[Peetwo]

From Oz Flying today on the Senator O'Sullivan inquisition & rant:

Jabiru J230



Queensland Senator questions CASA over Jabiru Engine
11 Feb 2016

Queensland Liberal National Party senator, Barry O'Sullivan, has questioned the way the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has handled the restrictions placed on aircraft with Jabiru engines.

After what it says is an unacceptable rate of engine failures compared with other manufacturers, CASA banned aircraft with Jabiru engines from flying over built-up areas as "precautionary limitations."

In Senate Estimate Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport in Canberra on Monday, Senator O'Sullivan questioned CASA Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore and Associate Director Jonathon Aleck over the performance of the Jabiru engine since modifications were made, and suggested the issue had dragged on too long.

"During a meeting on 14 November were you advised that there had been design developments that had been made to the Jabiru engine over recent years?" O'Sullivan asked Aleck. "You were made aware of that?"

"That there had been design developments to the engine over the years—yes, certainly. We were aware ..." Aleck replied.

O'Sullivan continued: "And they submitted to you that they felt they had resolved some of these critical issues that you had used to place these limitations on them? Did they make that submission to you?"

Aleck: "They suggested that was so."

O'Sullivan then expressed some frustration and finished with the suggestion that a Senate Inquiry might be needed to sort it out if CASA was not forthcoming.

"What evaluation have you now done on the enhanced engines to see whether their performance is better, and up to an acceptable standard, versus the old engines?" he asked.

"Gentlemen, this company [Jabiru] is on the verge of tipping over and this has been a long-running saga ... If any of the facts that are being presented to me are correct in relation to how CASA has dealt with this company—how long it has taken and the manner in which the consultations occurred—then there is a problem: a serious problem.

"I will not have time to deal with it today, but maybe we can have a quiet audience for me to go through some of these issues with you; otherwise I will be asking my colleagues to join me to have an inquiry to have a look at how you have dealt with this."

Aleck replied that CASA would be happy to talk the senator through the issues outside of the committee room.

Earlier, both Skidmore and Aleck confirmed that a tear-down test of a Jabiru engine with three modifications showed the engine could endure 900 hours, when the standard called for only 200 hours.

"This [engine] had 900 hours," Aleck said, "so that was quite impressive."
According to CASA, Jabiru engines had 2-3 failures every 10,000 hours, when the US National Transport Safety Board had established an acceptable level of one every 10,000 hours.

Going, going gone - ATSB buries Jabiru  

The ATSB released investigation research report AR-2013-107 today, the following is the safety issues & actions section of that report:

Safety issues and actions

The safety issues identified during this investigation are listed in the Findings and Safety issues and actions sections of this report. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) expects that all safety issues identified by the investigation should be addressed by the relevant organisation(s). In addressing those issues, the ATSB prefers to encourage relevant organisation(s) to proactively initiate safety action, rather than to issue formal safety recommendations or safety advisory notices.

All of the directly involved parties were provided with a draft report and invited to provide submissions. As part of that process, each organisation was asked to communicate what safety actions, if any, they had carried out or were planning to carry out in relation to each safety issue relevant to their organisation.

The initial public version of these safety issues and actions are repeated separately on the ATSB website to facilitate monitoring by interested parties. Where relevant the safety issues and actions will be updated on the ATSB website as information comes to hand.

Through-bolt failures in Jabiru engines
Thicker 7/16 inch diameter through-bolts, fitted to newer Jabiru engines and some retro-fitted engines, have had limited service to date to confirm early indications that they reduce this risk. Retro-fitting engines with thicker through-bolts has only been recommended for aircraft involved in flight training by JSB031 issue 3. Most light aircraft in service with Jabiru engines continue to use 3/8 inch diameter engine through-bolts which, even after upgrades in accordance with Jabiru service bulletins JSB031 issues 1 and 2, remain at an elevated risk of fracturing within the service life of the bolt, leading to an engine failure or malfunction in flight.

Aviation safety issue: AR-2013-107-SI-01

ATSB safety recommendation: AR-2013-107-SR-055

ATSB safety recommendation: AR-2013-107-SR-056
 

"...the ATSB prefers to encourage relevant organisation(s) to proactively initiate safety action, rather than to issue formal safety recommendations or safety advisory notices..."

Hmm...guess the bureau has a sense of mistrust when it comes to Jabiru aircraft- why??

Here is a summary of the ATSB findings & implications to Jabiru courtesy Hitch:

The Jabiru J230.


ATSB Engine Report zeroes in on Jabiru Failures
09 Mar 2016

An ATSB report released today compares the rate of engine failures in light general aviation and recreational aircraft, focusing specifically on Jabiru engines.

Aircraft powered by Jabiru engines have been on limited operations since December 2014 over what the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) deemed a "high and increasing" rate of failures.

The report covers all engine failures in aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 800 kg or less that occured between 2009 and 2014, and indicated that 40.4% – or 130 out of 322 – involved Jabiru engines.

Although the report covers all engine manufacturers, it focuses specifically on four that account for 94% of the failures over the six-year period: Jabiru, Rotax (27% - 87 failures), Lycoming (18% - 58 failures) and Teledyne Continental (8.7% - 28 failures).

According to the ATSB, no single component accounted for more than two incidents in the report period for Lycoming, Rotax and Continental, whereas 47% of Jabiru engine failures were attributed to the 3/8" through-bolts fracturing.

There were also 13 reported fractures in Jabiru engine valves.

The report notes that Jabiru Aircraft released two service bulletins to deal with the through-bolts, the second of which was an increase in diameter from 3/8" to 7/16", which required the engine to be sent back to Bundaberg.

In-house studies targeted the solid lifters as a root cause of the valve issues, prompting a change to hydraulic lifters.

Jabiru responded to the ATSB in February 2015, stating that "Production records show that 272 production engines have been released in to service with the 7/16" diameter through bolts. There have been no reported through bolt failures with these engines. [However] failures continued to occur in engines that are in service with the hydraulic lifters and 3/8" diameter bolts."

That performance seems to have not impressed the ATSB, which remarks in the report, "the lack of reported failures in 7/16 inch through-bolts may be related to the small proportion of the fleet that have thicker through-bolts and that most of these engines have relatively low time-in-service."

The ATSB has recommended that Jabiru takes further safety action to encourage all owners of Jabiru-engined aeroplanes that have not adopted the 7/16" through-bolts, or any alternative to the 3/8" parts, do so immediately, and that CASA continues to monitor the failure rate until they are satisfied of the engine's reliability.

MTF...P2