Big carb problems...

[Cvairwerks]

Anyone that has a carb that needs or will need an overhaul within the next couple of years might want to get going on at least buying all the overhaul parts that they might need for it. Precision Air just announced that they no longer will be manufacturing, selling or supporting carb parts anymore. Shutoff date was Nov. 1. Liability lawyers have driven their product insurance costs to the point that they exceed the revenue of sales. It appears that this is also catching all the manufacturers flat footed and is going to kill new aircraft deliveries as soon as stocks onhand are used up. From P.A.'s press release, it looks like that if the parts are not already out of the factory warehouse and in transit to distributors, then they won't be shipped. I hope that they just don't go freaky on this and destroy whatever they have left in stock before something can be worked out.

Looks like the Feds are going to have to step up and do some fast work with the industry to keep from grounding almost every GA bird that has a carb within the next couple of years.

[engguy]

It looks like its just float type carburetors, not the pressure injection type used on most of the larger engines.

[Eric Friedebach]

From today’s AvWeb email:

Carburetor Line Sold
Precision Airmotive has reached a tentative deal with "a group including Tim Henderson, President of Aero Accessories, and others involved in the manufacture of the Tempest brand of general aviation products," to buy Precision’s line of MSA aircraft carburetors, according to a news release from Aero Accessories/Tempest issued Monday.

The group says it plans to move the manufacturing facilities for the carbs to a facility in an undisclosed location in North Carolina. Precision announced earlier this month that it was suspending manufacture and distribution of the carbs and parts after it was unable to obtain product liability insurance. There’s no mention of the insurance issue in the Henderson Group’s release.

Link to rest of story

[Cvairwerks]

Hi Eric: I ran across that last night on the EAA website. It looks like they plan to be back in production sometime in January. I'm glad that there are some people and companies out there that are not overly scared of being sued just because their product was installed on another that was invovled in an accident

Maybe this will have been enough of a wakeup call that tort reform for individual products for aircraft will start winding it's way through Congress. I have doubts, but one can always have some hope

Craig C.