Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 09:10:39 -0700
From: fmoreno4@postoffice.pacbell.net
Subject: Continental Quality Woes
To: Lancair List <lancair.list@olsusa.com>
Reply-to: fmoreno4@pacbell.net
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It seems never to stop.  (See AVWEB article reproduced below.)
Continental continues to have quality problems.  New engine failures are
no longer rare.  It would seem that the "conservative" approach to use a
"proven aircraft engine" is not so conservative after all.

I just visited some Lancair builders at Palomar airport which has more
Lancairs than any other airport in the US.  The view of one builder that
has tracked a number of Lancair IV's in the area (and suffered an
inflight failure with a TSIO-550) is that the TSIO-550 is good for about
500-800 hours before requiring a top overhaul.  Increasingly it appears
that this is a very expensive engine to operate.

The gap between "certified" and experimental seems to be closing because
the certified stuff is getting less and less reliable, alas. It would be
interesting to see the factual, accurate data on the experience of the
Lancair IV fleet with the TSIO-550: failures, top overhauls, and other
defects.  I suspect that failures and costs per hour of operation are
disheartenly high.  Perhaps this could be obtained by going to the FAA
registry, getting all the names and addresses of Lancair IV owners, and
sending out a questionnaire.  I doubt that the factory, being a
Continental dealer, would be interested in collecting such data, even
given the value that would be obtained for the fleet.  Should we pool
our resources and do the research?

Fred

>From AVWEB April 17:

TCM ORDERS 1,100 CRANKSHAFTS TO BE CHECKED FOR FAULTY STEEL...
Late Friday, Teledyne Continental Motors issued an order that
effectively grounds some 1,100 TCM engines with crankshafts manufactured

during the past two years until they can be tested for a metallurgical
flaw that can cause the crank to fracture in flight.  The order, in the
form of a Mandatory Service Bulletin, comes slightly more than a year
after a separate and unrelated problem with crankshaft fabrication also
grounded aircraft with the new parts.  In this instance, TCM Mandatory
Service Bulletin MSB 00-5 affects 360-, 470-, 520- and 550-series
engines, and requires within the next 10 hours that two core samples be
bored from the crankshaft's propeller flange and be sent to TCM in
Mobile, Ala., for metallurgical testing.  Next week, the FAA is
expected to issue a Priority Letter Airworthiness Directive to make
compliance with MSB 00-5 mandatory.

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