Proposed AD ECi connecting rods

I hate repeating things that everybody's probably already read on Avweb or
AOPA, but here's the long and the short of a proposed AD published in the
Federal Register about ECi connecting rods used in overhauled or repaired
Lycoming 360 and 540 cubic inch engines.

Boy, the Lycoming mid-to-large engines are sure getting beat up lately.

Why does it seem like no one knows how to make and supply quality engine
parts reliably anymore?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Why does it seem like no one knows how to make and supply quality
"anything" anymore?

Doesn't it just **** you off??

We've become a "reactionary" society. We tend to prefer to fix something
after it's broken rather than to maintain it. We buy things that are easy
to throw away and then replace rather than spending more for quality and
maintaining that quality item. We kill pilots and then make laws to save
them. We let hurricanes flood cities and then throw money at them rather
than spending any on preparation.

Both business and consumers have come to place more "value" on lower prices
rather than on higher quality. Business will do as little as possible to
produce a product that the consumer will buy. The consumer insists on
spending as little as possible for the product they desire. Quality
standards are put on the back burner for one reason or another, but it seems
like any reason is acceptable.

This AD is for excessively scalloped oil journal bores. Who inspected them?
Who approved them for shipment? Which one of them would want to put his
family in a plane with weakened connecting rods?

Example (sorry, I have to talk about what I'm familiar with): Currently the
large chain stores are placing more emphasis on what bag, box, or pallet
that we ship our potatoes in than the size, shape, or grade of the potatoes
themselves. To say they care little about the quality would be wrong, but
they care more about the price and if it's in the bag, box, or on the pallet
that they have determined the customer wants. They are actually telling us
that they are willing to take a #2 grade potato and pay the #1 price, as
long as the packaging is correct. The soundness of the potatoes is the
same, but the #2's do not need to be inspected. So maybe if the box was
pretty nobody cared if the connecting rods were inspected.

Example #2 The 2nd largest french fry factory in North America is just 15
miles from here. Farmers (not us) contract with them to grow potatoes.
When the farmers have more than they contract for, the factory makes them an
offer. This year the open market is TWICE as high as the contract price and
the factory offered them 10% over the contract price for their extra
potatoes. When the farmers rejected the offer the factory informed them
that they would buy them for less in Colorado, haul them to Wisconsin. The
freight costs would add so much to their cost that they could have paid the
local growers the open market price and ended up with a better product AND
supported a good relationship with their local suppliers. Instead they end
up with an inferior product which costs as much to produce as a quality
product would have, plus they **** off the local growers who produce a
better product at a lower price year in and year out. All the consumer
knows is that the fries taste like crap but the bag is pretty.

Jim

("Jim Burns" wrote)
Example #2 The 2nd largest french fry factory in North America is just 15
miles from here. Farmers (not us) contract with them to grow potatoes.
When the farmers have more than they contract for, the factory makes them
an
offer. This year the open market is TWICE as high as the contract price
and
the factory offered them 10% over the contract price for their extra
potatoes. When the farmers rejected the offer the factory informed them
that they would buy them for less in Colorado, haul them to Wisconsin.
The
freight costs would add so much to their cost that they could have paid
the
local growers the open market price and ended up with a better product AND
supported a good relationship with their local suppliers.


Spud-Mart bought something else from Colorado - fear.


Paul

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
Why does it seem like no one knows how to make and supply quality
"anything" anymore?

Doesn't it just **** you off??


This AD is for excessively scalloped oil journal bores. Who inspected
them?
Who approved them for shipment?

That's the gist of it, we supposedly pay a premium price for parts because
of the extra care during manufacture and the more thorough inspection
process. Looks like we ain't gettin' either.
Pass the Vaseline.

"John Kunkel" wrote in message
...

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
Why does it seem like no one knows how to make and supply quality
"anything" anymore?

Doesn't it just **** you off??


This AD is for excessively scalloped oil journal bores. Who inspected
them?
Who approved them for shipment?

That's the gist of it, we supposedly pay a premium price for parts because
of the extra care during manufacture and the more thorough inspection
process. Looks like we ain't gettin' either.
Pass the Vaseline.


And what does the manufacturer care? We end up paying to correct their
mistakes. I wonder what they would produce if they had to pay for ADs like
auto manufactures do.

I was with you until this point. We -- the taxpayers of the US -- spent a
fortune on the NO levee system. Plus, monies allocated to the Engineers to
make upgrades were blocked by local politicians who wanted it spent
elsewhere. Besides, Calypso Louie says the levees were blown up, so how
could we have reinforced the levees against the CIA's RDX (which I suspect
was stored on that spaceship behind Haley's Comet)?

Simply throwning money around is no measure of concern or care. Defendant's
Exhibit One- The DC public school system.

We are becoming the Mommy Society. The more you coo and cuddle, the better
and safer all will be. Defendant's Exhibit Two- The Baltimore-Washington
ADIZ. Nonsense. Just *feel* good, that's all that matters.

We let hurricanes flood cities and then throw money at them rather
than spending any on preparation.

I think the root of the problem is the old technology. The old guys
who really understood these engines are retiring and there isn't really
much incentive for a budding engineer or mechanic to get into this line
of work because there's nothing new in the technology. On top of that,
these are very expensive items, so there is a justifiable desire to
keep costs under control because of competition.

Paul kgyy wrote:
I think the root of the problem is the old technology. The old guys
who really understood these engines are retiring and there isn't really
much incentive for a budding engineer or mechanic to get into this line
of work because there's nothing new in the technology.

I don't think there's very much to understand. Practically ever part of
our planes (except the modern avionics) is incredibly simple, and usually
"over built". It seems to me that we've been getting into problems in
recent years when third party vendors like ECI and Superior try and
improve the old design, especially in the area of metalurgy. Having said
that, I'd still buy ECI or Superior parts, because they've probably worked
out all the bugs in their "improvements". But this shows you why the FAA
is so incredibly conservative in approving changes to original type
certificates, etc.

--- Jay


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