Carrying out routine engine inspections for PT6A can be very beneficial in terms of increasing the operating life of the components of this engine. For PT6A, routine hot engine inspections are an easy-to-handle process. However, before you get started with the hot sections inspection of your PT6A engine, here are some tips that you might find helpful.

Arranging Unscheduled Inspections

If you are getting an unscheduled inspection done, you first need to confirm damage through a borescope test of the hot section. If there is a shift in trend that leads you to think the hot section is faulty, you must check for faults in the air frame system and accessories first before splitting the engine. Before you start an unscheduled inspection, make sure that all the airframe systems are properly calibrated.

Rinsing the Turbine

If you are carrying out a compressor wash, it is important to ensure that the turbine is rinsed well after the wash. The water rinse through the compressor doesn’t necessarily remove the entire cleaning solution from the turbine area, and if not rinsed properly, it can corrode the turbine blades. A thorough rinse of turbine blades is important after every compressor wash.

Cleaning Turbine Regularly

If the aircraft is operated in areas that have high count of atmospheric pollutants, or close to salt water, you might need to conduct turbine washes on a daily basis. If the turbines are not washed regularly, the compressor turbine blades often become vulnerable to sulfidation attacks much before it is necessary. If the hot section inspection shows a sulfidation attack, these blades need to be reinstalled.

Check Component Life Cycle

If you are carrying out individual component inspection, you should ensure that all components have enough cycles remaining to make it to the next inspection mark before you reinstall the compressor turbine. If there aren’t enough cycles, you need to feed the information in the log book so that the necessary replacements can be made on time.

Checking Oil Filter and Strainer

Right at the start of the inspection, you should always check the engine oil filter and RGB strainer. Since you are already in the middle of a full hot section inspection, leaving out components isn’t cost-effective. If the engine oil filter has reached its life limit, you can replace it during the inspection so that another engine-splitting operation can be avoided later.

If you regularly inspect and maintain your PT6A engine, it will last longer in a much better condition. Hot section inspections are an investment, so you need to be sure it is required before you go ahead with them.