Federal Aviation Administration May 10, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is announcing the availability of Advisory Circular (AC) 90-109, which provides information and guidance to owners and pilots of experimental airplanes and to flight instructors who teach in these airplanes. This information and guidance contains recommendations for training experience for pilots of experimental airplanes in a variety of grouping based on performance and handling characteristics. This AC does not address the testing of newly built experimental airplanes. The current edition of AC 90-89, Amateur-Built and Ultralight Flight Testing Handbook, provides information on such testing. However, if a pilot is planning on participating in a flight-test program in an unfamiliar experimental airplane, this AC should be used to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to safely accomplish the test program using AC 90-89. This AC may also be useful in planning the transition to any unfamiliar fixed-wing airplanes, including type-certificated (TC) airplanes.

This action proposes special conditions for Boeing Model 747-8 series airplanes. These airplanes will have novel or unusual design features associated with the installation of an overhead flight attendant rest compartment. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for these design features. These proposed special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards. Additional special conditions will be issued for other novel or unusual design features of the Boeing 747-8 airplanes.

We are revising an earlier NPRM for the products listed above. This proposed AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as:

The FAA publishes a monthly notice, as appropriate, of PFC approvals and disapprovals under the provisions of the Aviation Safety and Capacity Expansion Act of 1990 (Title IX of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990) (Pub. L. 101-508) and Part 158 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (14 CFR part 158). This notice is published pursuant to paragraph d of Sec. 158.29.