Cirrus grounds its 22s2021- present

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

The article mentions a CMI engine issue. What's up Andy? https://www.flightglobal.com/safety/...151993.article

[Terry Carraway]

From what I heard, one of the pins for the counterweights was installed wrong.

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Sort of odd, "we as the airframe manufacturer are grounding all of our type with this engine because of the serious nature of the problem, but y'all owners can keep on flying if you want."

[A. Niemyer]

Reportedly, there have been three engine issues with IO-550N & TSIO-550K engines, one in flight and two on the ground, none in Cirrus aircraft, that promoted Continental immediately reaching out on Monday to manufacturers. Cirrus Flight Department decided to suspend their own flight ops and deliveries on aircraft with engines in that timeframe. They communicated that to owners in their database. It’s up to Continental to issue a MSB, etc. All CA can do is say “this is what we’re doing about this ourselves.”

It’s related to improper installation of some counterweight pin retaining rings. Inspection reportedly will require removal of two cylinder assemblies in order to accomplish the inspection. Given how backed up shops and engine facilitates are already, this is going to be a mess for those affected. I imagine that Continental’s Chinese overlords are not happy about this, nor Cirrus’s (They are both wholly-owned by the same PRC GOE)

Thats all I know at this point.

Andy

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Thanks Andy. Did Cirrus communicate with owners enough information so that the owners could make a somewhat reasoned judgment about whether to continue flying (something beyond, "we're not flying those aircraft")?

[A. Niemyer]

Well, I didn't get the message, but I'll look around to see if I can find it. Interesting that CA has been far more communicative than CMI. Not surprising, given their usual corporate attitude about talking to actual engine users.

[UPDATE: Found It]

February 8, 2023

Dear Cirrus Aircraft Owner,

The purpose of this notification is to inform you of a potential upcoming Continental Aerospace Technologies (Continental) Service Bulletin that may include your aircraft.

We have just been informed by Continental of an issue that affects the engines that power both our SR22 and SR22T. While we are still working with Continental to determine the scope of the issue and specific serial number range of affected aircraft, we are proactively making the decision - out of an abundance of caution - to pause all internal Cirrus Aircraft company flight operations on SR22s and SR22Ts manufactured and issued a Certificate of Airworthiness from June 1, 2021, through February 7, 2023.

This pause in Cirrus Aircraft company flight operations affects all SR22 and SR22T aircraft under our control, including aircraft in production, ferry flights, training flights, delivery flights and demonstration flights. In addition, we are pausing new aircraft customer deliveries for SR22s and SR22Ts. We continue to operate – without restriction - all our SR20s, as well as SR22s and SR22Ts with engines that were manufactured prior to June 1, 2021.

Even though we are in the very early stages of working with Continental to gather more information, we wanted to proactively reach out to you now to let you know the decision we have made regarding flight operations for our company-owned and operated aircraft.

We anticipate Continental to issue a Service Bulletin in the near future which will detail the specific range of affected aircraft, root cause of the issue and corrective action. The Continental Service Bulletin will also be accompanied by a Cirrus Aircraft Service Advisory notification. In addition, we are also reaching out to our Authorized Service Center network to inform them of this anticipated Continental Service Bulletin.

Please anticipate receiving additional communications from Cirrus Aircraft on this important topic in the near future.

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Thanks Andy. Were I a CA exec I certainly wouldn't want my corporate communications department to be measured by how CMI does that function!

[Terry Carraway]

Sort of odd, "we as the airframe manufacturer are grounding all of our type with this engine because of the serious nature of the problem, but y'all owners can keep on flying if you want."

Neither Cirrus nor Continental can ground the aircraft. Cirrus grounded the ones owned by Cirrus, including ones waited to be delivered. Continental will publish and SB that are recommended for Part 91 (maybe mandatory for Part 135) and then the FAA will do an AD that could ground all possibly affected engines.

I know you know this.

What I don't understand is that there have been 3 instances with 550 engines, but they are talking about all Continental engines currently being made.

Good news is, my TSIO-360-SB was built (Factory Reman) in 2017.

[A. Niemyer]

Terry,
”What I don't understand is that there have been 3 instances with 550 engines, but they are talking about all Continental engines currently being made.”

Ask CMI. I suspect they’re not sure if the same error was made on all their engine lines.

[A. Niemyer]

Continental released the following this afternoon: Bottom line, IO-360, -470, -520, and -550 engines with under 200 hours that were made between the previously mentioned dates. SB to be issued Monday, no AD at this point.

https://continental.aero/Potential-S...ght-Issue.aspx

[A. Niemyer]

[B.Butler]

Wow! Absolutely amazing language:
If you survived the first 200 hours, we think you should be okay.

[Terry Carraway]

Well, so far, the longest time in service for one that failed was 41 hours.

It seems they started with a very broad brush, and as they look more into it, they are narrowing the focus.

[A. Niemyer]

Terry,
I suspect they've figured out that if the retaining clip is installed incorrectly, it's going to crap out well before 200 hours. I don't know how many 470s will be affected; I don't think any OEM is installing them right now; AFAIK, Mooney, Beech, Piper and Cirrus are using 360/520/550s pretty much exclusively. I think it will affect anyone who had a Factory OH or ReMan during that period. Possibly those custom shops who sent their crankshafts to CAM or bought new crankshafts from them.

Andy

[John O'Shaughnessy [FCM]]

We recently (last spring) upgraded to an IO-550 from Air Plains in one of our C-182s. It's "on the list."