Aviation Maintenance Analysis

Summary:

Textron Aviation, a Textron Inc. company, announced it has expanded its PowerAdvantage engine support program to Beechcraft King Air and Cessna Caravan turboprop platforms. Part of the company’s ProAdvantage suite of support programs, PowerAdvantage offers owners and operators comprehensive PT6A engine coverage with predictable costs for both routine and most unscheduled engine maintenance events.

ProAdvantage programs are the leading support programs in the industry and have been designed to provide customers lower, predictable ownership costs, while enhancing aircraft values through comprehensive factory-direct maintenance. Through PowerAdvantage, customers receive a cost-competitive support solution and are easily able to forecast costs related to engine maintenance. The combination of PowerAdvantage, ProParts and ProTech creates a powerful support solution for their King Air and Caravan customers, further enhancing their ownership and operating experience.

Problem/Issue:

Customers enrolled in PowerAdvantage pay a competitive hourly rate per engine operating hour and receive coverage for line maintenance parts, scheduled and most unscheduled engine events, all parts and shop labor for Hot Section Inspection (HSI) and overhaul, and can include coverage for life limited components and repairs by Textron Aviation’s industry leading mobile response teams. The program also provides rental engines for overhauls and most unscheduled events. This is great from a financial perspective of the owners, but I can see a big problem from a safety perspective, predominantly in the aspect of periodic inspections.

Significance of the Problem/Issue

The significance of the problem is safety, granted I don’t have all the facts of the program, but nowhere in the article did it mention anything about a Continuous Airworthiness Maintenance Program (CAMP) under which routine as well as out of turn checks on various components of the engine are carried out by trained...