Federal Aviation Administration September 8, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces a public meeting of the FAA's Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) to discuss transport airplane and engine (TAE) issues.

The FAA proposes to modify the standard grant application requirements that are required of a sponsor of a nonprimary airport before receiving a grant under the Airport Improvement Program (AIP). The FAA is providing an opportunity for public comment on proposals to modify the grant application requirements. Sponsors of nonprimary airports are now required to provide a variety of information when submitting an AIP grant application. This modification would require that a sponsor of a nonprimary airport submit a list of the aircraft (fixed wing and rotary wing) that are based on the airport.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain McDonnell Douglas Model 717-200 airplanes. This AD requires inspecting the drive assembly of the aft elevator standby loop of the elevator standby cable system for interference between the clevis and bolt of the bellcrank assembly, correct orientation of the pull-pull cable clevis bolt, and excessive freeplay of the bellcrank assembly bearing, and corrective actions if necessary. This AD also requires modifying the pull-pull cable clevis in the drive assembly of the aft elevator standby loop for certain airplanes. This AD results from a report of an aborted takeoff due to a control column disconnect. We are issuing this AD to prevent binding of the bolt that connects the cable 264A clevis to the bellcrank assembly against the adjacent (upper) clevis of the pull-pull cable assembly. This binding condition could result in slow airplane rotation or a control column disconnect during takeoff and a runway excursion if takeoff must be aborted.

The FAA is superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD), which applies to certain Bombardier Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes. That AD currently requires inspecting all barrel nuts to determine if the barrel nuts have a certain marking, inspecting affected bolts to determine if the bolts are pre-loaded correctly, and replacing all hardware if the pre-load is incorrect. For airplanes on which the pre-load is correct, the existing AD requires doing repetitive visual inspections for cracking of the barrel nuts and cradles and replacing all hardware for all cracked barrel nuts. The existing AD also requires replacing all hardware for certain affected barrel nuts that do not have cracking, which would end the repetitive inspections for those airplanes. The existing AD also provides an optional replacement for all affected barrel nuts. This new AD requires replacing all affected barrel nuts and applying a certain compound to the affected barrel nuts and bolts. This AD results from reports of cracking in the barrel nuts at the four primary front spar wing-to- fuselage attachment joints. We are issuing this AD to detect and correct cracking of the barrel nuts at the wing front spar wing-to- fuselage joints, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the wing-to-fuselage attachments and consequent detachment of the wing.