Lycoming/FAA Chain letters-- (Rant)

Man. I got another one of those heart-stopping foul notes from the FAA today and, Glory be, I have dodged the FAA/Lycoming bullet once more. (Whew!)

There seems to be no end to these notifications that our precious lycomings are doomed to self destruct, but I also don't know if it'll make all that much difference.

I do know that I do not enjoy those little notifications one little bit.

Secret Agent...

Let's see, the first 0-320 started service in 1951, and have been running steadily since...hmmm. I don't think they have changed a whole lot since then. Can you spell litigation concerns...I knew you could.
Officially my RV4 is not powered by Lycoming, it is powered by an Airboat 0-320 made entirely of aftermarket airboat parts internally. Since it has no data plate and is mounted on an experimental airplane, it no longer exists, officially.

Unofficially, it is a Rob Ray 320, or 0-320RR.
RR

smokyray said:

Let's see, the first 0-320 started service in 1951, and have been running steadily since...hmmm. I don't think they have changed a whole lot since then. Can you spell litigation concerns...I knew you could.
Officially my RV4 is not powered by Lycoming, it is powered by an Airboat 0-320 made entirely of aftermarket airboat parts internally. Since it has no data plate and is mounted on an experimental airplane, it no longer exists, officially.

Unofficially, it is a Rob Ray 320, or 0-320RR.
RR

Click to expand...

I Like the airboat thing.. Maybe I could re-define mine as a Kubota alternate power source.

Problem is, Smoky, (speaking of litagation) were you (God forbid) to suffer a catastrophic engine failure - I have had three- would the lawyers representing your back seater climb all over your family's assets? Especially IF some love notes from Mutha Lycoming were proven to have been ignored, I mean?

Coverin' the bases...

A plane named Sue...

That's a tough one sir. When I was a young A&P (19)working for my Dad, a Swearingen Metroliner stopped by our airport with a cabin pressure leak. My Dad and another IA found the leak as a hole in the fuselage, patched it and got a one-time flight ferry permit for the airplane back to TX. When it got home, the company tore up the ferry permit and returned the Metro to service, sans any repairs. It flew for 2 more years with Dad's patch on it (a credit to my Dad's work) until some buffoon went below mins on an ILS and killed everyone onboard. One of the widows sued everyone in the logbooks which although completely innocent of the cause of the crash, my Dad still had to hire an attourney, pay the fees and defend himself.
The whole process left a lasting impression on me making me very careful what and who I sign logbooks for and very careful who I carry in my personal airplane. Until tort limits are fixed in the US, I guess we just have to deal with it...

I guess it's up to us to make sure they don't quit..

RR

PS: My airboat engine builder showed me his AD book and the parts required compared to his aftermarket ones...interesting topic for another thread...see ya!

"PS: My airboat engine builder showed me his AD book and the parts required compared to his aftermarket ones...interesting topic for another thread...see ya!"-- RR

That, I'd like to read, sometime.

Although this thread is somewhat whiny in nature, I really wanted to register the feeling that some of what engine manufacturers and the FAA make us do is frivolous at best and every mandated move can be expensive as doubleH. That last factor is assisting in driving GA into the earth like a lawn dart.

Anyhow, that part of being selective about who you allow to occupy the back seat makes all the sense in the world. Fear of litigation ( I was a volunteer pilot in an open house fly-in once where a really fat fiftish babe twisted her ankle in a cats-eye on the tie-down area-- can you say 'LITIGATION!!!' ?), has kept me from being as free as I once was about taking folks up. Time was, I would actually go to the 'port looking for riders-- no more.