Mutual Acceptance of European and US TSOA Components is on the Horizon
July 1, 2015 Leave a comment
The US and Europe are investigating how to accomplish mutual acceptance of TSOAs and ETSOAs. This could be a huge advance for the aviation community, that could save both industry and government resources. It also would be great for US parts distributors handling TSOA articles, because it would make it easier to sell these articles into both markets.
The current US-EU Bilateral Airworthiness Safety Agreement (BASA) Technical Implementation Procedures (TIP) allows the FAA and EASA to each issue a TSOA/ETSOA in reliance on certain assurances by the other authority, following certain validation processes by the second authority. The way that it works is that an authorization holder on one side of the Atlantic applies through its own airworthiness authority for the corollary approval on the other side of the Atlantic. The application is reviewed by the first airworthiness authority and then forwarded to the second authority for validation. Once the validation is granted, the article would be marked for both approvals.
But what if you didn’t need two approvals and two markings? What if you could get one authorization from one authority and it was good for sales into both jurisdictions (US and EU)?
The authorities have announced a plan to mutually accept technical standard order articles from the other jurisdiction. Under this plan the validation process would no longer be necessary (saving both applicant and authority resources). This is a sign that the FAA and EASA have progressed to a point of mutual trust in the TSO authorization process.
The mutual acceptance will not happen overnight. It is part of a lengthy process that began with TSO-ETSO harmonization, and that has involved significant coordination among the authorities. But once it is complete it means that receiving inspectors and installers will have to get used to the idea that approved TSO parts are coming from both the US and Europe, without the intermediate step of validation.
Updates to Lithium Battery TSOs Available for Comment
January 24, 2018 by Ryan Aggergaard Leave a comment
The FAA has issued two new draft TSOs related to lithium batteries. Draft TSO-C142b Non-Rechargeable Lithium Cells and Batteries, and Draft TSO-C179b Rechargeable Lithium Batteries and Battery Systems, each inform applicants for TSOAs or LODAs of the minimum performance standards articles must meet in order to receive approval and identification with the applicable TSO marking.
These TSOs will cancel the old versions of the TSOs (C142a and C179a) six months after the effective date of the new revisions. After that point, all applications for TSOA or LODA must be made under the new TSO revision. However, the draft TSOs make clear that articles “approved under a previous TSOA may still be manufactured under the provisions of its original approval.”
ASA has reviewed the draft revision TSOs and they do not appear revoke or amend already-approved TSOAs. This means older equipment manufactured to the old TSOs under previously issued TSOAs remain usable, which should give distributors with articles manufactured in accordance with the old TSOs in their inventory a measure of comfort in the face of the revised standards.
If you think these draft TSOs warrant comment we would love to hear from you. Email ryan@washingtionaviation.com with your feedback. Comments are due January 31, 2018 so we need to hear from you before then.
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