Dodgy practice in GA 50 hour check

[dakota_pete]

I recently took my aircraft for a 50 hr check (on 20% extension ie over 2000 hrs). The JAR145 approved maintenence people said that compression was lousy (about 50-60% of published figures) and that the aircraft needed a new engine immediately (which would have been a huge surprise considering they had been the maintainers for 2 years and the engine had been running fine during that period). Needless to say I got a second opinion from a recommended source (another JAR145 facility) and they found that the engine was in fact in vg condition considering its age and compressions were within a satisfactory tolerance - in fact they tried to see if they could reproduce these figues under any conditions and they couldn't. I am highly miffed and considering what action is possible against this organisation. Any views?

[Firkin L]

If you've used the first outfit for the last two years with no problems why would they try and pull a fast one on a valued customer? Don't forget, compression test results can vary depending on things like engine temp etc, if you look on the Lycoming and TCM websites there is some good gen on engines and low compression is one of the topics discussed. If your a/c has a PT CofA then the engine will need replacing soon anyway, perhaps they were suggesting that rather than start changing barrels this late in the engines life it would be better to replace it now. I can't believe that you would knowingly be misled, however, if someone told me I needed a new engine for my car I certainly would get a second opinion (unless it was obviously shagged).