Infrequent use on Turbomeca engine heads up
 

Was reminded today of the 7 day run to maintain oil film and fuel wetting of components , and a log book entry to back it up, any failure to do it, ie storage or heavy maintenance rendered it unservicable, you can vent it up to 3 times but then it goes back for overhaul.
potential sellers and buyers and reps are told to look for these entries ..

Can you elaborate on this? Do you mean that Turbomeca put out a bulletin notice on engines that sit for more the 7 days? What engines are affected? Can you post a link of that bulletin?

Most if not all engines / airframes have anti deterioration routines which should kick in after a week 7 days. A month of inactivity or longer and deep storage kicks in which is engines out and placed in transport crates. failure to comply and engines MUST go for overhaul.

Would this be in the RFM? I don't recall ever seeing it at least for the EC-130.

We have a spare EC135T in our hangar. It will need to be ground run once a week.

rfm is the rotor flight manual.. how to operate the helicopter..... nothing to do with maintenance .... you need to check the maintenance manuals for the engine and helicopter.....

Wow that's neat. So bench run an engine once a week to keep it up just in case you need it.

On a serviceable aircraft, you must run the engine for 5 minutes at ground idle every 7 days, as per the Maintenance Manual 71-05-01-530-801-A01.

If you don't want to run it up, carry out the internal corrosion as per the Maintenance Manual chapter 71-06-01-620-801-A01, and motor the engine over for 15 seconds, 3 times, every month.

It's been there for a few years now.

Check reference 71-05-01-530-802-A01

"Storage of an engine installed on
airframe
storage"

"Every week:
- Run the engine at ground idle for 5 minutes..."

Wonder what that means to a maintenance professional, which I'm not.

Sheet! No wonder no one can afford to keep helos then.

Nigh on the kiss of death?

According to: 71-05-01-951-012

1. 7 days as a maximum | no storage | Air inlet blanks and exhaust pipe installed, airframe cowls closed.
2. 6 months as a maximum | no storage | If engine can be operated: After 30 days, drain the original oil and replace it with new equivalent oil. Each week, operate the engine for at least 5 minutes to the ground idle.

everything else is classified as Short-term or Long-term storage.

So have a look in your specific Engine Manual for the correct procedure.

It means, if you don't have a preservative in there, you have to run up the aircraft every 7 days.

This must be one of those things that is being extencively overlooked I recon.
I, for not knowing about it, have picked up machines parked at airports around, or operated out of bases where the machines may have been parked for a few weeks between missions, and never ever heard about this.

What does the manuals for other engine-manufactures say on this point??


Nomad,
I think MightyGem was referring to a spare aircraft, not just an engine for the EC135T. Which will make things abit easier to sort out.

Remember that the aircraft storage requirements are totally different to the engine requirements. If you are talking about an aircraft with engines fitted then you have to comply with both.

The storage issue is actually a minor nightmare. I suspect that a large number of aircraft go out of storage limits and then the warranty issue raises its ugly head.

Interesting thread.

"Twelve of the South African Air Force’s 26 Gripen fighter jets are in long-term storage, as the Air Force does not have the funding to fly them."

I don't know how many of the BAE Hawks are in storage or out of storage limits.

I wonder how much it would cost to reactivate them?

Mac

Yes, but as a pilot, or owner, who reads the maintenance manual... I would say that this very much falls under how to operate a helicopter if it must be operated every 7 days. Thats not very long. I had never heard of this before but don't fly the 120. Are most 120 pilots/owners aware of this? Thanks for raising it...

Not just the 120. Anything with a Turbomeca engine.

Presumably if the A/C is unserviceable preventing a ground run for more than 7 days (MR/TR issue etc) then maintenance can get around this somehow without having to remove engines for a bench run?

It's not just Turbomeca engines, P&WC and R-R have their own preservation requirements too, and not too dissimilar if I remember right. Piston engines are also included, Lycoming have MM requirements and a Service Letter on the subject (confusingly the Lycoming MM and the SL say different things).

It's nothing new, it's been in the MM's for a long time, it may be overlooked by operators but it's certainly a hot topic with the regulators.

Shame that this info is not in the FLM...

What happens though when the aircraft is having a check done on it which takes more than 7 days?? Difficult to run the engine then when the whole aircraft is in bits?

What advice is given then?