VAR cranks

[Frank Benvin]

As quoted by skyking

"With the new turmoil on the VAR cranks, those that have a good running engine should think twice about splitting cases."

Could you please fill me in on this subject

Thanks

Frank

[Ernie Martin]

Two unrelated points.

First, the new one, is that Lycoming just lost a suit and the court found that Lycoming's crankshaft design and Lycoming's direction to add vanadium to the crank steel was the cause of numerous in-flight crankshaft failures, some with fatalities. Lycoming had sued the crank manufacturer, claiming, after an investigation, that the manufacturer had overheated the forgings, weakening the steel. The manufacturer countersued, after its experts determined a) that Lycoming's crankshaft design, originally meant for older, less powerful engines, was inadequate for the higher horsepower engines that failed, and b) that adding vanadium to the steel (at Lycoming's direction) further limited the amount of stress the crankshafts could withstand. The court ordered Lycoming to pay the crank manufacturer $96 million, of which $86 million was punitive, in part for Lycoming's fraudulent analysis of the matter.

Second, is the belief by some experts, GMAs included, that the VAR cranks required in Continental engines did not improve reliability, and that the failure rate of VAR cranks turned out to be insignificantly different from that of non-VAR cranks. Some believe that the FAA was hasty in putting out the AD requiring the VAR crank and even that it was based in part on Continental's push for more sale of parts.

I don't know that one point affects the other. The Lycoming litigation was probably fueled by finger-pointing to avoid liability for the accidents and deaths. It's not clear to me that the new findings would have come about without this litigation. Also, VAR, which stands for Vaccum Arc Remelt, is a metallurgical process unrelated (I think) to vanadium.

Some people have approached the FAA to have them re-examine the data and quash the AD, without success. Perhaps Skyking believes that the recent court case might prompt a similar claim against Continental (and the FAA?). But who is going to file it and pay the attorney's fees? I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see the Lycoming case as the catalyst which one day may free us from the VAR AD.

Ernie

[Pat Schmitz]

That sounds like a 'great' topic for the SOAPA fly-in.... very interesting topic!!