BY JASON DICKSTEIN
LEGAL SPIN
NEW RULES FOR 8130-3 TAGS – ARE REBUILDS REALLY BETTER?
T
he FAA recently released Draft Order 8130.21H for public comment. The most recent revision to Order 8130.21—the FAA guidance on how to complete an 8130-3 tag—will mean a number of changes for Repair Stations. The majority of these changes are straight forward. Some changes, however, will warrant a closer look; and some changes threaten to upset the fabric of the FAA’s regulatory system. While the proposed changes to the rebuild standards (described below) may create a real concern for some, most of the changes are benign or even beneficial. The first change of note is the new Appendix A. The samples of FAA Form 8130-3 that formerly appeared throughout the Order are now collected in a single appendix. While this makes it easy to locate all of the samples, individuals consulting the appendix should exercise care to ensure they are referring to the appropriate sample for their specific needs as the relevant sample no longer appears adjacent to the corresponding guidance. The title at the top of each page describes the intended use of each sample. On May 1, 2011 the aviation safety agreement between the United States and European Union went into effect. The agreement served to streamline regulatory cooperation between the United States and the European Community. It allows for reciprocal acceptance of FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification and oversight of civil aviation products and repair stations. One of the primary goals of Order 8130.21H is to achieve greater harmonization with EASA. To that end, the new Order makes a number of minor modifications to the formatting of FAA Form 8130-3, which were agreed- upon during FAA-EASA-Transport Canada harmonization negotiations. Most of these changes have already been implemented in the EASA Form One, pursuant to the US-EC negotiations.
The new form eliminates “Block 9. Eligibility.” Earlier, the FAA has described this block as “N/A” (not applicable)
for most uses of the form. Part of the reason that the FAA engaged in the interim solution (“N/A”) and took longer to change the form itself is because of the complexity of changing government forms (the process requires the approval of the White House Office of Management and Budget).
All of the Blocks above block nine are decremented, e.g., “Block 10. Quantity” becomes “Block 9. Quantity,” and so forth. The comment block will be known as “Block 12.” Careful reviewers will note that the sample form A-10 in the draft makes reference to “block 13” instead of “block 12.” This sort of error is one of the reasons that the FAA issues drafts for public comment! Additionally, the new Order re-numbers the signature blocks to parallel the EASA Form One format. The left- hand signature blocks, formerly 14-18, become Blocks 13(a)-13(e). Similarly, the right-hand signature blocks, 19-23, are re-numbered Blocks 14(a)-14(e). Finally, the Order changes the Date format in Blocks 13(e) and 14(e) from Month-Day-Year format to Day- Month-Year format, which is again in harmony with EASA Form One.
For the maintenance community, one of the most
eyebrow-raising changes in Draft Order 8130.21H is the addition of new rules for approving rebuild on an 8130- 3 tag. For many years there have been concerns about the acceptance of rebuilt products in Europe. European authorities were reticent to accept rebuilt engines because U.S. regulations permit a rebuilt engine to be zero-timed but also permit used articles to remain in the rebuilt engine. Under the Technical Implementation Procedures of the May 1 Bilateral Agreement between the US and the EC, EASA recognized the term “Rebuilt Engine” as a manufacturing certification practice, instead of as a maintenance release under FAA regulations. As a matter of policy, rebuilt engines will now be subject to the same EC import requirements as new aircraft engines. The draft guidance for FAA Form 8130-3 completion states that when an engine is rebuilt, the rebuilder may complete the left hand signature block (typically reserved for FAA and designees). Block 13(b), the authorized signature block, will be completed by an authorized person at the PAH (not necessarily a designee). This special dispensation for rebuilt engines appears to muddy the waters with respect to left- hand versus right-hand signatures on the 8130-3 tag. It is important to note that the justification for permitting this unique privilege of permitting rebuild to be signed-off on the left hand side is to appeal to European customers, but the privilege will apply to domestically-bound rebuilds as well as exported rebuilds.
While this legal fiction (that a rebuild is a manufacturing certification practice) exists in the Bilateral Agreement, rebuilds have not been moved in the U.S. regulations from their current position in Part 43 (the maintenance rules). Rebuilds are still subject to the same approval for return to service regulation (14 C.F.R. 43.9) as repairs and alterations. Most of the revisions to Order 8130.21 should facilitate trade between the US and Europe; but the changes do so at the expense of domestic approval-for-return-to-service norms when it comes to the new policy for rebuilds. FAA is accepting comments on Draft Order 8130.21H until January 17, 2012. AM
Aviation Maintenance |
avmain-mag.com | December 2011/January 2012 Aviation Maintenance |
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