AOPA Called On Company To Cover All Costs; FAA Disagrees
Last week, the FAA
issued an airworthiness directive (AD) that would require the
replacement of certain crankshafts in some 3,800 Lycoming 360- and
540-series reciprocating engines in several models of Piper,
Cessna, Mooney, and Beechcraft aircraft, among others. The AD --
which becomes effective November 3, 2006 -- requires owners to
replace the crankshaft at normal overhaul, when the crankcase is
split for whatever reason, or within 12 years of the time the
crankshaft was put into service.
With this latest AD, Lycoming is offering replacement
crankshafts at a reduced price of $2,000 -- instead of $16,000 --
for the next three years, or at no charge if the overhaul is done
by the Lycoming factory within 12 years.
But in a previous Lycoming crankshaft AD, the company bore the
entire cost of repairing the engines -- something Luis Gutierrez,
AOPA director of regulatory and certification policy, says should
be done on this latest AD, as well.
"AOPA is pressing for similar customer consideration, since the
possible crankshaft defect is the same problem that the previous AD
addressed in a different series of engines," said Gutierrez.
AOPA had argued that the 12-year calendar limit was not related
to safety and would be burdensome on some owners.
The FAA disagreed in its final rule.
"While we stated in the proposal that the unsafe condition was
unrelated to calendar time, a compliance end-time is necessary to
minimize the probability of a crankshaft failure at operating times
less than the specified overhaul interval," the agency said in
reply. "The variability of the size and orientation of the
metallurgical anomalies present in the identified crankshafts
results in variation in the operating times at which failures could
occur."
AD NUMBER:
2006-20-09
MANUFACTURER: Textron Lycoming
SUBJECT: Airworthiness Directive 2006-20-09
SUMMARY: The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive
(AD) for certain Lycoming Engines (L)O-360,(L)IO-360, AEIO-360,
O-540, IO-540, AEIO-540, (L)TIO-540, IO-580, and IO-720
seriesreciprocating engines. This AD requires replacing certain
crankshafts. This AD results from reports of 23 confirmed failures
of similar crankshafts in Lycoming Engines 360 and 540 series
reciprocating engines. We are issuing this AD to prevent failure of
the crankshaft, which will result in total engine power loss,
in-flight engine failure, and possible loss of the aircraft.