Look what I found!

[cliffy]

`Innovation is great IF it can be implemented!

Unfortunately with our "certified" airplanes everything, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING" from the tip of the spinner to the lens on the tail light is there with an "approved" design specification. Anything you add outside of those "specifications" needs some form of "approval" by the Feds. That is always (under the current system) a long, difficult, multi-step and expensive process.  Ain't nothin' comin' in cheap with certified airplanes. 

To "improve" the engines would require a long and drawn out re-approval process that wouldn't be cheap and might not even get out of the legal department (why take the chance when what we have has been working for decades, and YES, many many engines make TBO). The engine manufactures don't lose many lawsuits. Not to even mention the extremely limited numbers in the market compared to automobiles. Minuscule numbers in comparison to the expense of delivery. How are you going to amortize it?    $$$$$$$$$ 

The biggest killer of our engines?

Sitting idle for months on end. That is what kills most of them. Why do you suppose Lycoming gives 200 more hrs for TBO if it is eaten up in just a few years instead of 12?

How many of the engines that we read about that fail, haven't been overhauled in 20-25, sometimes 30 years? How many out there are driving cars 25 years old that have never had an engine replaced? Would you jump in and drive it from LAX to NYC right now? 

Something to think about.

[peevee]

10 hours ago, EricJ said:

IMHO this is one consequence of an over-regulated environment that keeps the barrier to entry unproductively high.   If the door were open to innovation and competition, it'd be there, especially given what the community has been trained to pay for things.

I think I'm done with certified airplanes. I'm over it and this is a big reason why.

[jetdriven]

Th engines they are building aren't as good as the ones built 20 years ago. In fact the ones overhauled recently, regularly spall cams and lifters while the ones overhauled in the 80s are still running. Like my boss's 1988 overhauled io360 in his piper arrow. I wonder how certification caused that?  It was sourcing parts from the lowest bidder and looking the other way on quality...

[FloridaMan]

And I just got word that they are done with the overhaul. I need to wire them the second half of the payment and they'll ship it out. The core left the shop in Florida on 6/26 and there was a holiday weekend in between. 

[Hank]

23 minutes ago, Antares said:

And I just got word that they are done with the overhaul . . . The core left the shop in Florida on 6/26 and there was a holiday weekend in between. 

Wow, that's quick!! Hope the rest of the process is equally time efficient.

[FloridaMan]

6 minutes ago, Hank said:

Wow, that's quick!! Hope the rest of the process is equally time efficient.

Prop shop just picked up the prop today

[Raptor05121]

I am just now reading this and feel very sorry to hear about the problem, Antares.

I guess the good news is the engine is 0SMOH, so value increases. Are you going to keep flying or upgrade to the Rocket?

[1964-M20E]

glad to see you will be getting you plane back together soon.  Unfortunate the circumstances as they are.