Our review of the 100 most recent Piper Comanche accidents uncovered something we expected in an aging fleet-a substantial number of accidents due to failure to perform needed maintenance or maintenance that was poorly performed. It showed up in engine failures, 12 gear collapses and an inflight breakup where a badly repaired stabilator came apart.
Particularly impressive was the maintenance malpractice on one Comanche: following replacement of the mixture control cable, the pilot found that the nose gear would not completely extend. Using considerable force on the manual gear extension system, he had it almost down and locked when the engine quit. The cable was so badly routed it was preventing the nose gear from extending, and the pilots action caused the nosewheel to pull the cable to pull the mixture to idle cutoff.