U,S,Department

of Transportation

Federal Aviation

Administration

April 20, 2010

Mr. Karl Scuring

Managing Director

The Leading Edge Group, LLC

3425 Carillon Point

Kirkland, WA 98033

Dear Mr. Seuring:

Transport Airplane Directorate

1601 Lind Avenue, SW.

Renton, Washington 98057-3356

We have received your petition postings to the Federal Docket Management System, dated

variously in March 2010, petitioning for exemption regarding auxiliary fuel-system

installations on a variety of airplane makes and models. Your petitions for exemption arc

entered into the docket numbers listed below.

Federal Tank Airplane Model FAA Docket No. Docket STC No. Serial Nos. Configuration post date

DC8-62 FAA-2010-0309 3/5/2010 SA936NE

18990,19148, 1,2, & 3

19260,19261,

8727-100 FAA-2010-0330 3/25/2010 SA62NE 19262,19318,

19394,19535 &

20046

8737-500 FAA-2010-0331 3/25/2010 ST01337NY-D

8737-400 FAA-2010-0332 3/25/2010 SA725NE

8727-200 FAA-2010-0334 3/25/2010 SA450NE

DC9-33 FAA-201 0-0335 3/25/2010 ST00605NY

21113,20641,

21068,21474,

8727-200 FAA-2010-0337 3/25/2010 SA496NE 21595,21824,

21948,22536,

22537 & 22359

8727-200 FAA-2010-0338 3/25/2010 SA530NE

8727-200 FAA-2010.-Q341 3/25f2010 SA84NE

8727-100/200 FAA-2010.-Q344 3/2512010 SA387NE 18326,18800 &

22043

8737-300 FAA-2010.-Q348 3/25/2010 SA714NE 24095

8737-200 FAA-2010.-Q349 3/2512010 SA1078NE
2

Federal Tank Airplane Model FAA Docket No. Docket STC No. Serial Nos. Configuration post date

8737-500 FAA-2010-0351 3/25/2010 STOOO40NY

8727-100 FAA-2010-0352 3/25/2010 STOO466NY 19254 & 20327

727-100 I FAM010·0422 4/14/2010 SA392NE 20489

737-200 FAA-2010-0420 4/14/2010 SA83NE 22431 & 22628

737-300 FAA-2010-0419 4/14/2010 SA542NE 27924

737-269 FAA-201 0-0421 4/14/2010 SA1265NE 21206

Your petitions request reli ef from Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 26,

section 26.47(c) & (e)(2), to allow the installation of auxiliary fuel systems in airplanes

customized for private and/or head-of-state service.

Your petitions have been added to public docket numbers indicated in the table above.

However, before we begin processing your petitions, we require more information.

Please address all sub-parts of 14 CFR 11.81 not addressed in many of your initial petition

submissions, particularly:

(d) The reasons why granting your request would be in the public interest; that is,

how it would benefit the public as a whole;

(e) The reasons why granting the exemption would not adversely affect safety, or

how the exemption would provide a level of safety at least equal to that provided by

the rule from which you seek the exemption;

(f) A summary we can publish in the Federal Register, stating:

(1) The rule from \vhich you seek the exemption; and

(2) A brief description of the nature of the exemption you seek;

(g) Any additional infonllation, views or arguments available to support your

request; and

(h) If you want to exercise the privileges of your exemption outside the United

States, the reason why you need to do so.

Section 26.4 7 contains requirements for developing damage-tolerance data for alterations

and repairs to alterations. Section 26.49 requires a compl1ance plan for § 26.47. The data

required by these part 26 regulations are necessary to support operator compliance with the

Aging Airplane Safety Final Rule (AASFR).

For the AASFR, 14 CFR 121.1109 and 129.109 state Ihat, after December 20, 2010, a

certificate holder operating under parts 121 and 129, respectively, may not operate an

airplane unless:

... the certificate holder's maintenance program for the airplane includes FAAapproved damage tolerance inspections (DTI) and procedures for airplane structure

susceptible to fatigue cracking that could contribute to catastrophic failure and a
3

means for addressing the adverse effects repairs, altcrations, and modifications may

have on fatigue critical structure and on damage tolerance inspections.

For operators to fully comply with these requirements, it is necessary for design approval

holders (DAH) to fulfill the Damage Tolerance Data for Repairs and Alterations

requirements of §§ 26.43, 26.45, 26.47, and 26.49.

In the case of both domestic and foreign government and commercial operators, the FAA

must see evidence such as written notification that the operators do not intend to adopt the

maintenance requirements specified in § 121.1109. We suggest that the DAH also prc-sent its

rationale for why it believes these affected airplanes, and those airplanes currently operated

unde:r parts other than 121 or 129. are unlikely (based on the age and configuration of the

aill'lane and any other information the DAH believes to be relevant) to return to part 121 or

129 operations.

Consider requesting exemption from both §§ 26.47 and 26.49, or explain why you seek

exemption only from § 26.47(c) and (e)(2). '

For an example of a comprehensive petition submission, refer to docket no. F AA-2009-0040

in www.regulations.gov.

Note that some of the petitions you submitted to the Federal Docket (e.g., docket nos. FAA2010-0341, FAA-20 10-0348, etc.) are incomplete, apparently having been truncated due to

transcription into the 2000-character-limited "Type Comment" field of the "Submit a

Comment" section in regulations.gov. For file submissions in response to this infom1ation

request, please see the attached document, "How to Upload Information Relevant to an

Existing Docket Number in Regulations.gov."

To expedite your exemption request, and rather than submitting 18 revised petitions,

consider grouping all the STCs requiring exemption from § 26.47 (and § 26.49 if you choose

to request exemption from that also) into one petition, using the table format provided in this

letter. As part of your reply, please complete the empty cells (serial nos., tank

configurations) in the above table. You may upload your condensed request to

www.regulations.gov.using the table form provided above, to docket number F AA-20 10-

0309 per the process referenced in the previous paragraph.

We will advise you of our final decision on your petition as soon as possible, and after

receiving the additional infonnation. We will hold the docket open for 30 days awaiting this

infOlmatiol1. Ifwe do not receive a response in 30 days we will close the docket. If you have

questions in the meantime, you may call Ian Won at (425) 227-2145, e-mail

ian.won@faa.gov.

Sincerely,

Franklin Tiangsing

Manager, Airframe and Cabin Safety Branch

Transport Standards Staff

Transport Airplane Directorate, Aircraft Certification Service
How to Upload Information Relevant to an Existing

Docket Number in Regulations.gov

1. Go to http://wv,rv,r.rcQuiations.gov.

2. Enter the docket number in the Enter Keyword or ID field. A docket number

typically begins with FAA~.See Figure l.

3. Click the Search button.

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4. In the Results page, click the first visible Submit a Comment balloon in the list

of results. See Figure 2.

NOTE: Ifa Submit a Comment balloon does not appear, contact [???].

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Figure 2: Search-results page.

5. in the Upload page (Figure 3), complete items 1,2, and 3A - 3C.

NOTE: Type a brief comment, in the Comment field, describing the nature of the file to

be uploaded.
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Figure 3: Upload page.

6. After you click the Submit button, print the resulting Submit a Comment

tracking page to keep a record of your conunent's tracking number, for reference.

NOTE: Your uploaded file should appear in regulations.gov, in the docket to which it is

uploaded, within a few days, pending approval. The Federal Register manages file

uploads to maintain an accurate system and eliminate irrelevant submi;:;sions.