Squawk Box

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

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The NTSB has recommended that initial and repetitive non-destructive inspections be accomplished on main landing gear spring struts of Cessna tailwheel airplanes.

These recommendations stem from an investigation of an accident in which the main gear spring failed at the upper axle attachment to the spring strut. This particular spring strut underwent major repair for previous damage prior to this accident.

FAA Service Difficulty Reports indicate that failures can occur in the gear spring struts at the axle attachment. Generally, such failures occur from corr…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

Pilots of piston-powered twins know of the need to feather the prop on a dead engine, but occasionally the task does not get accomplished – sometimes through human error, sometimes through mechanical blockages.

In a recent accident, the pilot encountered a blocked propeller that could not be feathered.

The FAA began investigating the potential for additional accidents of a similar nature involving a propeller that could not be feathered either with or without engine rotation. In most pilot operating handbooks and Aircraft Flight Manuals, there are warnings of the…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

The FAA has issued a special airworthiness information bulletin in a continuing attempt to get owners of Beech prop airplanes to use proper gust lock procedures.

Numerous incidents and accidents have resulted from the failure of a pilot to remove the flight control gust lock prior to attempting to take off. Many involved the use of a makeshift gust lock, including such things as a common bolt or nail inserted through the holes in the control column provided by the manufacturer.

Obviously, this tactic did not provide the pilot with any kind of reminder that a gust…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

Three days after the FAA issued an airworthiness directive on the Cirrus Design emergency parachute, the first parachute deployed in actual emergency conditions failed to fire and the SR-20 crashed. The pilot and passenger were not injured.

The FAA published AD 2002-05-05 on March 13, with an effective date of March 19. The AD requires the owners of some SR-20s and SR-26s to avoid flying at night or in IMC until installing a clamp on the cable that activates the parachutes rocket – with the installation due within 10 flight hours.

The accident airplane belonged…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

The FAA reported that there have been numerous instances of structural corrosion of the wing attachment fitting on virtually all Cessna single-engine airplanes.

The agency recommends an inspection to determine the airworthiness of the parts. Mechanics should remove the top and bottom fairings covering the wing/fuselage attachments and inspect the spar block, the center wing spar and the wing spar assembly for corrosion.

The areas of concern for the Cessnas indicated are the spar block, spar channels and the upper end of the doorposts. Any evidence of corrosion in…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

The FAA is looking into a number of reports and safety recommendations that have arisen as a result of lines behind the instrument panel leaking flammable fluid. The problems are encountered in a variety of models, from old models of aircraft currently in production to out-of-production vintage models to current production models.

Part 23 certification rules require a means to minimize the ignition and resultant hazard of ignition associated with the installation of flammable fluid systems. However, many older models do not have to comply with current Part 23 rules….

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view February ADs.

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The FAA is reminding owners of retractable-gear Cessna single-engine airplanes of problems that may arise in the main landing gear actuators of retractable-gear 172s, 182s and all 210s.

Cessna service bulletin SEB01-2 specifies inspections, modifications and replacements that should be made to maintain the integrity of the actuator housings. The NTSB has issued two Safety Recommendations on this issue, but the FAA has so far declined to make the service bulletin into an AD.

Aero…