Department of Transportation April 7, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to Section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 5 U.S.C. App. 2), and 5 U.S.C. 552b(c), notice is hereby given of a telephone conference for the Launch Operations and Support Working Group of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). The agenda will include a report by the Working Group Chairperson, discussions on the commercial space launch programs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other updates on working group activities, and will take place on Tuesday, April 18, 2006, from 4 p.m. until 5:55 p.m., eastern daylight time. For the call-in telephone number and the passcode, contact the Contact Person listed below.

This document announces receipt by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of a petition for a decision that 2005 Mini Cooper convertible passenger cars manufactured for the European market that were not originally manufactured to comply with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards are eligible for importation into the United States because (1) they are substantially similar to vehicles that were originally manufactured for importation into and sale in the United States and that were certified by their manufacturer as complying with the safety standards, and (2) they are capable of being readily altered to conform to the standards.

FMCSA announces the availability of the 2006 version of the ``Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move'' pamphlet (Publication No. FMCSA-ESA-03-006, Revised/Updated April 2006). Only those changes mandated by Subtitle B, sections 4201-4216, of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) [Pub. L. 109-59, August 10, 2005, 119 Stat. 1751] have been incorporated into this pamphlet. The Agency finds that seeking public comment before publishing changes to this pamphlet is unnecessary and contrary to the public interest. First, FMCSA is only modifying this pamphlet to incorporate requirements of SAFETEA-LU which took effect on August 10, 2005. Second, moving companies are required to provide copies of the pamphlet to household goods shippers. Thus, the pamphlet needs to accurately reflect these statutory changes without further delay.

The FAA's Aircraft Certification Service publishes proposed non-regulatory documents that are available for public comment on the Internet at https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/draftdocs/.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Aerospatiale Model ATR42 airplanes and Model ATR72 airplanes. This AD requires installing protective ramps on trim panel 110VU; and inspecting the protective guard of the standby pitch trim switch to determine if it is missing, damaged, or ineffective, and doing the corrective action if necessary. This AD results from a finding that the protective guard of the standby pitch trim switch, which is installed on the center pedestal, could be damaged or missing. We are issuing this AD to prevent inadvertent activation of the standby pitch trim, which could result in pitch trim runaway and consequent reduced controllability of the airplane.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Boeing transport category airplanes. This AD requires determining if the terminal fittings of the spars of the wings are made of 7079 aluminum alloy material. For any positive finding, the AD requires doing repetitive inspections for cracks and corrosion of all exposed surfaces of the terminal fitting bores; doing repetitive inspections for cracks, corrosion, and other surface defects, of all exposed surfaces, including the flanges, of the terminal fitting; applying corrosion inhibiting compound to the terminal fittings; and repairing or replacing any cracked, corroded, or defective part with a new part. This AD also provides for an optional terminating action for the repetitive inspections. This AD results from reports of cracking of the terminal fittings of the spars of the wings. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct stress-corrosion cracking of the terminal fittings, which could result in the failure of one of the terminal fitting connections. Such a failure, combined with a similar failure of one of the other three terminal fittings, could result in the inability of the airplane structure to carry fail-safe loads, which could result in loss of structural integrity of the wing attachment points.