The concern sheet
Text extracted from the PDF.
Airworthiness Concern Sheet
Adam Neubauer Aerospace Engineer, Airframes Aircraft Certification Office, ACE-118W 1801 Airport Road Wichita, KS 67209 Phone: 316-946-4156 Adam.Neubauer@faa.gov Make, Model, Series, Serial No.:
Cessna models 401, 401A, 401B, 402, 402A, 402B (all serial numbers) Reason for Airworthiness Concern: Field reports of cracking in the auxiliary spar of model 402 aircraft have raised concern over the integrity of the auxiliary spar and main landing gear attachment.
Date: December 23, 2008 FAA Description of Airworthiness Concern (Who, What, Where, When, How? Attachments: RA and appropriate data) The FAA has recently received reports of field repairs to model 401, and 402 aircraft due to cracked auxiliary spar webs in the main landing gear bay area. The areas of concern, specifically, are the forward outboard inspection hole and landing gear wire hole in the auxiliary spar web. Cracks exceeding one inch were found radiating in several directions from each hole. The cracking was also found to be in close proximity to the main landing gear trunnion fitting on the auxiliary spar.
The main concern of the spar web cracking is that it may cause main landing gear failure during normal landing. Cessna has released Service Bulletin MEB08-8 to provide instructions for inspecting the auxiliary spars along with compliance times.
Request for Information (Proposed Alternate Inspection/Repair Procedures, Cost Impact, Etc. Note: Any comments or replies to the FAA need to be as specific as possible. Please provide specific examples to illustrate your comments/concerns.):
The FAA is requesting information from owners/operators of these aircraft in regard to inspection and repair of the auxiliary spar web. The FAA with Cessna’s agreement believes the only means of repairing the aircraft is by replacing any cracked auxiliary spar webs. If there are any comments or concerns please address them to the listed person of contact.
Attachments: *SDR(s) *A/IDS *SL(s) *SAIB *FAASR/*NTSBSR *AD *AMOC *RA
Notification: FAA *AOPA *EAA Type Club *TC Holder O t h e r :
Response Requested 1/23/2009: Emergency (10 days) Alert (30 days) Information (90 days) (Space Bar Adds “X” to Check Boxes) This Airworthiness Concern Sheet (ACS) is intended as a means for FAA Aviation Safety Engineers to coordinate airworthiness concerns with aircraft owner/operators through associations and type clubs. At this time, the FAA has not made a determination on what type of corrective action (if any) should be taken. The resolution of this airworthiness concern could involve an AD action or an SAIB, or the FAA could determine that no action is needed at this time. The FAA’s final determination will depend in part on the information received in response to this ACS.
The FAA endorses dissemination of this technical information to all manufacturers and requests association and type clubs comments.