The Federal Aviation Administration has issued sweeping inspection requirements after learning that power levers in nearly 30 Cirrus SR-series single-engined aircraft had developed cracks.
The FAA in a new airworthiness directive, set to take effect in 15 days, will order operators to inspect “upper power levers” on some 6,811 aircraft registered in the USA, including SR-20s, SR-22s and SR-22Ts.
The agency issued the AD as an immediately affective rule, bypassing its typical process of accepting public comments prior to finalising a rule.
“The FAA received a report that a Cirrus model SR20 airplane was involved in an incident where the upper power lever failed while advancing to full throttle in preparation for take-off,” the FAA writes.
That aircraft’s pilot successfully aborted the take-off.
“After the incident, an additional 26 upper power levers have been reported to have cracks,” the FAA says.
Cirrus did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company sought to address the concern by issuing a service bulletin on 29 October. That bulletin applied only to “certain airplane serial numbers” and called for inspections only of levers with 2,000 or more flight hours. The FAA’s order is broader and requires inspections sooner.
“The FAA’s initial analysis based on crack data from the reported incidents shows that this condition could occur on airplanes with 1,200h [time in service] accumulated on the upper power lever,” the agency says.
The order requires operators to complete visual inspections and to replace levers found to have cracks. If visual inspections do not reveal cracks, operators will also need to complete fluorescent penetrant inspections.
“These cracks have only been discovered on upper power levers that include a take-off/go-around switch,” says the FAA’s AD. “This condition, if not addressed, could result in loss of engine thrust control and reduced control of the airplane.”
