AIR-10-175-E November 30, 2010 Exemption No. 10170 Regulatory Docket No. FAA-2010-0200

Mr. Cliff Herring

712 E Roseboro Street

P.O. Box 94 Roseboro, NC 28385

Dear Mr. Herring:

This letter is to inform you that we have denied your petition for exemption. It transmits our decision and explains its basis.

The Basis for Our Decision

By letter dated February 24, 2010, and March 17, 2010, you petitioned the Federal Aviation

Adm inistration (FAA) for an exemption from § 21.191(i)(1) of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) to the extent necessary to allow you to have your Buckeye Powered parachute (N7003J) airworthiness certificate amended to remove the training exemption and convert the expiration date to unlimited expiry.

The FAA has determined that good cause exists for not publishing a summary of the petition

in the Federal Register because the requested exemption would not set a precedent, and any delay in acting on this petition would be detrimental to you.

The FAA recently issued a denial of exemption in circumstances similar in all material respects to those presented in your petition. In Denial of Exemption No. 10071 (copy enclosed), the FAA found that a grant of exemption would not be in the public interest, and the petitioner has not shown how an exemption would not adversely affect safety.

The final rule

, Certification of Aircraft and Airmen for the Operation of Light-Sport Aircraft, which added § 21.191(i)(1), established a deadline for the issuance of experimental certificates to operate a light-sport aircraft (Docket No. FAA-2001-11133, 69 FR 44772, July2

27, 2004). The rule states that the FAA will not issue an experimental certificate under § 21.191(i)(1) after January 31, 2008.

You indicate in your petition that you recently b ecame aware that the airworthiness certificate for your aircraft had an expiration date of January 31, 2010. Section 21.191(i)(1) applies only to those aircraft that have never been issued a U.S. or foreign airworthiness certificate. Until the expiration of that airworthiness certificate, an applicant could have applied to change the expiration date at any time under the provisions of § 21.177. If the applicant allowed the airworthiness certificate to expire without taki ng action to extend its life, that airworthiness certificate is now void. The FAA no longer gran ts experimental certificates for light-sport aircraft under § 21.191(i)(1).

The intent of § 21.191(i)(1) was to allow an adequate number of aircraft and instructors to conduct light–sport pilot training for the “transitioning” community. In this petition for exemption, you state your aircraft is not being used as a training parachute.

Having reviewed your reasons for requesting an exemption, I find that—

 they don’t differ materially from those presented by the petitioner in the enclosed denial of exemption;

 the reasons stated by the FAA for denying the enclosed exemption also apply to the situation you present; and

 a grant of exemption wouldn’t be in the public interest.

Our Decision

Under the authority contained in 49 U.S.C. 40113 and 44701, which the FAA Adm inistrator has delegated to me, I hereby deny your petition for an exemption from 14 CFR 21.191(i)(1).

Sincerely,

/s/

Kalene C. Yanamura Acting Director, Aircraft Certification Services

Enclosure