By Jason Dickstein
There has been significant hub-bub in the United States over recent changes to the FAA-EASA agreements. The gist of the changes is that US-based dual-certified repair stations must receive a Form One (from the EU or Canada) or an 8130-3 (from the US) for each part/component in order to be able to use that article in maintenance or alteration activities (there is an exception for parts recognized as standard parts under the bilateral agreement).
The problem is that there are many parts that simply do not get those documents. These are often the least safety-sensitive parts in the system, so they are the parts that shouldn’t be the subject of overly-much bureaucracy (in an ideal society). But under new documentation standards, these parts are exactly the ones that could hold-up an overhaul or other major MRO activity.
In the US, it is the responsibility of the installing repair station to assess the parts and find that they are airworthy at the time of installation. This can be accomplished in reliance on paperwork or in reliance on the results of other investigation designed to assess the airworthiness of the part. In the EU, a ‘safety valve’ in the regulations allows parts without necessary documentation to be described as unserviceable, accepted and segregated, and then inspected to confirm their serviceability.
Recent revisions to the FAA-EASA Maintenance Annex Guidance (MAG) created a new emphasis on 8130-3 tags. The plain language of the MAG closes the safety valve of the EU regulations. Many FAA inspectors have required repair stations in the US to adopt receiving requirements that only permit receipt of aircraft parts with 8130-3, EASA Form One or TCCA Form One. And repair stations are starting to recognize that they accept more minor parts than they realized without 8130-3 tags. Parts with traditional manufacturer’s certificates of conformity (for example) are excluded from the MAG guidance!
There are several activities that mitigate the effects of the agreement.
Notice
One of these steps is to issue a Notice that reopens the safety valve on a temporary basis (until August 26, 2017). This means that today, repair stations are permitted to accept parts without Form One or 8130-3, inspect them, and then use them if the part is in satisfactory condition. The temporary nature of this Notice causes some concern, but it provides more time to develop more permanent solutions.
What does the inspection consist of? There is an answer available! The Aeronautical Repair Stations Association (ARSA) has designed a comprehensive inspection procedure for assessing the airworthiness of new parts. They call it ‘E100’ and the procedure has been approved by both EASA and the FAA. The E100 procedure is available to members
of ARSA.
DAR-56 Currently
The FAA has also worked with the Aviation Suppliers Association to create the DAR-56 program. This is a limited program that allows employees of AC 00-56B accredited distributors to obtain DAR privileges to tag certain items in existing inventory. The temporary ability to obtain 8130-3 tags through the DAR-56 program permits some existing inventories of good parts to be tagged in order to meet the new standards created by the Maintenance Annex Guidance.
The program creates a new function code 56 (because of the association with AC 00-56). This is a limited function code for employees of accredited distributors that permits issue of 8130-3 tags for parts with certain types of clear evidence of production under FAA production approval.
An applicant for the DAR-56 program must meet minimum qualifications, including age, employment (must be employed at an FAA-accredited distributor), independence of action, experience and training.