I saw mention of the following AD on yesterday’s aero-news.net news; it sounds like a follow-up to the problems continental was having earlier this year. It was unclear to me whether this only affects the engines that had the earlier crankshaft problems, or whether this was a different batch of engines.
Has anyone who owns a cirrus heard anything about whether this affects any cirri? And does anyone know if these types of things affect the production rate at CD? (i.e. do they have to yank a bunch of engines and/or spend extra time boring samples and waiting for results, etc.)
Thanks,
Steve
AD NUMBER: 2000-23-21
MANUFACTURER: Teledyne Continental
SUBJECT 2000-23-21 - Fracture of the crankshaft connecting rod journal
SUMMARY: This amendment supersedes emergency airworthiness directive (AD) 2000-08-51. Emergency AD 2000-08- 51 was sent to all known U.S. owners and operators of Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) IO-360, TSIO-360, LTSIO-360, O-470, IO-470, TSIO-470, IO-520, TSIO-520, LTSIO-520, IO-550, TSIO-550, and TSIOL-550 series reciprocating engines by individual letters. This amendment requires removing a core sample of material from the propeller mounting flange of certain crankshafts, and sending the core sample to TCM for evaluation. This amendment is prompted by reports of crankshaft failures, and by the addition of additional crankshaft serial numbers (SN) that have been added to the suspect population. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent fracture of the crankshaft connecting rod journal, which could result in total engine power loss, in-flight engine failure and possible forced landing.