Department of Transportation May 21, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice proposes a statement of policy regarding the application of the Federal Transit Administration's Buy America rules to procurements for the overhaul and rebuilding of rolling stock, and seeks comment from all interested parties.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all BAE SYSTEMS (Operations) Limited Model 4101 airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by reports that the fire extinguisher in the toilet vanity unit needs to be mounted vertically rather than horizontally. This proposed AD would require inspecting to determine if a certain fire extinguisher bottle is installed, and repositioning the affected fire extinguisher bottle to the vertical position. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct the orientation of the fire extinguisher bottle in the toilet vanity unit to the vertical position, which if not corrected, could result in a toilet waste bin fire spreading, and consequent damage to the airplane and injury to its occupants.

This action establishes Class E airspace at Freer, TX. Controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Area Navigation (RNAV) Standard Instrument Approach Procedures at Seven C's Ranch Airport. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations at the airport.

This action amends Class E airspace for Maryville, MO. Decommissioning of the Emville non-directional beacon (NDB) at Northwest Missouri Regional Airport has made this action necessary to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations at the airport. The geographic coordinates of the airport also are adjusted.

This action amends Class E airspace at Monahans, TX. Additional controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Area Navigation (RNAV) Standard Instrument Approach Procedures at Roy Hurd Memorial Airport. The airport's geographic coordinates also are adjusted. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations at the airport.

This action proposes to amend Class E airspace at Kerrville, TX. Additional controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAP) at Kerrville Municipal Airport/Louis Schreiner Field. The airport's geographic coordinates would also be adjusted. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations for SIAPs at the airport

This action proposes to amend Class E airspace at Battle Creek, MI. Additional controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAP) at W. K. Kellogg Airport. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations for SIAPs at the airport. Geographic coordinates of the airport would also be updated.

This action establishes Class E airspace at Pender, NE. Controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Area Navigation (RNAV) Standard Instrument Approach Procedures at Pender Municipal Airport. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations at the airport.

This action establishes Class E airspace at Eldon, MO. Controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Area Navigation (RNAV) Standard Instrument Approach Procedures at Eldon Model Airpark. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations at the airport.

This action establishes Class E airspace at Houston, MO. Controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Area Navigation (RNAV) Standard Instrument Approach Procedures at Houston Memorial Airport. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations at the airport.

This action establishes Class E airspace at Red Cloud, NE. Controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate new Area Navigation (RNAV) Standard Instrument Approach Procedures at Red Cloud Municipal Airport. The FAA is taking this action to enhance the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) operations at the airport.

Under the provisions of Title 49, U.S.C. Section 47153(c), notice is being given that the FAA is considering a request from the Beaufort-Morehead City Airport Authority to waive the requirement that approximately 7.5 acres of airport property, located at the Michael J Smith Field, be used for aeronautical purposes.

This action would amend the regulations for repair stations by revising the system of ratings, the repair station certification requirements, and the regulations on repair stations providing maintenance for air carriers. This action is necessary because many portions of the existing repair station regulations do not reflect current repair station aircraft maintenance and business practices, or advances in aircraft technology. These changes would modernize the regulations to keep pace with current industry standards and practices.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Fokker Services B.V. Model F.28 Mark 0070 and 0100 airplanes. This AD was prompted by an in-flight failure of the hydraulic control panel, which resulted in the absence of pressure and quantity indication of the hydraulic system and accompanying alerts for ``hydraulic system 1 low quantity'' and ``hydraulic system 2 low quantity.'' This AD requires implementing new abnormal procedures for hydraulics in the airplane flight manual (AFM). We are issuing this AD to prevent loss of control of the airplane due to incorrect hydraulic system failure information being provided to the flightcrew, followed by application of inappropriate procedures.

We are superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model 747 series airplanes. That AD currently requires repetitive inspections for cracks of the fuselage skin lap splice between body station (BS) 400 and BS 520 at stringers S-6L and S-6R, and repair if necessary. This new AD shortens the interval for the repetitive inspections, requires modification for certain airplanes, and requires certain post-modification inspections for other airplanes. This AD was prompted by reports of multiple adjacent cracks on an airplane, and a recent fleet-wide evaluation of widespread fatigue damage of skin lap joints, which indicated the need for revised procedures and reduced compliance times. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct cracking of the fuselage skin lap splice between BS 400 and BS 520 at stringers S-6L and S-6R, which could result in sudden loss of cabin pressurization and the inability of the fuselage to withstand fail-safe loads.