Airworthiness Directives; Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH Gliders

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-1362; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00062-G]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH Gliders</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The FAA is revising a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would have applied to certain Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH (Schempp-Hirth) Model CIRRUS gliders. This action revises the NPRM by changing references to the affected glider model from CIRRUS to STANDARD CIRRUS throughout the proposed airworthiness directive (AD). The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. The FAA is requesting comments on this SNPRM. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The FAA must receive comments on this SNPRM by January 12, 2026. </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-2025-1362; 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 SNPRM, 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 SCHEMPP-HIRTH Flugzeugbau GmbH material identified in this proposed AD, contact Schempp-Hirth, Krebenstraße 25, 73230 Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany; phone: +49 7021 7298-0; email: <E T="03">info@schempp-hirth.com;</E> website: <E T="03">schempp-hirth.com.</E> • You may view this material at the FAA, Airworthiness Products Section, Operational Safety Branch, 901 Locust, Kansas City, MO 64106. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call (817) 222-5110. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Peter Schmitt, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1600 Stewart Avenue, Suite 410, Westbury, NY 11590; phone: (206) 231-3377; email: <E T="03">peter.a.schmitt@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 using a method listed under the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. Include “Docket No. FAA-2025-1362; Project Identifier MCAI-2025-00062-G” 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 again revise 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 SNPRM. <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 SNPRM 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 SNPRM, 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 SNPRM. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to Peter Schmitt, 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 FAA issued an NPRM to amend 14 CFR part 39 by adding an AD that would apply to certain Schempp-Hirth Model CIRRUS gliders. The NPRM was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on July 22, 2025 (90 FR 34391). The NPRM was prompted by European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) AD 2024-0242R1, dated January 17, 2025, issued by EASA, which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Union (EASA AD 2024-0242R1) (also referred to as the MCAI). The MCAI states that occurrences were reported of a broken outer race in the lower ball bearing installed on the all-moving horizontal tailplane drive fitting. This condition, if not addressed, could lead to the tailplane drive jamming and loss of control of the glider. In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to require inspecting the elevator drive fitting to determine the type of lower ball bearing installed and, depending upon the results, replacing the lower ball bearing with a serviceable part. You may examine the MCAI in the AD docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> under Docket No. FAA-2025-1362. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Actions Since the NPRM Was Issued</HD> Since the FAA issued the NPRM, a commenter noted that the NPRM referenced the incorrect glider model. The SNPRM revises the NPRM by updating the reference to the affected Schempp-Hirth glider model from CIRRUS to STANDARD CIRRUS. Neither the MCAI nor the service information has been revised since the NPRM was published. This SNPRM was prompted by the FAA's determination that the affected glider model referenced in the NPRM was incorrect and needed to be changed. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments</HD> The FAA received one comment from an individual commenter. The following presents the comment received on the NPRM and the FAA's response to the comment. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Request To Correct Glider Model Applicability</HD> An individual commenter requested that the FAA revise the proposed AD by changing the referenced applicability to Schempp-Hirth Model STANDARD CIRRUS sailplanes rather than Schempp-Hirth Model CIRRUS sailplanes. The commenter noted that the CIRRUS sailplane is a different type of glider model than the STANDARD CIRRUS sailplane with a different type of elevator. The FAA agrees with the commenter's request and has revised this proposed AD as requested. <HD SOURCE="HD1">FAA's Determination</HD> These products have been approved by the civil 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, that authority has notified the FAA of the unsafe condition described in the MCAI referenced above. The FAA is issuing this SNPRM after determining that the unsafe condition described previously is likely to exist or develop on other products of the same type design. Certain changes described above expand the scope of the NPRM. As a result, it is necessary to reopen the comment period to provide additional opportunity for the public to comment on this SNPRM. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Material Incorporated by Reference Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> The FAA reviewed SCHEMPP-HIRTH Flugzeugbau GmbH Technical Note No. 278-25, Revision 1, dated July 9, 2024, which specifies procedures for inspecting the elevator drive fitting to determine which type of lower ball bearing is installed, and depending on the results, replacing the lower ball bearing with a serviceable part. 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">Proposed AD Requirements in This SNPRM</HD> This proposed AD would require accomplishing the actions specified in the material already described. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD, if adopted as proposed, would affect 17 gliders of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this proposed AD: <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s75,r50,10,10,12"> <TTITLE>Estimated Costs</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Action</CHED> <CHED H="1">Labor cost</CHED> <CHED H="1">Parts cost</CHED> Cost on U.S. operators </CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Inspect elevator drive fitting or records review to determine if affected part is installed</ENT> <ENT>1 work-hour × $85 per hour = $85</ENT> <ENT>$0</ENT> <ENT>$85</ENT> <ENT>$1,445</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> The FAA estimates the following costs to do any necessary replacements that would be required based on the results of the proposed inspection. The agency has no way of determining the number of gliders that might need these replacements: <GPOTABLE COLS= ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 18k characters. 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