Anthony said:
Yes, please, in fact if anyone would like to share their tales, it might make me feel better. In fact just knowing others have had these mometns is making me feel better already. Misery loves company.
More details to come.
OK... here goes...
My annual is due in August. We recently discovered that Hartzell, in 2002, went and put a note in the type certificate for the prop that makes compliance with Service Letter 61 mandatory. This got snuck in without notice. Service Letter 61 has the TBO times (both hours and calendar time), so by this action, Hartzell made the TBO mandatory.
The TBO calendar time expired in late May. Faced with the downtime for an overhaul, and then more downtime in August for annual, I read the Service Letter more carefully. It had a clause in it that read: "Temporary extension of TBO" which essentially said that Hartzell finds that a 3-month or 100 hour extension of the TBO is acceptable to avoid grounding of an aircraft or to allow for scheduling of maintenance, however, that extension had to be granted by the FAA. Should be perfect, right? HA!
I called the local FSDO, who said they have no authority to extend the TBO because Hartzell wrote the Service Letter - therefore they have to authorize it. So I called Hartzell. They said, no, they couldn't do it, the FAA had to. But the woman at Hartzell agreed to "bounce it upstairs". In the end, she came back with the name of a gentleman back at the FSDO that I should talk to.
So I called him. After talking for a few minutes, he said "You're not Part 135? There is no TBO requirement on Part 91." So I pointed him to the language, and he agreed that the TBO was mandatory. But he'd never seen a request like this for Part 91 before. So he asked me to make a formal request so they could evaluate it. That evaluation is still pending, and the plane is grounded.
In the meantime, I discovered that Hartzell has issued a Service Bulletin on the prop hub. As part of that SB, they noted that they were providing special pricing on a replacement hub and on a full replacement prop. The pricing was good through May 31. It was May 30. I know the prop blades were reduced to minimum limits at overhaul 6 years ago, so I suspected we were looking at new blades and a new hub, so it made sense to order a new prop.
I asked the prop shop to get the pricing from Hartzell and the delivery. Hartzell quoted a price that was less than the labor cost of overhaul + blades, and a delivery date of July 12. So, in the worst case, the plane would be down 6-7 weeks, then again in August. We ordered the prop.
On Friday, I learned that Hartzell wasn't honoring the delivery date. They pushed delivery into the second week of August. So I contacted the woman at Hartzell, again, who said that they had three-blade props in stock, and wouldn't I want one of them at 60% more than the one I ordered. Hartzell was unconcerned that the plane was grounded, and "couldn't" expedite the order. THe whole thing smelled like a classic "Bait and Switch", but whaddo I know?
So, the new prop should come in just in time for annual. I'll be grounded until then, unless the FAA comes through with an extension (which should be easy because the temporary extension language should be "approved data") - but then again, they've never issued one of these before.
I'm trying to locate a loaner prop, but that is proving problematic with the specified TBO in calendar time. I may have found one, but we'll have to see what shipping, and return to service, etc. costs.
