The US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has called on the Federal Aviation Administration to withhold action on two proposed airworthiness directives (AD) until AOPA has been given adequate time to review and comment on the data.
At stake are costly and time-consuming compliance measures affecting hundreds of twin Cessna aircraft, says the Washington-based association.
The FAA plans to issue two ADs requiring installation of an expensive spar strap modification kit manufactured by Cessna, based, AOPA says, on theoretical data developed by a federally funded engineering analysis undertaken by Cessna.
"We don't believe the FAA has any operational data to back up the engineering analysis," says Luis Gutierrez, AOPA director of regulatory and certification affairs. "But so far we've been unable to get any data at all from the FAA, even after we filed a Freedom of Information Act request in September."
If published as proposed, AOPA suggests the ADs would affect nearly 1,500 Cessna 401s, 401As, 401Bs, 402s, 402As, 402Bs, 402Cs, 411s, 411As and 414As at a cost of around $70,000 per aircraft. This may mean years of downtime for owners and a bill that exceeds the value of some machines. "But the real danger is in using theoretical engineering data rather than real-world experience for justifying ADs," Gutierrez says.
Source: Flight International
