Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

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dmloftus
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Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by dmloftus »

Extraordinary step:

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ci ... ome-sr22s/

It will be interesting to hear root cause and subsequent FAA action
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by TimS »

Per COPA, CMI notified Cirrus, and Cirrus notified all new owners and COPA of an installation issue of a pin holding the counter weights. If the pin comes off, the counter weights could come loose and fly off through the case, causing the engine to seize.
The issue affects engines made after June 1st, 2021. At most 1000 engines expected to be affected, with a more likely maximum number in the six hundreds.
To see the PIN, you have to remove two cylinders. Unknown at this point if you can see enough of the PIN to make a determination, or be able to fix the issue at this point.

If people are really curious, I can probably get a copy of the actual notice sent.

Tim
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Rich
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by Rich »

It appears Continental, at least temporarily, is recommending grounding aircraft (not just Cirrus) with additional engine models manufactured in the affected time frame: This excerpt from Flying Magazine’s website:

“Continental is taking an abundance of caution regarding a potential flight safety issue,” said a Continental representative in a statement to FLYING. “While we are currently working directly with the FAA regarding the affected aircraft, we are proactively making the decision to encourage all flights powered by a Continental 360, 470, 520, [or] 550 engine manufactured between June 1, 2021, through February 7, 2023, to pause flight until further information is available.”

The potential failure mode is definitely egregious and not to be shrugged off.
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by Steve »

It is striking - the cascading effect that one improperly trained employee plus inadequate quality control can have on a product, company, and industry...
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Colin
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by Colin »

It isn't just new engines, it is also re-manufactured ones. So that's a few more planes.
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by Ed McDonald »

Just goes to show you that no aircraft manufacturer is immune to groundings...
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by TimS »

The rough estimate posted in COPA which was apparently provided by CMI is expected the max number of planes affected will be 1000; with expectations that only in the high 600s will have to be inspected, and then possibly mitigated.

Tim
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by dmloftus »

Nightmare, $$$$$
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Re: Cirrus Grounds SR22’s

Post by TimS »

CMI released some updated info. The recommendation has changed, engines which have completed over 200 hours have been excluded from the potential failure group.
Someone did some math and stated from a statistics standpoint, that means the highest number of hours on a plane with this failure should be 125 using standard FAA approach. Someone else posted highest number of hours on incident planes is 41.
I would take both guesses with a grain (or maybe a pile) of salt. The 200 hours and free to resume flying is the only item I would have any confidence it.

Tim
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