Airworthiness Directives; Honda Aircraft Company LLC Airplanes

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 39</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2025-0485; Project Identifier AD-2024-00670-A]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Airworthiness Directives; Honda Aircraft Company LLC Airplanes</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 Honda Aircraft Company LLC (Honda) Model HA-420 airplanes. This action revises the NPRM by updating the referenced service material to a new revision that includes redesigned replacement flap control pushrod assemblies that have been modified to prevent interference with adjacent parts. The FAA is proposing this airworthiness directive (AD) to address the unsafe condition on these products. Since these actions would impose an additional burden over those in the NPRM, the agency is requesting comments on this SNPRM. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The FAA must receive comments on this SNPRM by February 6, 2026. </DATES> <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-2025-0485; 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, any comments received, and other information. The street address for Docket Operations is listed above. <E T="03">Material Incorporated by Reference:</E> • For Honda Aircraft Company material identified in this proposed AD, contact Honda, 6430 Ballinger Road, Greensboro, NC 27410; phone: (336) 662-0246; website: <E T="03">hondajet.com.</E> • You may view this material at the FAA, 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> Kelly Fichter, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 1701 Columbia Avenue, College Park, GA 30337: (404) 474-5544; email: <E T="03">ecb-cos@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-2025-0485; Project Identifier AD-2024-00670-A” 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 the 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 Kelly Fichter, Aviation Safety Engineer, FAA, 701 Columbia Avenue, College Park, GA 30337. 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 AD 2021-22-12, Amendment 39-21785 (86 FR 60753, November 4, 2021) (AD 2021-22-12), for certain Honda Model HA-420 airplanes. AD 2021-22-12 requires removing and cleaning the inner diameter of the flap control pushrod assembly and repetitively applying corrosion inhibiting compound (CIC) to this area. The FAA issued AD 2021-22-12 to prevent failure of the flap control pushrod assembly, which, if not addressed, could result in uncontrolled and un-annunciated flap asymmetry with consequent loss of control of the airplane. The FAA issued an NPRM to amend 14 CFR part 39 by adding an AD to supersede AD 2021-22-12 that would have applied to certain serial-numbered Honda Model HA-420 airplanes. The NPRM was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on April 11, 2025 (90 FR 15426). The NPRM was prompted by a report that the flap pushrod assemblies are susceptible to corrosion, and the subsequent development of updated flap control pushrod assemblies that are more corrosion resistant and do not require repetitive CIC applications. In the NPRM, the FAA proposed to continue to require removing and cleaning the inner diameter of the flap control pushrod assembly and repetitively applying CIC to this area. The NPRM also proposed to expand the applicability to include additional airplanes and require replacing the flap control pushrod assemblies with new corrosion-resistant flap control pushrod assemblies. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Actions Since the NPRM Was Issued</HD> Since the FAA issued the NPRM, it was discovered that the updated outboard corrosion resistant pushrods could interfere with the mid flap drive arms when fully deployed. As a result of this finding, the manufacturer published updated service material that includes a modified design of the flap control pushrod assembly to prevent interference with adjacent parts. The FAA is proposing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments</HD> The FAA received one comment on the NPRM from an individual. The commenter supported the NPRM without change. <HD SOURCE="HD1">FAA's Determination</HD> The FAA is proposing this AD after determining the unsafe condition described previously is likely to exist or develop in 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 Honda Aircraft Company Alert Service Bulletin No. SB-420-27-009, Revision B, dated August 5, 2025. This material specifies procedures for replacing the flap control pushrod assemblies with improved design flap control pushrod assemblies. This proposed AD would also require Honda Aircraft Company Alert Service Bulletin No. SB-420-27-008, dated August 31, 2021, which the Director of the Federal Register approved for incorporation by reference as of November 19, 2021 (86 FR 60753, November 4, 2021). 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 retain all of the requirements of AD 2021-22-12. This proposed AD would also expand the applicability to include additional airplanes and require replacing the flap control pushrod assemblies with new corrosion-resistant flap control pushrod assemblies as terminating action for the repetitive CIC applications required by AD 2021-22-12. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Costs of Compliance</HD> The FAA estimates that this AD, if adopted as proposed, would affect 107 airplanes of U.S. registry. The FAA estimates the following costs to comply with this proposed AD: <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s100,r50,8,8,xs112"> <TTITLE>Estimated Costs</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Action</CHED> <CHED H="1">Labor cost</CHED> Cost on U.S. operators </CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Remove, clean, and apply CIC to the flap control pushrod assembly (retained from AD 2021-22-12)</ENT> <ENT>22 work-hours × $85 per hour = $1,870</ENT> <ENT>$70</ENT> <ENT>$1,940</ENT> <ENT>$85,360 (44 airplanes).</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Reapply CIC every 90 days (cost for each time) (retained from AD 2021-22-12)</ENT> <ENT>1 work-hour × $85 per hour = $85</ENT> <ENT>70</ENT> <ENT>155</ENT> <ENT>$6,820 (44 airplanes).</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Replace the left and right inboard flap control pushrod assemblies</ENT> <ENT>22 work-hours × $85 per hour = $1,870</ENT> <ENT>5,168</ENT> <ENT>7,038</ENT> <ENT>$753,066 (107 airplanes).</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> The FAA has in ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 20k characters. 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