Cygnus Aviation Expo 2012 Report

Also, doing certain other things can also satisfy this engagement requirement. Note that this active engagement requirement has always been connected to getting initial IA authority and never in the past has been attached to those who already have gone through the application and testing process for his or her authority. (Although mentioned in the renewal section of the regulation), Hall told me quite clearly that anyone who was renewed last year and in years past need not be concerned, you will be approved so long as your A&P certificate is current and valid. An IA is not valid unless accompanied with a valid A&P certificate.

The current and latest guidance as I understand it so far, after listening to Hall, the FAA person who set it all out, is that anyone who has been renewed in the past will have to be considered as being actively engaged going forward under any new guidance interpretation so long as his or her A&P certificate is valid.

Aging aircraft issues — corrosion

Like all of us, all of our aircraft are aging if not gracefully, with great speed. Cessna has been for some time now very concerned with structural internal corrosion in particular and component integrity in general. Beth Gamble from Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, (bgamble@cessna.textron.com) presented interesting details of the present ongoing aging aircraft structural program progress at Wichita.

We should be aware of the massive Supplemental Inspection Documents (SIDs) that have been published for the 300 and 400 twin model series aircraft. Keep in mind that SIDs are not mandatory for any of the Cessna products except those in commercial service that volunteer to include them or are required in their operations specifications. They set out in detail the additional inspections, checks, and various servicing steps that Cessna feels should be performed, the bulk of which concern internal corrosion that can attack the structural integrity of any aircraft. They are very basic in some parts and in others can be very time consuming and or expensive to complete as well. Nondestructive testing is an integral part of the inspections.

C210 AD note

A good example of Cessna’s concern shows in the recent AD on certain Cessna 210 series aircraft, to inspect the wing lower spar cap for stress cracks on all 1967 through 1986 C210s, AD 2012-10-04 effective June 5, 2012. This was a result of finding some C 210 aircraft in Australia with cracks at this location. Although there has been very few known structural wing spar failures, Cessna is urgently concerned about structural failure because of the single wing spar construction of the C 210 series.

Cessna has stated that the SID for the 210 series is valid for aircraft with less than 30,000 hours … It further states that beyond 30,000 flight hours the airworthiness of the aircraft cannot be assured. This apparently means that after these hours are reached the aircraft should be retired from service. I doubt this life limit has been reached by any C210s so far.

SID structural inspection requirements are added or will be added to the published Service Instructions manuals for each of the models concerned.

Ms. Gamble, as a senior manager, heads up part of the engineering structures group at Cessna and is concerned with the preparation and publishing of the SIDs and told us that the new inspection requirements for the 200 series aircraft are now published. The instructions for the 100 series aircraft are or will be available very soon. Since I am an owner of an older “legacy” C182 I am particularly interested in seeing what the inspections for my model would recommend. All of the publications including the SIDs can be conveniently found at Cessna.com which contains all you ever wanted to find out about Cessna publications and everything else concerned with Cessna aircraft.

Stephen P. Prentice is an attorney whose practice involves FAA-NTSB issues. He has an Airframe and Powerplant certificate and is an ATP rated pilot. He is a USAF veteran. Send comments to aerolaw@att.net.