Thanksgiving: a true story...
On Sunday, November 21, 2010, Mr. Owen T. Stewart—president of Macro Financial Advisors Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska—flew his brand new 2010 Cirrus SR22 McKinney, Texas (KTKI). The purpose of the flight was to pick up Mr. Stewart's 81-year-old mother and fly her back to Lincoln for a big Thanksgiving family gathering. Numerous members of the extended Stewart family would be converging on Lincoln for the holiday festivities.
The flight from McKinney to Lincoln was to be Mr. Stewart's mother's very first flight in a private airplane.
Early Monday afternoon (Nov 22nd), Mr. Stewart and his mother emplaned for the 2.5-hour flight to Lincoln. The airplane would not start. When Mr. Stewart pressed the "prime" switch, he could not hear the usual fuel pump sound, and no fuel pressure was registering on the fuel flow gauge or the fuel flow display on the aircraft's multifunction display. Without the ability to prime the engine, there was no possibility of getting it to start.
There are two maintenance shops on the field at McKinney. One is a Cessna Service Center. The other is a Beechcraft and Piper Service Center. Neither is a Cirrus Service Center, and neither has any significant Cirrus experience. Neither has access to Cirrus maintenance manuals or electrical schematics. Neither has access to the Cirrus parts system, nor the ability to submit warranty claims.
Savvy to the rescue
Fortunately, Mr. Stewart is a Savvy client.
He pulled out his cell phone and called his Savvy account manager, Jeff Iskierka. Jeff is a world-class expert on Cirrus aircraft, having been involved in Cirrus maintenance for 11 years, with encyclopedic knowledge of the airplane and its systems.
Jeff talked Mr. Stewart through some initial troubleshooting. He asked him to check the fuel pump circuit breaker (it hadn't popped), had him try priming with the throttle and mixture control full-forward (no fuel flow, no pump sound), had him try running the pump in the "low" position (still no pump sound). At this point, Jeff concluded that the problem could not be resolved without hands-on mechanic involvement.
The Cirrus priming circuit is relatively complex. There's a two-position switch, a control relay, an oil-pressure switch that inhibits the priming circuit when the engine is running, the two-speed electric fuel pump itself, and a good deal of wiring and connectors.
Jeff telephoned the nearest Cirrus Authorized Service Center, Clear Star Aviation at Dallas/Addison Airport (KADS). Savvy works with Clear Star a lot, and it's one of the top Cirrus maintenance facilities in the nation. Clear Star's director of maintenance Isaiah Daw was on vacation for Thanksgiving week, so Jeff talked to second-in-command Adam Menge, explaining the time-critical nature of getting Mr. Stewart back in the air. Adam said that one of his Cirrus-qualified mechanics would be passing McKinney on his drive home, and so Adam arranged for the mechanic to leave work early and carry tools and test equipment with him so he could stop at KTKI and troubleshoot Mr. Stewart's airplane.
As soon as Jeff got off the telephone with Adam, he opened a Savvy trouble ticket to document the situation and allow all involved to have full visibility into what was happening. By 6:30 PM, Adam posted to the ticket that the mechanic had troubleshot the problem and determined conclusively that the fuel pump itself was inoperative. The mechanic gave Adam the fuel pump part number. Adam checked the Cirrus parts inventory online and determined that there were no replacement pumps with that part number in stock.
The decision was made that Mr. Stewart and his mom would stay overnight in McKinney, and that a decision would be made the next morning whether they would need to leave the airplane and make arrangements to get to DFW and take a commercial flight home.
Meantime, Jeff started researching the Cirrus fuel pump situation, and determined that although there were no fuel pumps in stock with the identical part number as the one in Mr. Stewart's airplane, there were three pumps with different (earlier) part numbers that probably could be installed at least on a temporary basis. Still, even if one of those pumps was ordered via overnight express, it wouldn't arrive until Wednesday mid-morning, which would be a day late for Mr. Stewart. First thing Tuesday morning, Adam called Cirrus in Duluth, explained the situation (new Cirrus under warranty AOG with bad fuel pump, no replacements in the Cirrus parts system), and determined that (1) Cirrus had a secret stash of pumps at the factory that were not listed in the parts database, and (2) Cirrus would approve the use of an earlier-model pump on a temporary basis. Clear Star had an SR22 in the shop that was undergoing major structural repairs, so a decision was made to "liberate" the fuel pump from that aircraft and press it into temporary service in Mr. Stewart's airplane so he and his mom could get home to Lincoln in time for the holiday festivities.
The Clear Star mechanic drove the pump up to McKinney and installed it in the aircraft. By 10:30 am, the airplane was ready to go. Mr. Stewart and his mom launched for Lincoln.
Meantime, Clear Star arranged to have the proper pump shipped by Cirrus from their secret stash in Duluth so it would be available to install in Mr. Stewart's aircraft next week when he flies his mom back to McKinney. Arrangements were made to ensure that Cirrus would cover all parts and labor for this double pump swap under warranty.
Aftermath
At 8 pm on Tuesday evening, Mr. Stewart posted this to his Savvy ticket:
Savvy Team and Adam's Team,
Wow! I am back in Nebraska and just enjoyed a great dinner with out of town family. Thank you for going above and beyond to get my plane airworthy on a holiday week. You made my 81 year old mother smile for two and a half hours while we flew from McKinney to Lincoln. Yesterday when the plane wouldn't start, she looked like a four year old that had just been told Santa isn't real. Today was her first time to fly in a private plane and she has been calling her friends to tell them about it. If all of you hadn't done an incredible job, we would have been getting the pat down at DFW. Thank you and have a great Thanksgiving!
Owen
The week after Thanksgiving, Mr. Stewart flew his mom from Lincoln back home to McKinney. Immediately upon his arrival, a technician from Clear Star was promptly dispatched from Addison to McKinney with a toolbox and the new fuel pump that had arrived from Duluth. The tech removed the loaner fuel pump, installed the new pump, and had Mr. Stewart on his way home to Lincoln without delay.
Savvy's annual maintenance management service fee for a Cirrus SR22 is $750. We almost always save our clients many times that much every year in reduced maintenance costs. Savvy won't cost you money, it'll save you money, year after year. From a cost standpoint, it's a no-brainer.
Cost savings are not the only benefit, of course. Most Savvy clients feel that having a world-class team of maintenance experts to advise them and "watch their six" is priceless, especially when maintenance issues arise away from home base. Just ask Owen Stewart!