Gearing Up For Conquest II Expanded Inspection Program
West Star Aviation Inc. Gearing Up For Conquest II Expanded Inspection Program
In response to recent significant changes to the Cessna Conquest II maintenance manual
incorporated in June of this year, West Star Aviation Inc.’s Grand Junction, Colorado facility
is making significant investments in tooling, hiring personnel, and allocating more hangar space
in an effort to handle the expected inspection workload these changes will create.
According to Rick Brainard, General Manager, West Star Aviation Inc., Grand Junction,
Colorado, these investments are essential. “Every Conquest II in the world, regardless of total
time, is affected by these maintenance manual changes, and they are all required to have a
significant amount of inspection work done within the next year”, says Brainard. “And since we
work on over 60 percent of the U.S. Conquest II fleet every year at our Grand Junction facility,
we want to do our best to accommodate our Conquest II customer base.”
The Conquest II maintenance manual revision number 16 and accompanying Supplemental
Inspection Documents (SIDs) were created in response to the FAA’s push for all manufacturers
to address aging aircraft concerns. These revisions include a number of new phase and NDT
inspections that utilize more sophisticated tooling to detect corrosion, cracking, or other
anomalies in the aircraft structure.
The maintenance manual revisions call for several initial inspections to be accomplished before
September 1, 2008. “The initial inspections are extensive and will involve additional aircraft
down time to get them done,” says Joe Kendrick, Conquest Program Manager, West Star
Aviation, Inc. “We are encouraging our customers to begin planning and scheduling these
events well in advance of the time they will want to put the aircraft down. “
West Star Aviation, Inc. maintenance and QA personnel have spent considerable time analyzing
the new maintenance manual revisions with an eye toward efficiently integrating the new
requirements into the existing maintenance program and minimizing aircraft down time to the
extent possible.
“It makes the most sense to have all the initial new inspections completed at one time,” says
Kendrick. “We are advising our Conquest customers to look at their maintenance and upgrade
needs in the coming year because they may want to combine the new inspections with existing
phase inspections, engine changes, new paint and interior, avionics upgrades, or other upgrades
they may be contemplating.”
West Star Aviation Inc. sees the Conquest II maintenance manual revisions as an ultimately good
thing for the fleet. “The intent of these new inspections is to maintain the reliability and safety of
the aircraft as the fleet ages,” says Brainard. “Because Conquest II’s are such efficient aircraft,
we believe they will continue to maintain their strong re-sale values and that this program will
only help ensure that they remain viable transportation tool for years to come.”