AOPA said the AD was too expensive and not needed. There have been only three accidents or incidents in more than thirty years because a pilot didn t remove a Baron gust lock, said Douglas C. Macnair, AOPA director of regulatory and certification policy. On older Barons, the gust lock pin is inserted through the bottom of the center-mounted control column. A flag, attached to the pin by cable, is placed on the throttles to remind the pilot that the flight controls are locked. But the warning flag and cable can break off.
Some pilots don t bother to replace it.
Raytheon s solution would have required drilling a new hole in the top of the control column and surrounding collar. A new, top-mounted gust lock assembly would prevent the pilot from advancing the throttles with the flight control surfaces locked. But AOPA argued that pilot education would be a more appropriate, less expensive solution to the problem. Had the pilots in these incidents conducted proper pre-flight inspections and followed their checklists, they would have discovered the gust lock, said Macnair. There s no need to penalize Baron owners with an expensive airworthiness directive to solve a rare operational problem.