I was wondering if anyone has ever found any hard data on the number of
engine failures per million flight hours.

I am specifically interested in the 0-300-D, the engine that I fly
now, and the 0-470 which I'm looking at buying....

Anything helps...

Thanks,

Jamie A. Landers
PP-ASEL

Jamie,

You aren't going to like this... In about 140,000 hours
of flying *at* BPPP (BPPP.org) clinics, there have been
7 engine failures. Real stuff busting, not running out
of fuel or anything like that. IO470s, 520s and 550s.
Shiny looking airplanes. Fortunately, only one with
injuries.

You wouldn't have to figure this in ppm!

I personally was involved in one of them where a 470
threw a rod on downwind. Fortuantely there was a spare engine. It's
all made me more conservative.

Bill Hale, BPPP instructor 8000TT

Wow, that's a lot more than I anticipated....you would think that
somewhere in the deep dark archives of our government (FAA) they would
calculate these figures by engine model for at least the KNOWN
incidents....

Using only known incidents, the number isn't worth the paper it is
printed on.

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Wow, that's a lot more than I anticipated....you would think that
> somewhere in the deep dark archives of our government (FAA) they would
> calculate these figures by engine model for at least the KNOWN
> incidents....
>

> You aren't going to like this... In about 140,000 hours
> of flying *at* BPPP (BPPP.org) clinics, there have been
> 7 engine failures. Real stuff busting, not running out
> of fuel or anything like that. IO470s, 520s and 550s.
> Shiny looking airplanes.

Actually, that's pretty good. The FAA estimate provided to a UK
investigative body was somewhere between 1 in 1000 hours to 1 in
10,000. I suspect that the sort of person who will shell out the bucks
for BPPP will also shell out for better-than-average maintenance and
newer-than-average planes.

Only thing is, I can't figure out how you guys racked up 140,000 hours.
The program has been around 25 years or so, for an average of 5600
hours a year. That's 1400 participants per year, average. Seems high.
You really get that many?

I've had one engine failure in about 2150 hours of powered flying
(about 950 of that in twins, so figure 3000+ hours of engine time) when
a component in my fuel servo rusted and plugged up the injectors. I
was IFR, 500 ft above the tops - and the bases were hiding mountains,
it being Arkansas and all. Fortunately there was a spare engine.

Michael

>>>Only thing is, I can't figure out how you guys racked up 140,000 hours.
The program has been around 25 years or so, for an average of 5600
hours a year. That's 1400 participants per year, average. Seems high.

You really get that many?


We've been at it 20 + years and we fly with each person
for just short of 4 hours. I'ts a swag but not off by an octave
I'm sure. Two fuel pump failures AT Fresno 2 years ago.

I forgot to account for the fact that ~ 1/5 of them have 2 engines!

Bill

It totally depends on maintenance. How many engine failures happen on
engines past TBO time? How many sat for several years without running,
gathering rust.

A good example would be to look at the big flight schools. I know
several have not have any engine failures. Most medium to large schools
will have at least 6,000 hrs a year. If most have been around 10-20
years, that tells you something.

-Robert

>>It totally depends on maintenance. How many engine failures happen on
>>engines past TBO time? How many sat for several years without running,
>>gathering rust.
>
> That's a great point that is often overlooked. Engines that fly 5
> hours a year can be scary things.
>
> Regular use seems to be the ticket for longevity for many mechanical
> devices.

I've known several regular flyers who have gone way past TBO, and eventually
either sold the planes, or got the engines overhauled, just because it was
bugging them. There was no particular problem, they just felt like they
were on borrowed time.

And our flight schools thrash their 150s/152s all day long, day in and day
out. Those birds have 100 hour inspections every other week, and they
never, ever fail.

But then, our plane only got 1500 hours on the last engine before it started
making metal. Not surprisingly, this happened after a frequently-flying
owner sold Atlas to a contractor who flew him only occasionally. When we
took it in for the pre-buy (and found the metal), he hadn't flown it more
than three times in the last four months.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

When I'm looking at a plane I ask how long its been sitting before I
bother to ask the number of hours on the enigine. I think the first
question is more important to engine life.