The FAA has published a draft revision to the data approval advisory circular. This draft revision is open for comment.
When distributors have aircraft parts in need of repair, major repairs must be based on approved data. The data approval process is the subject of this revised guidance.
This advisory circular describes a standardized procedure for requesting approval of technical data associated with major alterations or major repairs for certificated products. It also provides information that can help distinguish whether a proposed repair or alteration requires a field approval, and explains how to obtain such an approval (including a field approval checklist).
One major change to this draft document is that it seems to eliminate the “installation approval.” The original version of this guidance anticipated two types of approvals – a “data approval” in which data was approved before the work was accomplished, and an “installation approval,” in which the FAA inspected an installation after it was accomplished and approved the installation based on the configuration. This should not affect distributors directly, but it may affect the customers of distributors (particularly repair stations performing installations on general aviation aircraft).
Comments may be delivered to the FAA at:
Briona Brown-Calhoun
1625 K St. NW
Suite 300
Washington DC, 20006
Or you can email comments to Briona.CTR.Brown-Calhoun@faa.gov.
Please share your comments with ASA so we can be sure that any comments we file are consistent with those of our membership.