AD on Rotax 912 Announced

[Jack Tyler]

"AD targets washers on Rotax 912 A series engines

The FAA has issued an airworthiness directive (AD), effective June 16, requiring the replacement of certain defective washers and gasket rings on the magneto ring flywheel hub of Rotax 912 A series engines. The action is intended to prevent “loosening of the magneto flywheel hub and consequent ignition failure, possibly resulting in damage to the engine, in-flight engine shutdown and forced landing, damage to the aeroplane and injury to occupants,” the AD says. The European Aviation Safety Agency issued mandatory continuing airworthiness information, and Rotax published a mandatory service bulletin. The FAA estimates 475 aircraft of U.S. registry will be affected and compliance will cost $2,060 per engine."

This is from AOPA's June 3rd ePilot Newsletter. Perhaps one of our certified mechanics can tell us a bit more about the origin of this AD and the timing mandated for the work.

[drseti]

Perhaps one of our certified mechanics can tell us a bit more about the origin of this AD and the timing mandated for the work.

ADs, per se, only affect certified engines (the Rotax 912S is certified; the more commonly used 912ULS is not). So, Rotax has a Service Bulletin coming, which is mandatory for the Light Sport version. Only applies to certain s/n engines (mine, thankfully, is not among those).

Apparently, they changed washer vendors, and got a bad batch. Old engines are not affected. Neither are the newest ones. They caught the problem after a few hundred engines shipped.

[Jack Tyler]

Paul:

Boy, wouldn't you just LOVE to have bought an engine that, some time back, was built with a small piece from a bad sub-vendor and now be told you had to cough up $2K to fix 'your' problem. Really takes the fun out of the weekend $100 Hamburger...

I was listening to a presentation on replacing 100LL av fuel just yesterday (one of the on-line seminars, of which there are a boodle, from AOPA) and it was done by a senior Lycoming engineer who's found himself kinda 'the' reporter to the aviation community on the various efforts to replace leaded av gas. The thought crossed my mind: How likely is that to have happened with a Lycoming engine..? (Not that they haven't had their own problems...)

[drseti]

How likely is that to have happened with a Lycoming engine..? (Not that they haven't had their own problems...)

Lycoming's problems weren't with $2k washers, but rather with $10k crankshafts...