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.

FMI: www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/airworthiness_directives/