AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020 - 91

P&E OWNERSHIP

How an airplane
is like a kitchen
One thing leads to another with an engine overhaul
BY THOMAS B. HAINES

ROYAL AIRCRAFT SERVICES A&P/IA Tom Young finishes installation of the overhauled Bonanza

MIKE COLLINS

engine. Overhauled to new limits and with custom ignition harness and new Superior cylinders, Pinnacle Aircraft Engines spiffs up the engine to perform and look like new.

THERE'S A KITCHEN ANALOGY in there somewhere. You know the one: You set out to
change the kitchen faucet and end up with
a $50,000 kitchen remodel! Only in my case,
it was a wing repair from a bird strike that
led to a $50,000 engine and propeller overhaul-even though the bird came nowhere
near the engine or the prop.
Fortunately, I had been planning and
saving for the overhaul of the Continental
IO-550-B in my Beechcraft Bonanza A36
ever since the Hobbs meter turned over the
first hour on the last engine overhaul way
back in 2002-when Crocs and iPods were
all the rage. That engine served me well,
surpassing the 1,700-hour recommended
time between overhaul by nearly 600 hours
and still going strong enough. Owners often

complain that big-bore Continentals frequently need a top overhaul somewhere in
the middle, but this one soldiered on without a blink, asking only for the replacement
of one exhaust valve a few years ago.
With oil analysis trend monitoring,
frequent compression checks, and digital borescopes, I still had confidence in the
engine, but I knew I was on borrowed time.
I expected the engine would talk to me
before it had a catastrophic failure-wear
metals in the oil trending up, declining cylinder compressions, or visual indications
inside the cylinders would be a harbinger
of a problem.
What concerned me more than the
engine was the propeller. It was overhauled in 2002 as well and now, millions

of revolutions and 18 years later, it was still
working hard with almost no way to tell
whether it was about to give out. And, as
with the engine, I had pushed well beyond
the recommended propeller TBO of 2,000
hours or six years, whichever comes first.
So, with the airplane going into the shop
for a period of weeks to repair the wing
skin, I decided to use the downtime to get
the engine and propeller overhauls done,
too. Royal Aircraft Services in Hagerstown,
Maryland, was one of the shops recommended by my insurance company for the
wing repair. Royal has experience swapping
engines in and out for overhauls as well, so
in addition to a quote on the wing repair, I
asked for one for the engine swap, propeller
overhaul, new engine mounts, new baffling,
and a number of other accessories that go
with such a job.
I had already scoped out Pinnacle
Aircraft Engines in Silverhill, Alabama, as
the shop to do the engine overhaul. Pinnacle
developed a good reputation for overhauls
when its only customers were Nantucket
Airlines and Cape Air.
A new ownership team that includes J.D.
Kuti as vice president of operations and chief
inspector, along with Todd LaVelle and Aron
Stefanides, bought the business in July 2019.
As a Part 145 repair station, Pinnacle now
does work for other customers including
major overhauls and repairs. Its engines are
built to new limits using Superior Air Parts
cylinders. Kuti said the company prefers
Superior cylinders because of their advanced
manufacturing techniques and their warranty period-37 months, which is longer
than almost any other cylinder manufacturer.
Kuti walked me through the process,
which includes a detailed inspection and
photo session as the engine is uncrated.
They then tear the engine down, using more
photos to document the condition. The
engine is cleaned using a baking soda blast
system rather than plastic or glass media
used by some other shops. The baking soda,
Kuti said, is harmless and breaks down easily should any find its way into any nooks
and crannies. The parts to potentially be
reused then go through an extensive nondestructive testing and measurements process
to determine whether they still meet new
limits. Crankshafts go out to a vendor for
aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 91

http://www.aopa.org/pilot

AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020