[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 70 (Friday, April 11, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20295-20297]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-08139]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee--Transport Airplane
Performance and Handling Characteristics--Continuing a Task
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of phase 2 task assignment for the Aviation Rulemaking
Advisory Committee (ARAC).
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SUMMARY: The FAA assigned the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee
(ARAC) a new phase 2 task to provide recommendations regarding
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new or updated standards in the highest priority topic areas for
airplane performance and handling characteristics. This task addresses
the Flight Test Harmonization Working Group's recent recommendations.
This notice informs the public of phase 2 ARAC activity and does not
solicit membership for the existing Flight Test Harmonization Working
Group (FTHWG).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joe Jacobsen, Airplane & Flight Crew
Interface Branch, ANM-111, Transport Airplane Directorate, Federal
Aviation Administration, 1601 Lind Avenue SW., Renton, Washington
98057-3356; telephone 425-227-2011, facsimile 425-227-1149; email
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
ARAC Acceptance of Task
As a result of the March 20, 2014, ARAC meeting, the FAA has
assigned and ARAC has accepted this task and will use the existing
FTHWG. The FTHWG will serve as staff to ARAC and provide advice and
recommendations on the assigned task. ARAC will review and approve the
recommendation report that will be sent to the FAA.
Background
The FAA established ARAC to provide advice and recommendations to
the FAA Administrator, through the Associate Administrator of Aviation
Safety, on the FAA's rulemaking activities. ARAC's objectives are to
improve the development of the FAA's regulations by providing
information, advice, and recommendations related to aviation issues.
The FTHWG will provide advice and recommendations to ARAC on new
and updated standards for the highest priority topic areas for airplane
performance and handling characteristics.
In March 2013, the FAA tasked ARAC to provide advice and
recommendations in prioritizing potential topic areas for the
development of new or revised standards for airplane performance and
handling characteristics in new transport category airplanes. The
output of that task is now complete and is the basis for this new task.
The highest priority topic areas were determined to be new or updated
standards for fly-by-wire (FBW) flight controls, wet runway stopping
performance, runway excursion hazard classification, stall speed in
ground effect, steep approach, flight test methods used to determine
maximum tailwind and crosswind capability, susceptibility to pilot-
induced oscillations/airplane-pilot coupling (PIO/APC), and guidance
material for assessing handling qualities. This task will be to develop
these high priority topic areas.
The Task
The working group should develop recommended standards in the
following topic areas. If there are disagreements within the working
group, these should be documented, including the reasons for the
disagreement and rationale from each party. The following subject areas
should be worked upon within this task:
1. Fly-by-wire Flight Controls. Regulatory requirements and
associated guidance material for airworthiness certification of
airplane designs using fly-by-wire technology to remove the need for
longstanding, repetitively-used fly-by-wire special conditions.
Specific areas include:
a. Applicability/adaptation of Amendment 25-121 airplane
performance and handling characteristics in icing conditions
requirements,
b. Lateral/directional/longitudinal stability,
c. Out of trim requirements,
d. Side stick controls, and
e. Flight envelope protection.
2. Takeoff and Landing Performance. Regulatory requirements and
associated guidance material for airworthiness certification in the
following areas listed below. (Note: This topic area excludes items
addressed by the Takeoff and Landing Performance Assessment Aviation
Rulemaking Committee.)
a. Flight test methods used to determine maximum tailwind and
crosswind capability. For crosswind testing, better define intended
operational use of demonstrated maximum steady and gusting crosswind
performance.
b. Wet runway stopping performance. Recent landing overruns on wet
runways have raised questions regarding current wet runway stopping
performance requirements and methods. Analyses indicate that the
braking coefficient of friction in each case was significantly lower
than expected for a wet runway (i.e., lower than the level specified in
FAA regulations). Consideration should also be given to the scheduling
of landing performance on wet porous friction course and grooved runway
surfaces. Recommendations may include the need for additional data
gathering, analysis, and possible rulemaking.
c. Steep approach landing performance. Current airplane
certification standards are not harmonized among the U.S., Canadian,
Brazilian, and European airworthiness authorities.
d. Guidance material addressing the adverse effects on stall speed
in ground effect.
e. Runway excursion hazard classification. Current safety
assessments are not harmonized among the U.S., Canadian, Brazilian, and
European airworthiness authorities.
3. Handling Characteristics. Guidance material for airworthiness
certification in the following areas:
a. Guidance material for assessing handling qualities. Current
Advisory Circular 25-7, ``Flight Test Guide for Certification of
Transport Category Airplanes,'' provides an FAA Handling Quality Rating
Method that is intended to provide a systematic way of determining
appropriate minimum handling qualities requirements and evaluating
those handling qualities for-conditions affecting an airplane's flying
qualities. The FAA handling quality rating system is not universally
accepted within industry, nor is it accepted by EASA.
b. Guidance for assessing susceptibility to pilot-induced
oscillations/airplane-pilot coupling (PIO/APC). Guidance provided in
Advisory Circular 25-7C for evaluating PIO/APC is also not well
accepted by airplane manufacturers, is not harmonized with EASA, and
has been superseded to some extent in recent certification programs.
Modified guidance is needed to both simplify and standardize the
methods for evaluating an airplane's susceptibility to PIO/APC.
Schedule
The recommendation report must be submitted to the FAA for review
and acceptance no later than 3 years from the publication date of this
tasking. The FAA expects to publish additional ARAC taskings for
follow-on phases to develop other topic areas which were lower in
priority.
Working Group Activity
The FTHWG must comply with the procedures adopted by ARAC. As part
of the procedures, the working group must:
1. Conduct a review and analysis of the assigned task and any other
related materials or documents.
2. Draft and submit a work plan for completion of the task,
including the rationale supporting such a plan, for consideration by
the Transport Airplane and Engine (TAE) Subcommittee.
3. Provide a status report at each TAE Subcommittee meeting.
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4. Draft and submit the recommendation report based on the review
and analysis of the assigned tasks.
5. Present the recommendation report at the TAE Subcommittee
meeting.
Participation in the Working Group
The existing FTHGW is comprised of technical experts having an
interest in the assigned task. A working group member need not be a
representative or a member of the full committee. In accordance with
the June 18, 2010, memorandum entitled ``Lobbyists on Agency Boards and
Commissions,'' members are not federally registered lobbyists, who are
subject to the registration and reporting requirements of the Lobbying
Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA) as amended, 2 U.S.C. 1603, 1604, and 1605,
at the time of appointment or reappointment to an advisory committee,
and has not served in such a role for three consecutive quarters prior
to appointment. (For further information see the Office of Management
and Budget final guidance on appointment of lobbyists to federal boards
and commissions (76 FR 61756, October 5, 2011).
All existing FTHWG members who wish to participate in this task
must actively participate by attending all meetings, and providing
written comments when requested to do so. Each member must devote the
resources necessary to support the working group in meeting any
assigned deadlines. Each member must keep their management chain, and
those they may represent, advised of working group activities and
decisions to ensure the proposed technical solutions do not conflict
with their sponsoring organization's position when the subject is
presented to ARAC for approval. Once the FTHWG has begun deliberations,
members will not be added or substituted without the approval of the
FAA and the Working Group Chair.
The Secretary of Transportation determined the formation and use of
ARAC is necessary and in the public interest in connection with the
performance of duties imposed on the FAA by law.
ARAC meetings are open to the public. However, meetings of the
FTHWG are not open to the public, except to the extent individuals with
an interest and expertise are selected to participate. The FAA will
make no public announcement of FTHWG meetings.
Issued in Washington, DC, on April 8, 2014.
Lirio Liu,
Designated Federal Officer, Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee.
[FR Doc. 2014-08139 Filed 4-10-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P