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Aviation piston engines on condition maintenance - proposal Pawel Glowacki, Borys Lukasik Institute of Aviation Krakowska Av. 110/114, 02-256 Warsaw, Poland Tel.: +48 22 8460011, fax: +48 22 8464432 e-mail: pawel.glowacki@ilot.edu.pl Abstract Proper engine maintenance and operations is the key to obtaining reliable service and thereby high level of safety. At present safety regulations of the Civil Aviation Authorities in various Countries permit on - condition maintenance programs with no fixed time between overhaul (TBO) for piston engines. The concept of allowing engines to run beyond the manufacturer’s recommended TBO’s depends upon it being possible to assess the condition of the engine by prescribed inspections carried out at defined intervals. In general CAA’s are allowing 20 % extension of recommended TBO, some of them with no limit, but without any additional maintenance tasks included in producer’s manuals. Article presents proposal of Author’s program established in order to enable General Aviation Operators in our Country exploitation of the piston engines on condition. Program apart from existing (strictly supervised), contains new maintenance tasks like: engine parameters monitoring during cruise and climb, assignation diagnostic tolerance limits for them (never been performed in the maintenance practice) and engine oil spectrographic analysis and particles size monitoring. Material presents results of one year long monitored exploitations of Continental IO-240-B engines installed on Diamond DA20-C1 „Katana” aircraft. Our mentor Professor Stefan Szczecinski wrote: ”...suggestion to introduce on condition maintenance concept for aviation piston engines in Poland, I think is fully justified and strongly recommended. Implementation into maintenance practice entails not only positive economical results for operators, but immeasurable values like, raising the level of safety and technical culture as well as ground staff and flying crews sense of responsibility…”.