Ouch

[cjsmith]

There's an AD (Airworthiness Directive) out on Lycoming crankshafts. We haven't received notification by mail, but we had a phone call waiting on our answering machine last night: Rob got hit. His engine is within the range of serial numbers affected by this AD. As of that moment, his plane was defined to be unairworthy.

His engine will need to be removed and shipped to Lycoming, where a new crankshaft will be installed. There are roughly 2600 crankshafts affected, and Part 91 operators (roughly: general aviation) are on the bottom of the priority list, so he may be grounded for many months. Rumor has it that no good crankshafts are expected for four weeks yet, and that it may take up to eight months to fix everyone's.

So we're thinking about whether/how to get to Portland for Romana's wedding and whether/how to get to LA for Dave's wedding and we'll just have to drive to a couple of square dance calling engagements.

Naturally, fixed costs such as insurance, loan, tiedown spot, property tax, etc do not stop while a plane is grounded.

*sigh*

I'm just glad he's not the person (there's at least one) who got hit TWICE. This AD came out once before, and there's at least one guy who got his crankshaft replaced with a bad one and is now stuck for a second time.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Is suing them for the costs of mainenance while the plane is grounded possible?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Anyone can sue anyone, I suppose, although personally I try to avoid suing anyone who can afford a better lawyer than I can ;-). Actually, the way it seems to be going, Lycoming's being much nicer about this than I imagined. They're doing other engine maintenance while the engines are torn down; that can be worth a tidy sum and can prevent more downtime later. Rob wants a new oil cooler, so he just might come out ahead on that alone. Rumor has it they're paying for business class tickets in cases where business travel would have been done by an affected airplane. Piper, manufacturer of the airplane but not the engine, may step in on planes still covered by Piper warranty and cover personal travel.