bent ones, both were near 700 hours.

Bear in mind, those numbers are off the top of my head early in the morning. I'll try to get more solid numbers and, if I'm off in my remembering, come back and update.

[fpkone]

Ok so to put it in perspective 20% have this issue and after several hundred hours... I'll put a note in my mechanic file for the future.

So where are you located and what do you use the 2010s for, flight training?

So few 2010s on the Board so glad you are here!

[nohippychicks]

I'm in Texas and we use a fleet of mostly 2010s and 2008s for flight training. There are even a few 2006s and a 172 for spin training in the stable!

We put a lot of hours on them and have worked with Tecnam on improving some designs for some of their products.

I figured we put more time on them than the average owners, so if I see something that I'd look out for if I owned one, I post it here.

[fpkone]

Wonderful thank you!

[fpkone]

Jul 15, 2022 4:35:53 GMT fpkone said:

Wonderful thank you!

By the way, what are the tail numbers on your Tecnam P2010s???

I'm collecting all that I hear of and also adding them to flightradar alerts...