Airworthiness Directives; The New Piper Aircraft, Inc. (Formerly Piper Aircraft Corporation) PA24, PA28R, PA30, PA32R, PA34, and PA39 Series Airplanes

This amendment adopts a new airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain The New Piper Aircraft, Inc. (Piper) PA24, PA28R, PA30, PA32R, PA34, and PA39 series airplanes. This action requires repetitively inspecting the main gear side brace studs for cracks and replacing any cracked main gear side brace stud. Several reports of main gear side brace stud cracks on the affected airplanes, including seven incidents where the main landing gear (MLG) collapsed, prompted this action. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent a MLG collapse caused by main gear side brace stud cracks, which, if not detected and corrected, could result in loss of control of the airplane during landing operations.