u/Every_Joke_1104

GA Mechanics: Is this airworthy? This area of the skin looks structural. What do I do, if the school won't ground a 172S for repairs? They won't even get Maintenance to record that they performed some sort of airworthiness inspection.

It seems the other pilots are ignoring it during preflight inspection. Maybe they assume that cracks never grow.

This must be a common issue, because I've seen much shorter cracks on other 172S in the same location. You'd think Cessna would permit a sheet-metal patch, without requiring replacement of half the tail. I'm scared to ask how much that would cost.

At the very least, I'd like more stop-drilling. That way pilots can inspect crack growth during each preflight inspection.