Prop strike and an AD question
 

Prop strike occurred, insurance mandates a full Tear down and IRAN. Connecting rods are affected by AD (replace at 1500 hours, if removed, cannot be reinstalled, engine has 200 hours). Rods had to be removed for tear down as a result of prop strike, otherwise I would have run them until 1500 hours.
Question is, should insurance cover the cost of new rods? All opinions appreciated.

I have no specific experience in this area other than a bit about the claim process in general, but if the rods were not damaged from the prop strike and they were replaced only due to a manufacturing defect, I imagine it will be difficult to get them to cover the cost eventhough they required the teardown. With the teardown, they are just forcing you to use best practices in properly inspecting the engine to reduce further liability. It's not really their fault (i.e. covered area) that the rods were defective and replacing non-defective rods during an IRAN inspection is not a standard practice. Insurance companies tend to follow industry standards when making coverage decisions.

Let us know what they say.

Larry

+1. The insurance company will only pay to replace things damaged by the prop strike. So if the connecting rods are damaged, they will pay. If they are defective but not from the prop strike, it is not reasonable to expect them to pay.

I think Bob is correct. I had some non-strike related items that were discovered during the inspection and I had to pay for them.

The rods are fine, until they came off of the engine, as a direct result of prop strike.

That sort of logic is not likely to work. The rods are not fine, they’re defective. Otherwise there would be no A/D. Even if they were damaged by the prop strike, the insurance company might only offer their net value, pro-rated to 1500 hours. Same as they may offer the current, used value of the prop-not the new price.

Attorney?
 

Rods were fine until 1500 hrs, but what made them
Be pulled early ? Prop strike, because if there was no
Prop strike then you would not be changing them out
Earlier
personally I would negotiate a reasonable price
for ?serviceable Rods?if not then bring up
Arbitration for the rods
Bottom line
you bet there would be accident with
Your aircraft and the insurance company
bet there would not
They lost.

To me it seems as if it's good practice to replace the rods now but it's not mandatory. Since the engine is torn down on the insurance company's dime, if it were me, I'd spring for the new rods myself and probably not bother them about it. That's a lot cheaper than putting the old rods back in and doing the job over again at your expense in 1,300 hours.

Of course if I were flying 20 hours a year I might have a different point of view....

Dave

It is mandatory. The AD requires the rods be replaced the next time they?re out, for any reason, or 1500 hours, whichever comes first.

Seems like they should be covered. IRAN= Inspect and repair as necessary.
Would they not pay for gaskets because they were fine until they were removed and can't be used again? What about the other items that can't be reused?

You paid for insurance to cover your whole plane and engine. Did the policy have an exception for certain parts? Can the engine be reassembled sans rods?
More importantly, will insurance rates increase b/c of the prop strike?

You may need to get more adamant with the adjuster...
-Marc