A Quicker Way to Overhaul Your Engine

Aircraft engine overhauls are all about flying like new and they require careful planning. It all takes time and a maintenance scheduling. Imagine replacing your engine with one that has already been overhauled, all at a guaranteed price?

Engine Overhaul Needed on Two Aircraft

Bernie Wagner is the Director of Maintenance at Meisinger Aviation, a U.S.-based company that specializes in aviation management for private clients. Meisinger had two Beechcraft King Air 200 aircraft that needed their PT6A-41 engines overhauled.

Bernie had heard about the P&WCSMART engine exchange program where you exchange an engine core needing an overhaul for an already overhauled engine directly from P&WC at a fixed cost, allowing you to easily manage the entire process.

We knew exactly how much we were going to be spending as opposed to waiting to find out the cost of an overhaul. By using exchange engines, we were able to minimize our downtime because we did not have to use rentals, which would have resulted in an extra removal and replacement.

- BERNIE WAGNER, DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE, MEISINGER AVIATION

With this P&WCSMART solution the aircraft was out of service for only five days and Meisinger Aviation was able to plan for the brief downtime. The experience with his first aircraft went so smoothly, Bernie immediately made arrangements to exchange the two PT6A-41 engines on his second King Air.

The Power of Word of Mouth: Meet Ryan

Ryan Slaughter is the Continuing Airworthiness Manager at Swiss Flight Services (SFS), a Swiss-based operator specialized in aerial surveys. When it came time for the PT6A-42 engines on SFS's two Beechcraft King Air B200 aircraft to be overhauled, Ryan also found himself looking for an easy solution.

As it happened, Ryan and Bernie are good friends and they speak often. Bernie shared his engine exchange experience with Ryan, explaining the opportunities and benefits the P&WCSMART program gave him. With Bernie's glowing account of the process, Ryan knew he had found the solution he had been seeking. It would save time and he knew what the final cost would be.

We gave our time-expired core back to P&WC, and we received an exchange engine with all the service bulletins performed and all the work carried out on it, so there were no surprises or additional costs that would have happened during a normal overhaul.

- RYAN SLAUGHTER, CONTINUING AIRWORTHINESS MANAGER, SWISS FLIGHT SERVICES

Ryan went on to explain that when the exchange engines arrived, they were ready to have the old engines stripped and the overhauled engines fitted out and installed onto the aircraft. “It was a painless exercise. I immediately came back and asked, ‘When can we do the next one?’