Page 16 - AAA NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2013 Online Magazine

FEATURE COMPONENT REFURBISH

Chopped Chopper

Not that long ago, a customer’s helicopter showed that the turbine was 40 plus years name) into Google Earth. He got an
arrived in the local maintenance hangar old - but all the log entries were in the interesting result.
for an upgrade to a higher powered same handwriting. Alarm bells started The company address appeared
engine. The modification was covered by to ring for the certificating engineer. to be situated in the middle of a very
a Supplementary Type Certificate (STC) Usually, decades of maintenance history large field in the middle of a very
which required the purchase of a new or will involve multiple entries from different large farming area, not a turbine
used engine. An ex US Army helicopter people – and if new cards are raised the overhaul or engineering shop in sight
engine was purchased for the upgrade. old cards should be supplied as well. Old for miles. Other means were then
When the engine arrived, an audit log cards are part of an aircraft’s record used to verify the address, all with the
of the log book was carried out. It and must never be destroyed. Things same results. No such overhaul facility
was discovered that cycles for the looked a bit suspicious. existed. The turbine was returned to
engine had not been supplied – and However, the turbine was supplied the US supplier. A report of this highly
the civilian variant of this particular with a document 8130, an Authorised suspicious anomaly was submitted to
engine required both operating hours Release Certificate sanctioned by the FAA, but with no response as of writing.
and cycles to be logged, not just FAA. When an FAA inspector or designee That was over a year ago.
hours. The local Airworthiness Body issues the 8130, they are required to “This is a common result with the
demanded that the cycles be supplied, complete the form “with the full name FAA,” says the engineer glumly. “I
otherwise the compressor and turbine and physical address (no post office box guess they think that if the aircraft
modules could not be used. Getting the numbers) of the organization or facility is going to crash in someone else’s
information proved nigh on impossible, for which the form is being issued.” (FAA country, and not in theirs, that’s not
so a decision was made to purchase website). As all the 8130 information is their problem.” He went on to note that
fully audited part-life compressor and mandatory for remanufactured or re- all the problems that he has had so far
turbine assembles, which the owner used aircraft items, the engineer decided with bogus helicopter parts have been
sourced directly from brokers in the US. to check on the name of the company on from the USA, not China or some of the
The compressor arrived and the web to check them out. However, a more frequently blamed sources. “The
an audit of the supplied log cards web search returned zero results. Luckily, FAA say they have a handle on it, but
revealed all was in order. Then the as required, the certificate had an address it is rife, you always have to keep your
turbine arrived and an audit showed on it, so he simply plugged the address eyes open when second hand parts are
all was not in order. The log cards of the overhauling supplier (without the used,” he adds.

16 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2013 WWW.ASIANAIRLINES-AIRPORTS.COM