Federal Aviation Administration February 27, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The FAA is proposing changes to its certification procedures and identification requirements for aeronautical products and articles. The proposed changes would: require production approval holders to identify an accountable manager who would be responsible for, and have authority over, their production operations and serve as the primary contact with the FAA; allow production approval holders to issue authorized release documents for aircraft engines, propellers, and articles; permit production certificate holders to manufacture and install interface components; require production approval holders to ensure that each supplier-provided product, article, or service conforms to the production approval holder's requirements and establish a supplier-reporting process for products, articles, or services that have been released from or provided by the supplier and subsequently found not to conform to the production approval holder's requirements; and remove the requirement that fixed-pitch wooden propellers be marked using an approved fireproof method. This proposal is necessary to update our regulations by revising certification and marking requirements to reflect the current global aeronautical manufacturing environment, thereby promoting aviation safety.

This notice announces the bi-annual meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aeronautical Charting Forum (ACF) to discuss informational content and design of aeronautical charts and related products, as well as instrument flight procedures development policy and design criteria.

We propose to supersede airworthiness directive (AD) 2007-06- 12, that applies to certain Airbus Model A330-200 and A330-300 airplanes. AD 2007-06-12 requires, for certain airplanes, reinforcement of the structure of the center fuselage by installing external stiffeners (butt straps) at frame (FR) 53.3 on the fuselage skin between left-hand (LH) and right-hand (RH) stringer (STR) 13, and related investigative and corrective actions. Since we issued AD 2007- 06-12, we have determined that the compliance times must be reduced in order to address the unsafe condition. This proposed AD would reduce the compliance times for reinforcing the structure of the center fuselage at FR 53.3. We are proposing this AD to prevent fatigue cracking of the fuselage, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the fuselage.

We propose to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2012-07- 08, for all Embraer S.A. Model ERJ 170 airplanes. AD 2012-07-08 currently requires revising the Airworthiness Limitations Section (ALS) of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness (ICA) to incorporate new structural inspection requirements. Since we issued AD 2012-07-08, we have determined that more restrictive maintenance requirements and airworthiness limitations are necessary. This proposed AD would require revising the maintenance or inspection program to incorporate new inspections. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct fatigue cracking of structural components, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the airplane.