Ben

thanks for opening her back up. I've been mulling over what I wanted to say since the thread began.

I think Ray is doing a great job conveying the thoughts of AMT USA and their desire to push forward with a quality product and I support his and the company's efforts.

I have a 400 that recently quit in-flight and due to aircraft location and energy state, I was unable to safely return my bird to the runway. Damage was extensive enough to the main structure of the bird that cost to replace the damaged flight surfaces and fuselage will out pace the cost of a new airframe only.

Of note, this was the third flameout experienced by this engine. The two previous occassions the engine was mounted on a kingcat and I was lucky enough to bring the bird home safely.

The first failure occured after aproximately 70 flights (bearing seizure, I think the failure was due to a blockage of the lube line caused by flaking solder on lube / feed line this occurred in the fall of 04) it was repaired by WV, reinstalled and taken to Fresno jets same year.

It failed a second time roughly 5 minutes into the flight on the first day!!!!! arrgh (bearing failure again, this time with an audible screech as she was revved up for a nice big loop) once again, pulled a JAG at the top of the loop then brought her around and safely landed the bird. (failure was caused by incorrect pre-load on the bearing spacer) Fixed in WV and since Sept 04 I had in excess of 45 flights until the most recent failure.

Woj and I have e-mailed back and forth a couple of times regarding the 400, as well as a few other buddies with 400s.

when the engine returns from the Cincy factory, I will be teaming up with Ray Davis to verify the performance on the engine after repairs and he or I will report our findings. Engine stand evaluation etc.

In retrospect, I should've sent in my engine for review / replacement / upgrade whatever prior to this flying season but....it's hard to fix what you think aint broken. after 45 flights I pretty much thought I had my old faithful flying lung again, hindsight is 20/15 though

Lastly, I've been a satisfied customer since 98 and have flown the entire engine line in addition to engines from JetCat and Wren.

I hope we can sort things out soon and I highly encourage these guys to refine and refield this quality engine. So, with any luck over the next couple of months we'll do just that or they'll willingly remove it from inventory until it is fixed.

There's nothing like watching a kingcat float by in High AOA flight and then power out straight up doing aileron rolls. As a matter of fact, it was my favorite maneuver in the King.... next to landing.

cheers

buck