Airworthiness Directives; The New Piper Aircraft, Inc. PA24, PA28R, PA30, PA32R, PA34, and PA39 Series Airplanes

[FR Doc No: 96-10167] DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Aviation Administration 14 CFR Part 39 [Docket No. 96-CE-09-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; The New Piper Aircraft, Inc. PA24, PA28R, PA30, PA32R, PA34, and PA39 Series Airplanes AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration, DOT. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). SUMMARY: This document proposes to supersede AD 95-20-07, which currently requires repetitively inspecting the main gear side brace studs for cracks on certain The New Piper Aircraft, Inc. (Piper) PA24, PA28R, PA30, PA32R, PA34, and PA39 series airplanes, and replacing any cracked main gear side brace stud. The proposed action would retain the repetitive inspection and possible replacement requirements of AD 95- 20-07, would remove airplanes with a certain main gear side brace assembly configuration from the ``Applicability'' section of the current AD, and would incorporate additional modification and replacement options. Additional information on the design and service history of the affected airplanes concerning this subject received by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after issuance of AD 95-20-07 prompted the proposed action. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent a main landing gear collapse caused by main gear side brace stud cracks, which, if not detected and corrected, could result in loss of control of the airplane during landing operations. DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 25, 1996. ADDRESSES: Submit comments in triplicate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Central Region, Office of the Assistant Chief Counsel, Attention: Rules Docket No. 96-CE-09-AD, Room 1558, 601 E. 12th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106. Comments may be inspected at this location between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, holidays excepted. Information that applies to the proposed AD may be examined at the Rules Docket at the address above. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christina Marsh, Aerospace Engineer, FAA, Atlanta Aircraft Certification Office, Campus Building, 1701 Columbia Avenue, suite 2-160, College Park, Georgia 30337-2748; telephone (404) 305-7362; facsimile (404) 305-7348. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Comments Invited Interested persons are invited to participate in the making of the proposed rule by submitting such written data, views, or arguments as they may desire. Communications should identify the Rules Docket number and be submitted in triplicate to the address specified above. All communications received on or before the closing date for comments, specified above, will be considered before taking action on the proposed rule. The proposals contained in this notice may be changed in light of the comments received. Comments are specifically invited on the overall regulatory, economic, environmental, and energy aspects of the proposed rule. All comments submitted will be available, both before and after the closing date for comments, in the Rules Docket for examination by interested persons. A report that summarizes each FAA-public contact concerned with the substance of this proposal will be filed in the Rules Docket. Commenters wishing the FAA to acknowledge receipt of their comments submitted in response to this notice must submit a self-addressed, stamped postcard on which the following statement is made: ``Comments to Docket No. 96-CE-09-AD.'' The postcard will be date stamped and returned to the commenter. Availability of NPRMs Any person may obtain a copy of this NPRM by submitting a request to the FAA, Central Region, Office of the Assistant Chief Counsel, Attention: Rules Docket No. 96-CE-09-AD, Room 1558, 601 E. 12th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106. Discussion AD 95-20-07, Amendment 39-9386 (60 FR 52073, October 5, 1995), currently requires repetitively inspecting (using liquid penetrant or magnetic particle methods) the main gear side brace studs for cracks on certain Piper PA24, PA28R, PA30, PA32R, PA34, and PA39 series airplanes, and replacing any cracked main gear side brace stud. A minor correction on this action that specified who could accomplish the inspection was published in the Federal Register on November 15, 1995 (60 FR 57333). The FAA has re-examined all available information related to AD 95- 20-07, including additional information received from The New Piper Aircraft, Inc., and owners/operators of the affected airplanes. From this examination, the FAA has determined the following: --That a third main gear side brace assembly containing the \5/8\-inch stud, part number (P/N) 78717-02, with a two-piece bushing, P/N 67026- 09, was installed (at manufacture) on Piper Model PA34-200T, serial numbers 34-7670325 through 34-7770372. AD 95-20-07 should not apply to these airplanes with this main gear side brace assembly configuration; and --That Piper PA28R, PA32R, and PA34 series airplane owners/operators should have the option of incorporating a modification that would eliminate the repetitive inspection requirement of AD 95-20-07. This modification consists of reaming the existing two-piece bushings, P/N 67026-6, to an inside diameter of .624-inch to .625-inch, rechamfering the bushings, and installing the \5/8\-inch stud, P/N 78717-02. The owner/operator would have the choice of incorporating this modification, installing a P/N 95643-06/-07/-08/-09 main gear side brace bracket assembly, or continuing to reinspect the main gear side brace assembly. Based upon the information described above, the FAA has determined that AD action should be taken to prevent a main landing gear collapse caused by main gear side brace stud cracks, which, if not detected and corrected, could result in loss of control of the airplane during landing operations. Since an unsafe condition has been identified that is likely to exist or develop in other Piper PA24, PA28R, PA30, PA32R, PA34, and PA39 series airplanes of the same type design, the proposed AD would supersede AD 95-20-07 with a new AD that would (1) retain the requirement of repetitively inspecting the main gear side brace assembly, and replacing any cracked main gear side brace stud. This includes the inspection-terminating replacement contained in AD 95-20-07; (2) remove from the ``Applicability'' section of the current AD the Piper Model PA34-200T airplanes that incorporate a main gear side brace assembly containing the \5/8\-inch stud, part number (P/N) 78717-02, with a two- piece bushing, P/N 67026-09; and (3) incorporate, as an option, an inspection-terminating modification for Piper PA28R, PA32R, and PA34 airplanes. This modification consists of reaming the existing two-piece bushings, P/N 67026-6, to an inside diameter of .624-inch to .625-inch, rechamfering the bushings, and installing the \5/8\-inch stud, P/N 78717-02. The FAA estimates that 13,200 airplanes in the U.S. registry would be affected by the proposed AD, that it would take approximately 5 workhours per airplane to accomplish the proposed action, and that the average labor rate is approximately $60 an hour. Based on these figures, the total cost impact of the proposed inspection on U.S. operators is estimated to be $3,960,000. This figure represents the total cost of the proposed initial inspection, and does not reflect costs for any of the proposed repetitive inspections or possible replacements. The FAA has no way of determining how many main gear side brace studs may need replacement or how many repetitive inspections each owner/operator may incur over the life of the airplane. In addition, the proposed AD would require the same inspections required by AD 95-20-07. The only difference between the proposed AD and AD 95-20-07 is the addition of an inspection-terminating modification option and the elimination from the ``Applicability'' section certain airplanes that incorporate a certain main side brace stud assembly. The proposed AD would not provide any additional cost impacts over that already required by AD 95-20-07. The regulations proposed herein would not have substantial direct effects on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government. Therefore, in accordance with Executive Order 12612, it is determined that this proposal would not have sufficient federalism implications to warrant the preparation of a Federalism Assessment. For the reasons discussed above, I certify that this action (1) is not a ``significant regulatory action'' under Executive Order 12866; (2) is not a ``significant rule'' under DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures (44 FR 11034, February 26, 1979); and (3) if promulgated, will not have a significant economic impact, positive or negative, on a substantial number of small entities under the criteria of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. A copy of the draft regulatory evaluation prepared for this action has been placed in the Rules Docket. A copy of it may be obtained by contacting the Rules Docket at the location provided under the caption ADDRESSES. List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 39 Air transportation, Aircraft, Aviation safety, Safety. The Proposed Amendment Accordingly, pursuant to the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the Federal Aviation Administration proposes to amend 14 CFR part 39 of the Federal Aviation Regulations as follows: PART 39--AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVES 1. The authority citation for part 39 continues to read as follows: Authority: 49 USC 106(g), 40113, 44701. Sec. 39.13 [Amended] 2. Section 39.13 is amended by removing Airworthiness Directive (AD) 95-20-07, Amendment 39-9386, and by adding a new AD to read as follows: The New Piper Aircraft, Inc.: Docket No. 96-CE-09-AD; Supersedes AD 95-20-07, Amendment 39-9386. Applicability: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 21k characters. 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