AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2017 - 90

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P&E

SAVVY MAINTENANCE

Part 91 operators are almost never required to comply
with such manufacturer-specified when-tos.
consumption by FAA employees, it makes
very useful reading for mechanics and aircraft owners as well. You can find it online
(search 8900.410 at http://fsims.faa.gov).
Here's the CliffsNotes version.
A manufacturer's maintenance guidance
comes in two different flavors: "how-tos"
and "when-tos." How-to guidance provides
the specific methods, techniques, and practices for performing a maintenance task,
and following that guidance is the responsibility of the mechanic doing the work.
When-to guidance states when or how
often a maintenance task is to be performed,
and responsibility for getting it done at the
proper intervals is the responsibility of the
aircraft owner. This how-to and when-to
guidance is communicated by the manufacturer in three ways: maintenance manuals
(MM), instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA), and service bulletins (SB).
Because compliance with how-to guidance is a mechanic responsibility, the rules
for doing so are in FAR Part 43 (which
speaks to mechanics):
§43.13 Performance rules (general).
(a) Each person performing maintenance, alteration, or preventive
maintenance on an aircraft, engine, propeller, or appliance shall use the methods,
techniques, and practices prescribed in
the current manufacturer's maintenance
manual or Instructions for Continued
Airworthiness prepared by its manufacturer, or other methods, techniques, and
practices acceptable to the Administrator,
except as noted in §43.16."
§43.16 Airworthiness limitations.
Each person performing an inspection or other maintenance specified in an
Airworthiness Limitations section of a
manufacturer's maintenance manual or
Instructions for Continued Airworthiness
shall perform the inspection or other maintenance in accordance with that section...
The first of these rules say that when
a mechanic performs maintenance on
your aircraft, he or she is required to follow the how-to guidance ("methods,
techniques, and practices") set forth in
90 | AOPA PILOT September 2017

the manufacturer's current maintenance
manual or instructions for continued airworthiness-or use an alternate procedure
that is "acceptable to the administrator."
The second rule says that if the
manufacturer's maintenance manual or instructions for continued
airworthiness contains a special section
titled "Airworthiness Limitations," then
the mechanic is required to follow any howto guidance located in that section to the
letter, and may not use alternate acceptable procedures. Note that recent-design
aircraft certified under Part 23 generally
have an airworthiness limitations section
in their maintenance manual, while legacy
aircraft certified under the older Civil Air
Regulations Part 3 generally do not. If you
own a Cirrus, Diamond, or Columbia, you
have to worry about airworthiness limitations, but if you own a Bonanza, Centurion,
Mooney, or Saratoga, you don't.
What if a mechanic wants to perform
a task in some other fashion than what the
manufacturer's guidance calls for? FAR
43.13(a) allows him to use an alternate
method so long as it's "acceptable to the
administrator." But what does that mean?
The best answer comes from FAA
Order 8900.1 Volume 6 Section 14
("Technical Data"), which makes it clear
that an alternate method may be "acceptable to the administrator" even if the FAA
has never seen it: "The how-to instructions do not need to have any specific
FAA acceptance or approval as long as the
person using them has a reasonable expectation that the FAA will find it acceptable
for the purpose for which it was created,
when and if the FAA reviews it."
The bottom line is that while most A&Ps
will perform work using the how-to instructions provided by the manufacturer, they are
not required by regulation to do so as long
as the alternative procedure they use is reasonable. The FAA would have the burden of
proof of showing the procedure to be unacceptable (e.g., noncompliant with some
regulation) before the FAA could violate
the mechanic. That almost never happens.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2017
