Owner Produced Parts
by Don Dodge, FAA Airworthiness Safety
Program Manager
Reprinted with permission of FAA Aviation News
The
article was written to address the producing of parts by owner and
operators. The article is not intended to imply that maintenance
technicians or repair stations may not be able to manufacture parts in
the course of accomplishing repairs or alterations. That in itself is
another topic for another day.
The
sun was setting on another hot August afternoon when the South
Carolina Flight Standards District Office received the call from a
local airport manager notifying the office that a Piper Cherokee had
suffered a nose gear collapse during taxi operations. It was reported
that the Cherokee suffered minor damage; the damage included a prop
strike and lower cowling abrasion.
Early
the next morning, the inspector assigned to investigate the incident
picked up the preliminary information with one hand and his first cup
of coffee with the other. As the aroma and warm flavor of his coffee
cleared the night's cobwebs from his mind, he eyeballed the incident
information. As he read, he thought: "Let's see, Cherokee 140, taxi,
nose gear collapse, prop, cowling, etc., etc.'wait a minute, Cherokee
140? How can a 140's nose gear collapse during taxi operations and
cause this kind of damage? An Arrow, maybe, but a 140?"
Years
of experience told the inspector there was a lot more to this story
than had been reported. So on that hot, humid, August morning, he
headed for the airport. His investigation uncovered a classic case of
an aircraft owner making parts and doing everything wrong. The issues
surrounding manufacturing approved parts, who can produce these parts,
what makes a part approved or unapproved, all came up in the
investigation.
Time
and again aircraft owners and maintenance technicians are pressured
into making parts. Why do we do it? Why do we take on that liability?
Let's look at the facts.
The
average general aviation, piston single-engine aircraft is more than
32 years old; the average piston twin is more than 27 years old; and
the average turbo prop is 19 years old. The GA aircraft fleet was
never designed to last this long, and, when it comes to getting
replacement parts to maintain these aircraft, here are a few of the
problems we all face.
-
The aircraft is an orphan. No one even knows who owns
the Type Certificate.
-
There is no technical support. If you ask for
technical assistance, you are often told that no one really knows
much about the aircraft anymore. The people who were around when the
aircraft was built are all retired or dead.
-
Economy of scale forces aircraft manufacturers to
build parts in quantities that make economic sense for the
manufacturer. What this means is that parts are available, in about
six or eight months!
-
The price of parts is a subject that we aren't even
going to talk about.
Sitting in the middle, between a tired broken airplane, its owner, and
all these parts problems, is the maintenance technician. Technicians,
by their nature, are "can do" people. They live by the motto 'the
difficult we do immediately; the impossible just takes a bit longer.'
But when it comes to making parts, this "can do" philosophy can really
get them in trouble.
Let's
examine the rules governing the general privileges and limitations of
a maintenance technician (or certificated mechanic as stated in FAR
'65.81), and the rule governing a repair station's privileges of
certificates (FAR '145.51). Under both rules, a technician or repair
station may perform maintenance, preventative maintenance, and
alterations on an aircraft, or appliances for which he is rated.
Nowhere in either rule does it say that the maintenance technician or
repair station can produce new parts! However, the maintenance
regulations allow the manufacture of parts for repair (see number 11
in next question.)
A
maintenance tech or repair station can make patch plates,
reinforcement splices, and incorporate them into the repair of a part.
But again, a maintenance technician cannot make a brand new part for
sale.
Here
are some answers to those earlier questions:
Question:
Who
can make a brand new part?
Answer: FAA Advisory Circular 21-29, Detecting And Reporting
Suspected Unapproved Parts, states that there are eleven ways that a
new part can be made. They are:
1. Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA)
2.
Technical Standard Order (TSO)
3.
Type Certificate (TC) or Supplemental Type Certificate (STC)
4.
TC with an Approved Production Inspection System (APIS)
5.
Production Certificate (PC)
6.
Bilateral Agreement
7.
Any method acceptable to the Administrator.
8.
Standard Parts (nuts and bolts)
9.
Owner Produced Parts
10.
Parts produced per STC instructions as part of an STC modification.
11.
Fabricated by a qualified person in the course of a repair for the
purpose of returning a TC product to service (which is not for sale
as a separate part) under part 43.
All
this sounds like bureaucratic alphabet soup, but, of all the ways
listed, "Owner Produced Parts" is the one most misunderstood. FAR
'21.303(b)2 makes a provision for an aircraft owner or operator to
produce parts for maintaining or altering his or her own product.
Under this provision, the Owner Produced Part can only be installed in
an aircraft owned or operated by that person and the Owner Produced
Part cannot be produced for sale to others.
Question:
How is it that an aircraft owner can produce a part, but a skilled
maintenance technician can't?
Answer: The responsibility follows the money. Most rules are
written so the responsibility for an action is placed with the person
who has the economic authority to make it happen (The Golden Rule).
Question:
How does
this owner-produced rule work? Does the owner have to make the part
himself?
Answer: The answers can be found in a FAA Memorandum dated
August 5, 1993, in which the assistant Chief Counsel for Regulation
makes the following interpretation:
-
A part does not have to be solely produced by the
owner to be considered an Owner Produced Part.
-
The aircraft owner must participate in the
manufacture of the part in at least one of five
ways for it to be considered an Owner Produced Part:
1. The owner provides the manufacturer of the part with the design
or performance data.
2. The owner provides the manufacturer of the part with the
materials.
3. The owner provides the manufacturer with fabrication processes or
assembly methods.
4. The owner provides the manufacturer of the part with quality
control procedures.
5. The owner personally supervises the manufacture of the new part.
As
anyone can see, the discriminators for determining owner participation
in a new part's manufacture are very specific in the interpretation.
Attachment (A) to the 1993 Memorandum clearly stipulates that the FAA
would not construe the ordering of a part as participating in
controlling the design, manufacture, or quality of a part. The key
point is that the aircraft owner must participate in the part's
manufacture.
Question:
If the part is owner produced, is it also a FAA approved part? Can I
install it in the owner's aircraft?
Answer: If the Owner Produced Part has all
the characteristics of an approved part, is only installed on the
owner's aircraft, and is not for sale, it would be considered a FAA
approved part.
There are eleven
ways (as listed earlier) to produce an FAA approved part. It doesn't
matter if a part is produced under the authority of a PMA, TC, or
owner produced, it must have all the characteristics of an approved
part. The four characteristics of an approved part are:
1. The part must be properly designed. A properly designed part
means that the part's design is FAA approved. Depending on the
complexity of the part, a FAA approved design will have the following
elements:
-
Drawings, specifications to define the part's
configuration and design features.
Information on dimensions, materials, and processes
necessary to define the structural strength of the product.
-
Airworthiness limitations and instructions for
continued airworthiness.
Any other data necessary to allow by comparison, the determination
of airworthiness of later products of the same type.
2. The part must
be produced to conform to the design.
A properly produced part means the part conforms to the FAA approved
design. Usually a properly produced part will have the following
characteristics:
-
The part complies with all applicable structural
requirements of its design.
-
The materials and products conform to the
specifications in the design.
-
The part conforms to the drawings in the design.
-
The manufacturing processes, construction, and
assembly of the part conform to those specified in the design.
3.
The part's production should be properly documented.
A properly documented part provides evidence that the part was
produced under an FAA approval and memorializes the production of the
part.
4.
The part must be properly maintained.
A properly maintained part means that the part is maintained in
accordance with the rules prescribed under FAR Part 43.
It is
relatively easy for a part to meet the requirements of the August 5,
1993, Memorandum and qualify as an Owner Produced Part. The four
characteristics of an approved part are like the four legs of a table
with all four legs "equally sharing" the burden of an approved part.
If one leg is missing, the table will fall over. In the same way, if
any of the four characteristics of an approved part is missing, then
the part may not be FAA approved.
A good example is
the case of the Cherokee 140 with the collapsed nose gear, mentioned
and shown in the beginning of this article. The investigation
determined the following:
-
The original factory nose strut lower tube was
pitted.
-
The aircraft owner had a strut tube locally
manufactured.
-
A technician who knew of the part's origin installed
the strut tube.
-
The strut tube failed during the first operation,
resulting in $7,000+ in damages.
Question:
Was
the strut-tube an Owner Produced Part?
Answer: Yes, legally it was an Owner
Produced Part. The aircraft owner did participate in the manufacture
of the part. The owner supplied the manufacturer a design for the
part. He did this by giving the manufacturer the old lower strut tube
and told him to duplicate it (Reverse engineer).
Question:
Was
this a FAA approved part?
Answer: No, the part was not approved
because the owner did not provide the manufacturer with an approved
design or its equivalent. The part was not approved because it did not
conform to the material specifications prescribed in the approved
design. The part failed during its first operation and didn't last
long enough for maintenance to be a factor.
Question:
Did
the part producer (aircraft owner) or the maintenance technician who
installed the strut-tube violate the FAR? Who should be held
accountable?
Answer: The answer is both! The maintenance
technician violated the rule the moment that he signed the maintenance
records and approved the aircraft to return to service with the
knowledge the part he installed was unapproved, that is he apparently
understood that the part was produced by the owner. The question he
should have asked the owner was "how the part was produced so as to
meet the performance rules of part 43.13 of the Federal Aviation
Regulations." The aircraft owner violated the rule when he knowingly
operated the aircraft with an unapproved and undocumented part
installed.
Question:
This
incident with the Cherokee 140 was wasteful, tragic, and dangerous. If
the aircraft owner wanted to make an Owner Produced Part, what should
he have done?
Answer:
-
The owner should have used the original manufacture's
prints and specifications (FAA approved design). It would have saved
him time, money, and maybe his life.
Reverse engineer to develop a design if you must, but
do your research and submit the resulting design to the FAA for
approval. Depending on the complexity of the part, reverse
engineering may result in a new design. This design is the aircraft
owner's, not the original manufacturer's, and is not automatically
FAA approved. The finished part must still meet the requirements of
the performance rules of section 43.13. Always contact your local
FSDO for guidance.
-
Produce the new part to conform to the approved
design. Nothing more, nothing less. Stronger is not always better.
-
The aircraft owner (part's producer) or the
technician who installs the part should document or memorialize the
production of the part in the aircraft records. It would be wise if
the installing technician requires the part producer (aircraft
owner) to memorialize the parts production in the aircraft records
with a statement worded in a similar form as the one below, on this
page.
After
the part producer memorializes its production, the installing
technician must make a maintenance record entry indicating that he or
she installed the part. After all, installing the Owner Produced Part
is a maintenance function. Aircraft owners can perform preventative
maintenance, but not maintenance.
Eliminating the
Confusion
A maintenance technician can repair a part, but
sometimes the distinction between repairing a part and producing a
brand new part is hard to determine. The circumstances surrounding the
repair, the part's complexity, availability of manufacturer's data,
and industry practices all are determining factors. For a lack of a
better term I call making this determination the "Test of
Reasonableness."
Example Scenario: An aircraft wing is damaged. The damaged parts
include a wing rib, a 24-inch stringer, and wing skin. The aircraft
Structural Repair Manual provides material specifications for the skin
and stringer. A new wing rib is purchased from the aircraft
manufacturer and the technician fabricates a stringer and wing skin
using the damaged parts as a template. The technician installs these
parts and repairs the wing in accordance with the manufacturer's
instructions.
Is this a repair or
did the technician produce a new part? The stringer and wing skin do
have a part number in the parts catalog for that aircraft, so let's
consider the following facts:
-
The material specifications were published and
readily available.
-
The parts were simple and the fabrication processes
for the parts involved common tools, skills, and standard industry
practices.
-
Templates for the reliable reproduction of the parts
were available (Design).
-
The parts were incorporated into a repair in
accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.
In
this case, the "Test of Reasonableness" would determine this to be
considered a repair, even though the technician did fabricate a
stringer and skin.
Reality Check
Maintenance technicians must face a cold hard fact.
Aircraft owners can make parts, but they cannot install them.
Installing Owner Produced Parts is a maintenance function and only
technicians can do that. That makes technicians the "gatekeepers" for
parts and guardians against the introduction of substandard and
unapproved parts into the fleet. Under this rule the responsibility is
the technician's to determine airworthiness before returning the
product to service. There is no one else to shift the burden of blame
to. The technician's name is on the blame line.
Owner Produced Parts
can be summarized as follows:
-
Under the Federal aviation regulations, aircraft
owners can produce a brand new part for their aircraft; technicians
and repair stations can't.
-
For a part to be considered "owner produced," the
owner must have participated in its manufacture in at least one of
the five ways prescribed in the 1993, Memorandum.
-
An Owner Produced Part must have all four
characteristics of an approved part before it is considered a FAA
approved part and eligible for installation.
-
Sometimes the distinction between producing a new
part and making a repair is hard to determine. When in doubt call
the local FSDO and ask for guidance.
-
Maintenance technicians are the gatekeepers for parts
entering service in the fleet. Technicians bear the lion's share of
the responsibility. The technician's name is on the blame line.
The
availability of parts is a constant problem with our aging general
aviation fleet. As time passes, Owner Produced Parts may be the only
alternative available for maintaining some of it. With the passage of
time, technicians are going to be increasingly forced to face the
challenge of determining the airworthiness of Owner Produced Parts.
There are five points summarized here. Remember the five and stay
alive!
Don Dodge is the Airworthiness Safety Program Manager at the South
Carolina FSDO
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