Explanatory Statement
Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998
Exemption — from Airworthiness Directive to permit repositioning
Subsection 98 (1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the Act and the safety of air navigation.
Airworthiness Directives
Under regulation 39.003 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 (CASR 1998), a person must not operate, and a registered operator must not permit the operation of, an Australian registered aircraft in breach of the requirements of an Airworthiness Directive.
Exemptions from CASR 1998
Under subregulation 11.160 (1) of CASR 1998, CASA may grant an exemption from compliance with a provision of CASR 1998. Under subregulation 11.160 (3), CASA may grant an exemption on its own initiative. In deciding whether to grant an exemption CASA must regard as paramount the preservation of an acceptable level of safety.
Under subregulation 11.205 (1), CASA may impose conditions on an exemption if this is necessary in the interests of the safety of air navigation. Under regulation 11.210, it is an offence to fail to comply with a condition of an exemption.
Under regulation 11.225, an exemption must be published on the World Wide Web. Under subregulation 11.230 (1), an exemption ceases on the day specified within it (but no longer than 2 years after its commencement), or if no day is specified, 2 years after commencement.
Background
Following advice from the manufacturer and the FAA in the United States, on 13 March 2008, CASA issued Airworthiness Directive AD/FSM/31 — Precision Airmotive Fuel Injection Servo Plugs — 5/2008 TX (the AD). The AD required certain piston aircraft engines with a certain kind of fuel injection servo incorporating a certain kind of servo plug gasket and plug to be checked to determine if the plug was loose and requiring steps to be taken to rectify this.
All relevant aircraft were grounded by the AD until its requirements had been complied with. One effect of this is that aircraft are unable to reposition to their maintenance base for a proper check in accordance with the AD.
CASA considers that, subject to certain safeguards designed to preserve an acceptable level of safety, relevant aircraft should be permitted to reposition to their maintenance base for proper checking.
Details of exemption instrument
This exemption applies to each pilot in command, and each operator, of an Australian aircraft (the aircraft) to which the AD applies. The pilot and the operator are exempt from compliance with regulation 39.003 of CASR 1998 to the extent mentioned in Schedule 1.
The exemption extends only to the requirement in the AD that an aircraft to which the AD applies may not be repositioned until compliance with the AD has been accomplished.
The exemption is subject to conditions mentioned in Schedule 2.
Conditions of exemption
A relevant aircraft may be flown from its current location to its maintenance base.
This flight (the repositioning flight) must be for the sole and exclusive purpose of repositioning the aircraft at the relevant maintenance base.
The repositioning flight may only be conducted after the servo plug has been thoroughly checked by the pilot in command in accordance with Schedule 3.
If the check reveals movement or looseness of any degree in the servo plug, or loose or broken servo plug lockwires, the exemption does not apply and the aircraft may not fly until the AD has been fully implemented for it.
However, if the checks are satisfactory, the aircraft may fly to its maintenance base. The flight must be by the most direct route available that avoids flight over any city, town or populous area.
The aircraft may only carry the flight crew essential for its operation. Each member of the flight crew must be a volunteer who has agreed, in writing without prejudice, to participate in the flight. Before the flight, he or she must be provided with a copy of the exemption and its Explanatory Statement.
For CASA’s purposes, the “without prejudice” written agreement would have no legal effect other than to meet CASA’s requirement that only flight crew who had freely volunteered for the duty were involved in the flight.
The operator, the aircraft, each pilot and the flight must comply with the requirements of the civil aviation legislation that would otherwise apply in relation to the flight except for the effect of this exemption.
Schedule 3 procedures
As noted above, the repositioning flight may only be conducted after the servo plug has been thoroughly checked by the pilot in command in accordance with Schedule 3.
Under Schedule 3, the servo plug must be thoroughly checked by bare hand for the presence of looseness or movement. A note makes it explicit that a visual inspection is not adequate, and that no attempt may be made to turn the servo plug with tools.
When checking for looseness, the pilot in command must attempt to turn the servo plug in both clockwise and the anticlockwise directions and feel and observe for looseness of any degree.
When checking for movement, the pilot in command must feel and observe if there is any sideways movement or rocking of the servo plug in the threads.
The lock wire attached to the servo plug must be thoroughly checked, visually and by bare hand, to ensure that it is in place, is intact and has no looseness.
Legislative Instruments Act
Under subparagraph 6 (d) (i) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (the LIA), an instrument is a legislative instrument for section 5 of the LIA if it is declared to be a disallowable instrument under legislation in force before the commencement of the LIA. Regulation 11.215 of CASR 1998 declares an exemption to be a disallowable instrument. The exemption is, therefore, a legislative instrument and it is subject to tabling and disallowance in the Parliament under sections 38 and 42 of the LIA.
Consultation
Consultation under section 17 of the LIA has not occurred in this case. The exemption is designed to allow the limited repositioning of relevant aircraft under safety conditions so that more thorough safety checks may be made to the relevant engine parts.
Commencement
The instrument commences on 14 March 2008 immediately after it is registered.
This is to facilitate urgent or immediate return to maintenance base of those aircraft that comply with the terms of the exemption instrument.
The exemption has been made by the Group General Manager, General Aviation Operations, a delegate of CASA, in accordance with subregulation 7 (1) of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988.
[Instrument number CASA EX20/07]