Affected owners and associations
have 60 days to submit comments.
SAN
ANTONIO, TX. August 12, 2013 - The FAA
proposed an Airworthiness Directive (AD) to limit the
allowable time-in-service of more than 30,000 TITAN
brand 520- and 550-series cylinder assemblies
installed on about 6,000 Continental IO-520, TSIO-520,
IO-550 and IOF-550 engines. The proposed AD affects a
broad serial number range of cylinder assemblies (p/n
AEC631397), and would require that these cylinders be
removed from service at 1,000 hours time-in-service.
In addition, about half the affected cylinders would
be required to be removed from service within 25 hours
if their time-in-service is less than 500 hours.
Cylinders permitted to continue in service would be
subject to repetitive 50-hour inspections until they
are retired. The FAA estimates cost of compliance to
be $82,620,000.
Engine
Components International (ECi) believes that the FAA's
proposed AD is unwarranted, inappropriate, and
unnecessarily punitive for the owners of the affected
aircraft. The FAA's action was prompted by 30
instances (out of 30,000 installed) of head-to-barrel
junction failures in TITAN® cylinders, but
none of these failures resulted in an accident or
injury. Such failures result in a loss of 20% of
engine power, leaving ample power to make a safe
landing, which is exactly what happened in every
case. In fact, FAA regulation
requires that engines must be designed to operate
safely with one cylinder not functioning.
A substantial number of the failures occurred
in twin-engine aircraft, where the safety consequences
were even less significant. In fact, there have been
more than 1,200 similar head-to-barrel failures in
520/550 cylinders manufactured by other Production
Approval Holders for which the FAA has taken no
action.