Airworthiness Directives; Hélicoptères Guimbal Helicopters

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-1102; Project Identifier MCAI-2024-00183-R]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Hélicoptères Guimbal Helicopters</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The FAA proposes to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Hélicoptères Guimbal (HG) Model Cabri G2 helicopters. This proposed AD was prompted by reports of cracked main rotor swashplates (swashplates). This proposed AD would require repetitively inspecting certain swashplates for cracks and, depending on the results, removing and replacing each cracked swashplate. This proposed AD would also prohibit installing an affected swashplate unless it has passed the proposed inspection requirements. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The FAA must receive comments on this NPRM by August 4, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may send comments, using the procedures found in 14 CFR 11.43 and 11.45, by any of the following methods: • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> Go to <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> . Follow the instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Fax:</E> (202) 493-2251. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery:</E> Deliver to Mail address above between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. <E T="03">AD Docket:</E> You may examine the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-1102; or in person at Docket Operations between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The AD docket contains this NPRM, the mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI), any comments received, and other information. The street address for Docket Operations is listed above. <E T="03">Material Incorporated by Reference:</E> • For Guimbal material identified in this proposed AD, contact Hélicoptères Guimbal, 1070, rue du Lieutenant Parayre, Aérodrome d'Aix-en-Provence, 13290 Les Milles, France; phone: 33-04-42-39-10-88; email: <E T="03">support@guimbal.com;</E> or at <E T="03">guimbal.com.</E> • You may view this material at the FAA, Office of the Regional Counsel, Southwest Region, 10101 Hillwood Parkway, Room 6N-321, Fort Worth, TX 76177. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (817) 222-5110. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> George Weir, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: (817) 222-4045; email: <E T="03">george.a.weir@faa.gov</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments Invited</HD> The FAA invites you to send any written relevant data, views, or arguments about this proposal. Send your comments to an address listed under the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. Include “Docket No. FAA-2025-1102; Project Identifier MCAI-2024-00183-R” at the beginning of your comments. The most helpful comments reference a specific portion of the proposal, explain the reason for any recommended change, and include supporting data. The FAA will consider all comments received by the closing date and may amend this proposal because of those comments. Except for Confidential Business Information (CBI) as described in the following paragraph, and other information as described in 14 CFR 11.35, the FAA will post all comments received, without change, to <E T="03">regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information you provide. The agency will also post a report summarizing each substantive verbal contact received about this NPRM. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Confidential Business Information</HD> CBI is commercial or financial information that is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from public disclosure. If your comments responsive to this NPRM contain commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as private, that you actually treat as private, and that is relevant or responsive to this NPRM, it is important that you clearly designate the submitted comments as CBI. Please mark each page of your submission containing CBI as “PROPIN.” The FAA will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the FOIA, and they will not be placed in the public docket of this NPRM. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to George Weir, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590. Any commentary that the FAA receives which is not specifically designated as CBI will be placed in the public docket for this rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union, has issued EASA AD 2024-0071, dated March 14, 2024 (EASA AD 2024-0071) (also referred to as “the MCAI”), to correct an unsafe condition on HG Model Cabri G2 helicopters, all serial numbers. The MCAI states that occurrences were reported where, during maintenance, cracks were found on the rotating and non-rotating part of the swashplates of two HG Model Cabri G2 helicopters. HG concluded that the cracks were likely caused by aging and corrosion. The MCAI states that this condition, if not detected and corrected, could lead to failure of the swashplate, which could result in loss of control of the helicopter. The MCAI requires inspecting each swashplate and, if there are any cracks, replacing each cracked swashplate before the next flight. The MCAI allows installing an affected swashplate on a helicopter provided that, before installation, it is inspected and no cracks are found. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-1102. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed Guimbal Mandatory Service Bulletin SB 24-001, Revision C, dated March 20, 2024 (Guimbal SB 24-001 C), which specifies procedures for performing repetitive inspections of the six arms from both the rotating and non-rotating swashplate part number G41-00-000 for cracks, replacing any cracked swashplate, and contacting HG support. If there is doubt about the existence of a crack or if there is paint damage or peeling, Guimbal SB 24-001 C specifies removing the paint and further inspecting for cracks. If no crack is found, Guimbal SB 24-001 C specifies touching up the paint in areas where paint was removed before approving the helicopter for return to service. This material is reasonably available because the interested parties have access to it through their normal course of business or by the means identified in the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. <HD SOURCE="HD1">FAA's Determination</HD> These products have been approved by the aviation authority of another country and are approved for operation in the United States. Pursuant to the FAA's bilateral agreement with this State of Design Authority, it has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in the MCAI and material referenced above. The FAA is issuing this NPRM after determining that the unsafe condition described previously is likely to exist or develop on other products of the same type design. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Proposed AD Requirements in This NPRM</HD> This proposed AD would require removing the paint on each swashplate and performing repetitive visual inspections of the six arms of the rotating and non-rotating swashplates for a crack. Depending on the results, this proposed AD would require removing any cracked swashplate from service and replacing the swashplate with an airworthy part, or repainting the swashplate. This proposed AD would also prohibit installing an affected swashplate unless the part is inspected prior to installation and thereafter as identified in the proposed AD. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Differences Between This Proposed AD and the MCAI</HD> The material referenced in the MCAI specifies removing paint if there is doubt regarding if there is a crack or if there is paint damage, and this proposed AD requires removing the paint before performing each inspection. The material referenced in the MCAI specifies contacting HG support after replacing the swashplate, whereas this proposed AD would not require that action. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD, if adopted as proposed, would affect 59 helicopters of U.S. registry. Labor rates are estimated at $85 per hour. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this proposed AD. Inspecting a swashplate would take .25 work-hour for an estimated cost of $22 per helicopter and $1,298 for the U.S. fleet, per inspection cycle. Removing the paint and repainting the swashplate would take .5 work-hour for an estimated cost of $43 per helicopter and $2,537 for the U.S. fleet, per inspection cycle. If required, replacing a swashplate would take 6 work-hours and parts would cost about $7,066 for an estimated cost of $7,576 per helicopter. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Authority for This Rulemaking</HD> Title 49 of the United States Code specifies the FAA's authority to issue rules on aviation safety. Subtitle I, section 106, describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII: Aviation Programs, describes in more detail the scope of the Agency's authority ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 18k characters. 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