EAA Sport Aviation - February 2010

Small piston airplane accidents in 2001 through 2005 attributed by the NTSB to engine failure, by hours and years since engine overhaul.

ACCIDENT TOTALS (HOURS SINCE OVERHAUL)

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

0-499

500-999

1000-1499 1500-1999

Hours Since Overhaul

2000-2499

2500-2999 3000 or more

;is N TSB data can’t tell us much about the risk of engine failure beyond TBO, because most engines are voluntarily eutha-nized at TBO. What it does show clearly is that engines fail with disturbing frequency during their first few years and few hundred hours in service after manufacture, rebuild, or overhaul.

Obviously, our engines have a failure pattern more like A or F
in Figure 1, with a high risk of “infant mortality” failure.
Would you be comfortable taking your family up in a piston-
powered GA airplane with an engine at five hours since major

ACCIDENT TOTALS ( YEARS SINCE OVERHAUL)

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

1 to 4

5 to 8

9 to 8 13 to 16

Years Since Overhaul

17 to 20

21 to 24 25 or more

overhaul (SMOH)? At night? Over rough terrain or water? In
instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)? How about at 10
hours SMOH? Or 25 hours SMOH?

If our engines have a failure pattern as in A (bathtub curve), then overhauling at a fixed TBO becomes a two-edged sword. On one hand, it keeps us out of the presumptive wear-out zone. On the other hand, it puts us right back inside the infant mortality window where the data shows clearly that engine failure is disturbingly common.

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