I would recommend to stay away from czech aircraft engine shops…too much unpleasant stories around……
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
’ve heard only good things about my Loma countrymen. But they are not based at an aerodrome so the engine would have to be uninstalled and I understood this was to be avoided.
As far as I know it is standard practice to remove the engine and present it to the overhaul shop with all baffles, exhausts, etc removed. The company Nicholson McLaren mentioned earlier are also in an industrial location, off airport.
My aircraft was in tiny pieces at the time the engine went in so it was immaterial to me anyway. I’m glad there are good comments in Belgium about this company :)
There is no doubt that you can buy some very competitive engine overhauls and the reason that some cut corners.
In the UK engine builders have come and gone ( or changed their names ) at one time CSE aviation had the best reputation but the whole group went out of business.
Nicholson McLaren aviation was set up to provide a more stable business plan for a race engine company, they benefited from the demise of CSE in that a number of very experienced staff became available.
I have used them for all my engine rebuilds bar one ( and that engine turned up with PMA cylinders not the Lycoming cylinders specified ) so over the years it has become clear to me that the financial saving of using other company’s has been outweighed by the reliability and product support that NMA have provided.
The only other UK based company I have delt with that I would consider using would be Eisenburg engineering at Southend,
I can give a +1 for Loma, having used them for an overhaul of an O-360 A4M from our club’s Archer. Also, if you can afford some down time and you want to save some money, why not try Flyasg.co.uk in Jersey?
Gama Aviation’s engine shop in Oxford UK is now under new management (total separation from the previous owner) and also has FAA repair station approval. Full in-house NDT and welding capabilities.
Due to the change of circumstances reported above I would now not rule out Gama avation for engine overhaul.
Jacko
I would not rule out Norvic as there is no scuttlebutt going around the business that would suggest that they are not a good company to deal with.
I simply have had no dealings with them in the past twenty years an so am not in a position to comment about the standard of service ( except to say there is nothing negative going around ) and am happy with the service from NMA and so that is default position.
Engine overhaul is a small business and good reputations are hard won and easily lost.
I have used Norvic over the years and agree with AandC, they also are very fair if there is any after service required.
We have almost 2700 hours and 16 years on a IO360-l2a.
As far as I know we have no problems running it on condition.
Reading articles from Mike Busch it seems there is no benefit to mess with it before it develops problems. We have low oil consumption, high compression, no problems. Why overhaul it into something that could give more problems.
Why not change registry?
In a few years there is no one left in national CAA to deal with this and these things will be equal in all EASA countries.
