[f-AA] Gibson Aviation

[roger anderson]

Just wanted to compliment Gibson Aviation, El Reno, Ok. They overhauled my
A65 cylinders about 6 months ago (23 hrs). Last week, while pulling the
blades through priming, one cylinder felt very weak. Started and ran good,
good power, smooth running, flew about an hr. Thought maybe something stuck
under an exhaust valve . However, the cylinder was still weak after flying
it. Did a compression check and had little compression with sound of air
blowing out exhaust. Pulled cylinder, A&P popped valve out, everything
looked ok....but no compression. Sent it back to Gibson one week ago. UPS
returned it today with a complete new overhaul, new gasket kit, no charge,
no questions asked. I called Gibson to see if they could find the problem.
They said no...but that was not uncommon on these small Continentals. They
said regardless, they just start from scratch everytime and do a complete
overhaul again. All to Okla and back in a week. Good folks. Will put it
back on tomorrow probably.

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[Jerry Eichenberger]

I have Gibson chrome cylinders on my Champ, that flies about 200+ hours a
year in our sport pilot program at our FBO.

They have about 600 hours on them now, and one is starting to go weak, and
will be replaced soon.

I can't complain at all about that, as I know that small Cont. cylinders'
life expectancy is always a crap shoot.

Glad they took such good care of you.

I'm not sure I'd go chrome again, since our place flies so much, and with
chrome, oil consumption is always a little higher.

But for an airplane used privately that flies <100 hours per year, I've
always preferred chrome, as a little extra oil is a lot cheaper than a rusty
cylinder.

Jerry E.

[roger anderson]

That's pretty much what Gibson said. They said about 99% of their warrenty
work is on the small Continentals....and he pointed out that very few places
even work on them anymore.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Eichenberger" <jeiche...@ehlawyers.com>
To: <aer...@westmont.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: [f-AA] Gibson Aviation

>
> I can't complain at all about that, as I know that small Cont. cylinders'
> life expectancy is always a crap shoot.
>
> Glad they took such good care of you.

[Jerry Eichenberger]

This is in no way a testimonial, but I did visit a very good shop in
Montrose Colorado last week, named Western Skyways.

We were there for teardowns of two engines involved in an accident aircraft,
and Western Skyways simply provided the place and people for the complete
teardowns. They did not previously service these engines in any way.

This place is large, clean as a pin, and has very knowledgeable staff.

I asked is they overhaul small Cont. engines, and they replied that they do,
that A and C series are no problem.

Anyone in that part of the country may wish to inquire further. Again, I
have no personal experience with their work, but the folks and the facility
were very impressive.

[Rich Dugger]

Same impression I got up at the shop at Poplar Grove airport in Illinois.
Very clean and organized.
Rich

[j...@joea.com]

Nice to hear.

Have always heard good feedback about Gibson.

Joe A