Federal Aviation Administration June 26, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The FAA is revising an earlier supplemental NPRM (SNPRM) for an airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all Airbus Model A330- 200, A330-300, A340-200, and A340-300 series airplanes; and Model A340- 541 and A340-642 airplanes. The original NPRM would have superseded an existing AD that currently requires operators to revise the Airworthiness Limitations section (ALS) of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness (ICA) to incorporate new information. This information includes, for all affected airplanes, decreased life limit values for certain components; and for Model A330-200 and -300 series airplanes, new inspections, compliance times, and new repetitive intervals to detect fatigue cracking, accidental damage, or corrosion in certain structures. The original NPRM proposed to revise the ALS, for all affected airplanes, by adding new Airworthiness Limitations Items (ALIs) to incorporate service life limits for certain items and inspections to detect fatigue cracking, accidental damage or corrosion in certain structures, in accordance with the revised ALS of the ICA. The original NPRM resulted from the issuance of new and more restrictive service life limits and structural inspections based on fatigue testing and in-service findings. The first supplemental NPRM revised the original NPRM by adding airplanes, adding new requirements, and including more restrictive compliance thresholds and intervals. This new action revises the first supplemental NPRM by adding a new weight variant configuration, and including more restrictive compliance thresholds and intervals. We are proposing this second supplemental NPRM to detect and correct fatigue cracking, accidental damage, or corrosion in principal structural elements, and to prevent failure of certain life-limited parts, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the airplane.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering a proposal to change a portion of the MBS International Airport (MBS) from aeronautical use to non-aeronautical use and to authorize the sale of the airport property. The proposal consists of the sale of vacant, unimproved land owned by the MBS International Airport Commission (Commission). The Commission has requested from FAA a ``Release from Federal agreement obligated land covenants'' to sell a portion of Parcel 6 which was acquired on March 14, 1949, under Instrument of Transfer from the United States of America, acting by and through the War Assets Administrator, to the Cities of Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland (recorded in Liber 802, pages 206-216). There are no impacts to the airport by allowing the Commission to dispose of the vacant property. Approval does not constitute a commitment by the FAA to financially assist in the disposal of the airport property nor a determination of eligibility for grant-in-aid funding from the FAA. The disposition of proceeds from the disposal of the airport property will be in accordance with FAA's Policy and Procedures Concerning the Use of Airport Revenue, published in the Federal Register on February 16, 1999. In accordance with section 47107(h) of title 49, United States Code, this notice is required to be published in the Federal Register 30 days before modifying the land-use assurance that requires the property to be used for an aeronautical purpose.

This action confirms the effective date of a direct final rule published in the Federal Register (73 FR 15058) that amends the Class E airspace area to support Area Navigation (RNAV) Global Positioning System (GPS) Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs) that were developed to serve the Stuart Powell Field Airport. Additionally, the direct final rule made a technical amendment addressing the airport's name change from Goodall Field Airport to Stuart Powell Field Airport.

This action confirms the effective date of a direct final rule published in the Federal Register (73 FR 14677) that establishes Class E Airspace at Sunbury, PA to support a new Area Navigation (RNAV) Global Positioning System (GPS) Special Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP) that has been developed for medical flight operations into the Sunbury Community Hospital Airport.