In fact, this appears to be the heart of the case. The complaint - after all the cocktail party talk about FAA standards - focuses on whether the fuel transducer had an adequate bypass system, whether it required a special connector sealant, and whether the transducer manufacturer and/or Vans disclosed those requirements to the builder. A&P folks on these boards know more about those things than I do, but if true (and if they're the cause of the engine stoppage), there's nothing remarkable about this lawsuit.
- oldman
I'm an A+P and I can say unreservedly the guy was an idiot to use RTV silicon in a gas application. You don't use silicon on gas. This is Maintenance 101 here. The only place to use RTV on an aircraft that I can think of is to seal little holes or gaps in firewalls, repair a soft seal on engine cooling baffles, etc. You really shouldn't be using any sealant anywhere on a fuel line as it should be all compression seals using flared braided and/or formed lines/AN fittings. At the fuel tank if sealant is needed you use a specialized gas sealant and as little as possible, let the gaskets do most of the work there. Also, if he used Permatex brand RTV then he went against the manufacturer's recommended usage.
Not surprisingly, according to the NTSB the most common form of mechanical failure leading to crashes on experimental category aircraft is engine stoppage due to fuel starvation during takeoff or climb out, exactly what happened here. Almost always the cause is improper maintenance practice and it often happens on the maiden flight or first 10 hours of flight time.
