COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA (Civil Aviation Regulations 1998), PART 39 - 105 CIVIL AVIATION SAFETY AUTHORITY
SCHEDULE OF AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVES
FLS Aerospace OA7 Optica Series Aeroplanes
AD/OPTICA/5 Airframe Retirement Life 7/95
Applicability: All Optica OA7 aircraft up to and including Serial Number 019.
Note: Retirement lives for later serial numbers are defined in Chapter 4 of the Series 300 Maintenance Manual, OA7/TP/20.
Requirement: Retire the airframe from service. Compliance: Before 2600 hours time in service.
Background: Several deficiencies were found in the original fatigue evaluation of early model Optica aircraft. Re-evaluation of the data has concluded that the primary load bearing structure has a safe fatigue life of only 2600 hours. Subsequent aircraft, designated as Series 300, were built with redesigned primary structure with much higher fatigue lives. Retirement lives for Series 300 aircraft are listed in the Airworthiness Limitations Chapter of the Maintenance Manual.