Department of Transportation October 26, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Surface Transportation Board will hold a public hearing beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, December 4, 2007, at its offices in Washington, DC. The purpose of the hearing will be to allow current parties of record to comment on the proposed methodology to be employed in determining the railroad industry's estimated cost of capital and the record developed in this proceeding. Parties of record wishing to speak at the hearing should notify the Board in writing.

This notice contains a summary of a petition seeking relief from specified requirements of 14 CFR. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, this aspect of FAA's regulatory activities. Neither publication of this notice nor the inclusion or omission of information in the summary is intended to affect the legal status of the petition or its final disposition.

The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee.

Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et. seq. (PRA) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR 1320.11, the Surface Transportation Board has obtained OMB approval for the collection of information adopted by the Board in Rail Fuel Surcharges, STB Ex Parte No. 661 (Sub-No. 1) (STB served Aug. 14, 2007). This collection, which is codified at 49 CFR 1243.3, has been assigned OMB Control No. 2140-0014. Unless renewed, OMB approval expires on October 31, 2010. The display of a currently valid OMB control number for this collection is required by law. Under the PRA and 5 CFR 1320.8, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection displays a currently valid OMB control number.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) provided by the aviation authority for the United Kingdom to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI states the following:

This amendment supersedes an existing airworthiness directive (AD) for the specified Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. (Bell) Helicopters. That AD currently requires inspecting each affected tail rotor blade (blade) forward tip weight retention block (tip block) and the aft tip closure (tip closure) for adhesive bond voids, and removing any blade with an excessive void from service. That AD also requires modifying certain blades by installing shear pins and tip closure rivets. This amendment contains the same requirements but expands the applicability to include other part and serial-numbered blades. This AD also clarifies the requirement to re-identify the modified blade by adding ``FM'' after the part number and also requires dynamically balancing the tail rotor. The existing AD was prompted by five occurrences of missing tip blocks or tip closures resulting in minor to substantial damage. This amendment was prompted by the determination that the AD should apply to other affected part and serial-numbered blades. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent loss of a tip block or tip closure, loss of a blade and subsequent loss of control of the helicopter.