Lancair Notifies Columbia Owners Of Potential Fuel Pressure Transducer Attachment Chafing

We have to give them credit... discovering a problem on one day and notifying your customers the next, is a FAST and wholly commendable response... but about what we'd expect from one of GA's next generation "Big Three" manufacturers. Lancair is in the process of personally notifying all owners of Lancair Columbia 300 and 350 aircraft that there may be an issue with the attachment of the aircraft’s fuel pressure transducer that could affect their aircraft’s airworthiness.

The Company became aware of the issue, which is the result of the fuel pressure transducer chafing against its mounting bracket, Thursday, after a report from line maintenance technicians regarding an in-service Columbia. Further inspections of other Columbia aircraft prompted the Company to recommend ON FRIDAY (just a day later) that all owners have their aircraft inspected immediately.

“We’ve mobilized our engineering team and are finalizing the steps to correct this situation as you read this,” said Lancair Vice President Ron Wright. “We’re contacting all of our world-wide sales & service centers and customers personally right now to inform them of the problem and have also communicated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requesting the issuance of an Airworthiness Directive (AD) to ensure that this issue is corrected on all affected aircraft.” The fuel pressure transducer, which is located on a low-pressure fuel line, sends fuel flow data to the aircraft’s cockpit instrumentation. The Lancair Company expects that the remedy to this issue will be relatively simple and implemented very rapidly.

“Our chief concern is always for the safety of our customers and those flying with them,” Wright said. “We expect that this problem will be corrected on all Columbias in service before the AD is even issued.”

The pending AD will be the first for a Lancair Columbia certified aircraft.

FMI: www.lancair.com