Back to the Future For Taylorcraft
Previous owner repossesses T-Craft assets
March 11, 2008 - Taylorcraft 2000 LLC, which owned the Taylorcraft type certificates from May 2000-August 2003, sent a notice to T-Craft owners last week announcing it had repossessed the company’s Brownsville, Texas, factory and assets. This development affects an undetermined number of customers who, in response to a recent airworthiness directive (AD), paid Taylorcraft Aviation LLC approximately $3,500 for new OEM lift struts that have not been delivered. Installation of the new, sealed struts eliminates the August 2007 AD’s inspection requirements to address corrosion issues in the original struts.
J. Scot Ruffner, who is managing the repossession of the company, is attempting to contact those who paid for new lift struts prior to February 21, 2008, the date Taylorcraft 2000 LLC repossessed the TC. “Anyone out there who has paid for a set of struts and has not been contacted by me should call me right away," Ruffner said. (Reach Ruffner at 561-547-7931.)
“Right now we are assessing the situation to determine how many people are affected,” Ruffner said. “Depending on the credit card company’s procedures, depending on how long those companies take, we’ll get a good idea of how to move forward.”
D&E Aircraft will relocate the Taylorcraft 2000, LLC assets to Lake Worth, Florida, where the company will operate a PMA facility to supply parts to support the fleet. Meanwhile the Taylorcraft assets are on the selling block, priced “for a quick sale” at $750,000, according to the T-Craft 2000 LLC notice.
The relocated company will operate until a buyer steps forward or the necessary management team is put in place to operate Taylorcraft 2000, LLC, the notice states.