Username Protected wrote:
How much is an overhaul out of pocket for an engine?
Williams charges more for HSI/OH than the program payments would have been. They told me this explicitly, about 30% more. Off program engines are punished for not conforming to William's wishes.
Quote:
If you forgo the overhaul in favor of HSI
You can't. Williams is the only shop that can do the HSI (MPI-3 in Williams speak, major periodic inspection number 3) and by policy they will not do an HSI and let you go past TBO.
Williams is also the only place you can do OH (MPI-4), as you might imagine.
Engines off program are generally good for 2000 hours HSI/MPI-3, 4000 hours OH/MPI-4. Engines on program get increased intervals of 2500/5000 hours. Amazing how an engine knows it can last longer if you send money to Williams monthly. That is some fancy metallurgy!
There are only two viable strategies to owning Williams engines. Either pay the hourly program costs, or consider the engines (and the plane they are attached to) disposable when they hit the next major engine event, MPI-3 or MPI-4.
As FJ44 equipped planes slide under $1M in value, a 2000 hour chunk of program payments is about $800K so it starts to make some sense to stop payments at a certain point since you will break even on the airplane being disposable. This is especially true when considering engine program payments are rising faster than inflation and the contractual risk from Williams changes terms in their favor.
What this means is that an early 1990s CJ with a Williams FJ44 will have a harder time being economically viable than an early 90s Citation V with a JT15D because the Citation V has more economical options to keep the engines airworthy, such as flying past TBO with HSI done by an independent shop.
Mike C.