Help!!! Prop Strike questions for a Diamond DA40

[Diamondsare4ever]

Context:
- Prop hit an airport Pylon.
- No visible damage on the prop.
- Plane / prop visually inspected and flown immediately after incident without issue / observable changes in engine instruments. Note: Was not aware the lycomming AD and SB requirements relating to prop strikes until after the plane was brought to an A&P for unrelated maintence. Had I known, plane would have been immediately grounded at that point.
- The plane was being flown by a third party (non-owner) who billed for their transport time and carries their own insurance.
- TT: 400
- Prop TT: 400
- TBO: 1600-2000

Questions:
1. would the insurance claim go through the third party pilot / common they work for OR to through the owner of the plane (state is FL)?
2. A&P IA is requesting that full year down and inspection of the engine be performed. Cost quoted: Teardown - $16k labor, $10k parts (8-12 weeks) OR Engine Overhaul $43k (12-16 weeks). Are these numbers reasonable?
3. Would the plane lose value if the folllwong AD (https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... iprocating) and SB (https://www.lycoming.com/sites/default/ ... 1%2529.pdf) were address in response to the prop strike?
4. Would he plane lose value if a complete engine and prop overhaul was performed?
5. What actions would you take to have this resolved?

Please keep in mind, based on what was experienced during the 1 hour flight after the prop strike, there was no observed issues with the plane, but the goal is to play the long game here. I’ve done a tons of research but would like to get a better sense directly from the community.

[Rich]

First and foremost, did the event meet the definition of a prop strike as stated in the AD? So far your description doesn't seem to meet that definition. What kind of pylon was it?

[Rich]

The 2016 SB revision (I hadn't looked at that before) has this amazingly broad definition of e propeller strike, which includes this:

Any incident, whether or not the engine is operating, where repair of the propeller is necessary

What constitutes "repair"??? The SB does not include the exclusion about minor dressing of the blades.

[Steve]

A little off topic and not answering all of your questions, but I had a prop strike in my aircraft in 2020. A guy backed his pickup truck into my running prop while I was stopped on a taxiway. At that time the estimate to teardown my engine and repair the 3 blades was approximately $34K. His auto insurance company was not willing to replace the engine and prop, which was what I demanded, since he was the at-fault party. My insurance company (AVEMCO) was willing to front that amount, and then subrogate to his insurance company. Aside from the fact that the airplane would now have damage history, I felt that I should be made as whole as possible. I know that MT can work wonders with our prop blades, but:

Prop blade damage

I didn't want to fly my family behind 3 blades like this. Plus, my engine had been split about a year earlier for the prop governor set screw AD, and I didn't really want to fly behind an engine that had been split twice, but not rebuilt. So I ordered a rebuilt (new) engine from Lycoming (it took 3.5 months during COVID), 3 new (improved) blades from MT, and sued the guy's insurance company. While I was waiting for the parts, I did a lot of other busy work on the airplane. I was back in the air in 4 months, but I had to front the $$ less what AVEMCO fronted me. We settled with his insurance company a year later for what I asked for initially, plus diminished value, plus loss of use, just before going to trial.

I did get a professional appraisal done at my expense (not by AVEMCO) and they calculated that with the new engine and prop, the airplane lost between $17K - $29K in 'diminished value'. This would decrease over 5 - 7 years to zero. With a repaired prop and inspected engine, the diminished value would have been about twice that. I didn't get all of the diminished value amount, but enough to offset my legal fees. I am about 4 years past the event now, so most of that diminished value should have aged out. Of course, I did get a zero time engine out of the deal, but I would have rather been flying...

[Karl]

Context:
- Prop hit an airport Pylon.
- No visible damage on the prop.
- Plane / prop visually inspected and flown immediately after incident without issue / observable changes in engine instruments. Note: Was not aware the lycomming AD and SB requirements relating to prop strikes until after the plane was brought to an A&P for unrelated maintence. Had I known, plane would have been immediately grounded at that point.
- The plane was being flown by a third party (non-owner) who billed for their transport time and carries their own insurance.
- TT: 400
- Prop TT: 400
- TBO: 1600-2000

Questions:
1. would the insurance claim go through the third party pilot / common they work for OR to through the owner of the plane (state is FL)?
2. A&P IA is requesting that full year down and inspection of the engine be performed. Cost quoted: Teardown - $16k labor, $10k parts (8-12 weeks) OR Engine Overhaul $43k (12-16 weeks). Are these numbers reasonable?
3. Would the plane lose value if the folllwong AD (https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... iprocating) and SB (https://www.lycoming.com/sites/default/ ... 1%2529.pdf) were address in response to the prop strike?
4. Would he plane lose value if a complete engine and prop overhaul was performed?
5. What actions would you take to have this resolved?

Please keep in mind, based on what was experienced during the 1 hour flight after the prop strike, there was no observed issues with the plane, but the goal is to play the long game here. I’ve done a tons of research but would like to get a better sense directly from the community.

The problem with a prop strike is that the keys driving gears at the rear of the engine can be damaged but not sheared.
The engine may run normally now but if the drive key fails at a later date you have an engine failure.
If that happens you could be held liable if the SB was not performed.

What is the pylon you mention it hit? Pylon brings to mind something big and made of steel.

As an aside, in the UK a Robin aircraft drifted off the runway and came to rest against a hay bail. The crew inspected the aircraft and decided there was no visible damage. Shortly after they took off the wing spar failed and both were killed.

[Rich]

Once upon a time the Lycoming SB would reference just checking things accessible by opening up the accessory case. The new version has an entire engine teardown. Look at all the things they demand to be done.

[Diamondsare4ever]

First and foremost, did the event meet the definition of a prop strike as stated in the AD? So far your description doesn't seem to meet that definition. What kind of pylon was it?

It was a rubber cone similar to the one seen here:
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S- ... hkQAvD_BwE

It shred right through the cone and just left a little of the cone color on the blade… no visible damage to the plane or blades from the inspection that was performed immediately after.

[Diamondsare4ever]

Context:
- Prop hit an airport Pylon.
- No visible damage on the prop.
- Plane / prop visually inspected and flown immediately after incident without issue / observable changes in engine instruments. Note: Was not aware the lycomming AD and SB requirements relating to prop strikes until after the plane was brought to an A&P for unrelated maintence. Had I known, plane would have been immediately grounded at that point.
- The plane was being flown by a third party (non-owner) who billed for their transport time and carries their own insurance.
- TT: 400
- Prop TT: 400
- TBO: 1600-2000

Questions:
1. would the insurance claim go through the third party pilot / common they work for OR to through the owner of the plane (state is FL)?
2. A&P IA is requesting that full year down and inspection of the engine be performed. Cost quoted: Teardown - $16k labor, $10k parts (8-12 weeks) OR Engine Overhaul $43k (12-16 weeks). Are these numbers reasonable?
3. Would the plane lose value if the folllwong AD (https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... iprocating) and SB (https://www.lycoming.com/sites/default/ ... 1%2529.pdf) were address in response to the prop strike?
4. Would he plane lose value if a complete engine and prop overhaul was performed?
5. What actions would you take to have this resolved?

Please keep in mind, based on what was experienced during the 1 hour flight after the prop strike, there was no observed issues with the plane, but the goal is to play the long game here. I’ve done a tons of research but would like to get a better sense directly from the community.

The problem with a prop strike is that the keys driving gears at the rear of the engine can be damaged but not sheared.
The engine may run normally now but if the drive key fails at a later date you have an engine failure.
If that happens you could be held liable if the SB was not performed.

What is the pylon you mention it hit? Pylon brings to mind something big and made of steel.

As an aside, in the UK a Robin aircraft drifted off the runway and came to rest against a hay bail. The crew inspected the aircraft and decided there was no visible damage. Shortly after they took off the wing spar failed and both were killed.

Sounds like it impacted the hay bail fairly hard.

It was a rubber cone similar to the one seen here:
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S- ... hkQAvD_BwE

It shred right through the cone and just left a little of the cone color on the blade… no visible damage to the plane or blades from the inspection that was performed immediately after.

[Rich]

First and foremost, did the event meet the definition of a prop strike as stated in the AD? So far your description doesn't seem to meet that definition. What kind of pylon was it?

It was a rubber cone similar to the one seen here:
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S- ... hkQAvD_BwE

It shred right through the cone and just left a little of the cone color on the blade… no visible damage to the plane or blades from the inspection that was performed immediately after.

If the RPM never wavered I don’t see where it meets the definition of a prop strike as defined in the AD or the SB.

[Diamondsare4ever]

First and foremost, did the event meet the definition of a prop strike as stated in the AD? So far your description doesn't seem to meet that definition. What kind of pylon was it?

It was a rubber cone similar to the one seen here:
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S- ... hkQAvD_BwE

It shred right through the cone and just left a little of the cone color on the blade… no visible damage to the plane or blades from the inspection that was performed immediately after.

If the RPM never wavered I don’t see where it meets the definition of a prop strike as defined in the AD or the SB.

In the SB it states:
Prop strike includes - Any incident during engine operation where the propeller has impact on a solid object

Not sure how they define solid object though…. Concrete block versus pylon seem very different