15 year Rotax TBO

[jt]

    I know that Rotax recommends replacement or overhaul.Does it say anywhere in Technam owners manual or elsewhere that the Rotax engine MUST be replaced after 2000 hrs or 15 years?
Ive heard of some owners continuing to fly under "Conditional inspection" or something to that effect. 

[Flocker]

Which Rotax engine? I'm going to move this post to the maintenance section so we can expand the question to all Rotax engines as the title implies

[LSA Flyer]

It's in the Rotax Line Maintenance manual.


Rotax.pdf (257.44 KB)

[bigmo]

Jt, not an expert on the topic at all, but I do work with the regulatory side of the FAA full-time. In short, it's a bit of a gray area, and one of the few areas where certified aircraft have more leeway than S-LSA. There have been a few conflicting responses from the FAA, but nothing concrete stating that one can go on condition, like any owner of a certified aircraft can. There are a few discussion (you can find with some Googling) that discuss FAA inquiry responses, and they generally appear that the FAA leans towards no differences for LSAs - but as it's written right now, it's wholly up to Tecnam, and Tecnam politely punts that to Rotax. So that means TBO is TBO (time or hours).

My personal thought is that converting to E-LSA solves that totally - and this was confirmed by some very experienced DARs that deal with airworthiness on a full-time basis.

In short, if you're S-LSA, until the FAA clarifies some conflicting positions by different FSDOs, TBO is what it is. For E-LSA, I strongly believe you have the option to go on condition. The better solution is the FAA would just solve this outright.

A final option is personally addressing your question to your FSDO and ask for a written response. This would help mitigate liability that might come from an engine issue past TBO. Pro tip, be patient, the response can take a year or more.

It's not worth gambling on as an accident past TBO would be prime for an insurance carrier to deny coverage (and I am SURE they would). Without clear guidance from the FAA, you'd have a hard time combating that argument.

[technammech]

Bigmo,
Well stated. We operate some tecnams at a flight school and a customer bought a P2004B for their kids to learn to fly through us and we would lease the airplane for the school. When it came up on its first inspection, we found that the engine was over TBO in years. We spent considerable time researching this and had talks with our local FSDO directly so your comments are very correct. In this case for us, the E-LSA is not an option. The later definition letter to Terrance Kelly stating that its not legal to go over time, I am sure would be used in court if any action was taken if something happened. We politely said that it was not airworthy until the engine was replaced. That was a while ago and the airplane has since been moved to another shop via ferry permit.