Federal Aviation Administration June 30, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces that it is reviewing a proposed noise compatibility program that was submitted for Hawthorne Municipal Airport under the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act, (hereinafter referred to as ``the Act'') and 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 150 by the City of Hawthorne, Los Angeles County, California. This program was submitted subsequent to a determination by FAA that associated noise exposure maps submitted under 14 CFR part 150 for Hawthorne Municipal Airport were in compliance with applicable requirements, effective April 11, 2014, 79 FR 24488-24489. The proposed noise compatibility program will be approved or disapproved on or before December 20, 2017.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-200 Freighter, -200, and -300 series airplanes; and Airbus Model A340-200, -300, -500, and -600 series airplanes. This proposed AD was prompted by a report that the trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuator (THSA) might not function as intended after failure of the primary load path. This proposed AD would require repetitive detailed visual inspections for discrepancies of the THSA upper attachments and no-back housing. We are proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

We are revising an earlier proposal for an airworthiness directive (AD) for certain 328 Support Services GmbH Model 328-100 and Model 328-300 airplanes. This action revises the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) by expanding the applicability and making certain inspections repetitive. We are proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. Since these actions impose an additional burden over those proposed in the NPRM, we are reopening the comment period to allow the public the chance to comment on these proposed changes.

This notice contains a summary of a petition seeking relief from specified requirements of Federal Aviation Regulations. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, this aspect of the 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.

This notice concerns three petitions for waiver submitted to the FAA by Rocket Lab USA Inc. (RL) for the Flight Termination Receiver (FTR) Qualification by Similarity (QBS): A petition to waive the requirement that a component may be qualified based on similarity to a component that has already been qualified for use only if the environments encountered by the previously qualified component during its qualification or flight history were equal or more severe than the Rocket Lab qualification environments; a petition to waive the Electromagnetic Interference and Compatibility (EMI/EMC) on the same units; and a petition to waive the requirement that the same manufacturer must produce the qualified and the unqualified component in the same location using identical tools and manufacturing processes. The FAA grants these three petitions.