Regulatory Report

Lycoming Replacing More Crankshafts

Lycoming issued a new service bulletin, No. 566, on July 11, calling for replacement of crankshafts on certain four- and six-cylinder engines. This follows an earlier series of bulletins that resulted in many crankshaft replacements in turbocharged engines in 2002 and 2003, all of which Lycoming paid for. Lycoming is again paying for this round of crankshaft replacements, including inbound and outbound freight to ship the engine to Lycoming's facility in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and removal and installation labor. The bulletin recommends compliance within the next 50 hours of operation or six months, whichever comes first. The full bulletin is available at www.lycoming.textron.com/support/publications/maintenancePublications
/serviceBulletins/SB566.pdf.
The FAA was expected to issue an airworthiness directive later in July, making this service bulletin mandatory.

FAA Inspectors Urged to Monitor Microbial Contamination

The FAA's Air Carrier Maintenance Branch issued Flight Standards Airworthiness Bulletin for Airworthiness FSAW 05-8A on June 9, asking FAA principal maintenance inspectors to evaluate the need for inspections of Part 121 and 135 aircraft for microbial contamination in fuel tanks. "A major carrier recently had several incidents where four separate takeoffs were aborted on one aircraft," the bulletin stated. "Responding to these incidents along with "filter clog" annunciator illumination, lab evaluations were made of the filters. The cause in each case was determined to be fuel filter fouling caused by microbial contamination. An inspection of 27 other aircraft in the carrier's fleet resulted in similar instances of fuel contamination." See www.faa.gov/AVR/AFS/FSAW/fsaw0508a.doc

Nine or Less Seats Rule Clarified

The FAA is considering a rulemaking change that would remove the words "type certificated" from 14 CFR 135.411, which specifies a more stringent maintenance program for charter airplanes that are certificated with more than nine seats. Announcement of this effort came in a revision to Flight Standards Handbook Bulletin for Airworthiness HBAW 04-06E. "Removal of `type certificated' from the rule language will allow aircraft to be placed in the appropriate maintenance applicability based on the current approved configuration of the aircraft, not just the type certificated configuration," stated the HBAW. Inconsistent application of the rules by various FAA Flight Standards District Offices led to the reexamination of the regulation. Some interpreted the rule to mean that if an airplane was type certificated for up to 15 seats but only was equipped with nine seats, it would have to be maintained under the more stringent requirements. Others said that if the airplane's nine-or-less seating configuration was properly certificated, either by the manufacturer when the completion was done at the factory or under a supplemental type certificate by a completions or refurb center, then the less stringent requirements applied. This HBAW clarifies that the airplane's existing type certificated passenger seating configuration "is the configuration as indicated in the type certificate or supplemental type certificate. For the purpose of determining the 135.411 maintenance requirements for a particular aircraft, passenger seats are any seats in the aircraft that are not pilot seats which are certified to be used during takeoff and landing." To meet the 135.411 maintenance requirements, an operator can't simply remove seats above the nine-seat level. The seats must be removed as a seating configuration change to the type certificate, and this can be done when the airplane is completed at the factory as part of the original type certificate or by supplemental type certificate during completion or refurb by a factory or third-party maintenance facility. For the full HBAW, see www.faa.gov/AVR/AFS/HBAW/hbaw0406e.doc

Point-to-Point Jet Travel Predicted

At the Small Aircraft Transportation System 2005 meeting held June 5 to 7 in Danville, Virginia, jet makers and air-taxi pioneers predicted that large fleets of small jets will soon fill the skies in the U.S., transporting people who don't want to use the airlines and prefer to fly directly to a smaller destination airport instead of one of the larger airline facilities.

During SATS 2005: A Transformation in Air Travel, a panel was held, titled "Enabling On-Demand Transportation." Panelists included Jack Harrington, vice president of business affairs at Eclipse Aviation; Tri Pham, manager of strategic research at Pratt & Whitney Canada; and Ed Iacobucci, founder and CEO of Dayjet. Dr. Bruce Holmes, NASA Langley Research Center's director, strategic partnerships, planning and management, moderated the panel session.

Dayjet's strategy is to provide air transportation in small light jets for about the same cost as airfare and an overnight stay. The panel's focus at SATS 2005 was that the technology that will permit a company like Dayjet to deliver what it promises is finally becoming available.

This technology includes low-cost six-seat very light jets like the Eclipse 500 or Adam A700 that are not only less expensive to build but cheaper to operate. The low cost of operation is aided by modern compact turbine engines like Pratt & Whitney Canada's PW600 family and high-tech avionics and electronic systems.

Dayjet couldn't exist, however, without scheduling and operations software to manage the sale of single available seats in a large fleet of jets that will be constantly flying around the U.S. The goal is for customers to be able to fly distances of up to 500 miles in one day without having to stay overnight.

The SATS 2005 meeting highlighted NASA's contributions to making point-to-point very light jet charter operations possible, and NASA's Airspace Systems Program is working on the following areas to help make this happen:

� Higher-volume operations at airports without control towers or terminal radar.

� The capability for pilots to land in low-visibility conditions at minimally equipped airports.

� Increased single-pilot performance so that safety is not compromised.

� SATS aircraft to integrate seamlessly into the complex national airspace.

One important item that wasn't addressed is who is going to maintain all these very light jets. While manufacturers are planning service networks to handle their fleets, it is interesting to note that there is apparently no discussion of maintenance issues in the SATS community.