AFS-11-267-E 

 Exemption No. 10149A 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION 

WASHINGTON, DC 20591 

 

In the matter of the petition of 

 

LIDER SIGNATURE S/A Regulatory Docket No. FAA-2009-0249

 

for an exemption from § 145.103(b) 

of Title 14, Code of 

Federal Regulations 

 

GRANT OF EXEMPTION 

 By letter dated December 21, 2010, Ms. Cynthia C. E. de Oliveira, Maintenance Director, 

Lider Signature S/A (Lider), Rua Haroldo Paranhos, 400–Aeroporto de Congonhas, Sao 

Paulo, Brazil 04357-060, petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on behalf of 

Lider to reconsider its request for an exemption from § 145.103(b) of Title 14, Code of 

Federal Regulations (14 CFR), pursuant to § 11.101. Section 11.101 requires a showing of 

either: (a) A significant additional fact and the reason why it was not presented in the 

original petition; (b) That the FAA made an important factual error in its denial of the 

original petition; or (c) That the FAA did not correctly interpret a law, regulation, or 

precedent. The proposed exemption, if granted, would exempt Lider from having to provide 

an enclosed hangar by installing doors on its hangars in the facilities at Belo Horizonte and 

Sao Paulo, Brazil, to enclose the largest type and model of aircraft listed on its operations 

specifications. 

The petitioner requests relief from the following regulations:

Section 145.103(b) prescribes that “[a] certificated repair station with an airframe 

rating must provide suitable permanent housing to enclose the largest type and model 

of aircraft listed on its operations specifications.” 

The petitioner supports its request with the following information:

The petitioner states it has performed maintenance at its repair station on N-registered 
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fixed-wing aircraft since 1979 at its Sao Paulo Airport-Congonhas facility and at its satellite 

repair station at Belo Horizonte Airport-Pampulha since 1998. Each repair station has 

suitable permanent housing but lacks front doors in the hangars since they were built 

40 years ago. 

Lider states that a grant of exemption would not negatively affect safety because 

Brazil’s tropical climate has allowed Lider to perform maintenance in these hangars without 

affecting the quality of work performed. Both hangars have camera-monitored internal 

security systems, are patrolled by security personnel 24/7, and are completely covered by 

insurance. Also, the hangars are considerably larger than the largest aircraft for which Lider 

is rated by the FAA so aircraft could be placed far within, and away from, the hangar’s 

entrance. For example, the largest airplanes listed on Lider’s operations specifications are 

15.59 meters and 16.80 meters in length and its two hangars are 50.7 meters and 61.5 meters 

in length, respectively. The climatic conditions in Brazil where these hangars are located are 

such that Lider has performed aircraft maintenance for 40 years with no ill effects from 

environmental conditions. 

Lider states that it has explored options, including consultations with national and 

international suppliers, to further enclose its hangars. Suppliers in Brazil do not offer a 

product suitable for Lider’s hangar types, and international suppliers do not offer an 

alternative that is economically or logistically feasible. Lider states that granting this 

exemption would be in the public interest because it would allow Lider to continue 

operations under part 145 as a repair station and provide service to the public, especially for 

N-registered aircraft flying through Brazil. Lider is the only authorized Hawker Beechcraft 

service center in Brazil with high quality support for Hawker Beechcraft customers that fly 

over South America. Further, its main repair station is conveniently located at the Sao Paulo 

International Airport, an airport responsible for the majority of domestic and executive flight 

operations in Brazil. 

 A summary of the petition previously published in the Federal Register on July 9, 2009 

(74 FR 33015). No comments were received. 

The FAA’s analysis is as follows:

The FAA has reconsidered Lider’s request for exemption from § 145.103(b). 

Although Lider’s petition for reconsideration filed on December 21, 2010, did not meet the 

60-day filing requirement set forth in § 11.101, based on the FAA’s reevaluation of the facts 

and circumstances pertaining to Lider’s use of its hangars, the agency is treating Lider’s 

request as a new petition for exemption. It appears that the FAA made factual errors and 

improperly interpreted previous denials of petitions for exemption from the housing 

requirements with respect to Lider’s request. Specifically, the FAA referenced the 

environmental conditions of “heat, dirt, and dust” in Denial of Exemption No. 10149 that 

were applicable in other denials issued by the agency but that are not applicable to Lider’s 

circumstances. Upon further review, the FAA finds that granting Lider’s petition would be 

in the public interest and would provide a level of safety equivalent to that provided by the 

regulation. 
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We have carefully reviewed the statements submitted in the original petition 

submitted on March 11, 2009, and the additional information submitted on May 21 and 

December 21, 2010, in support of Lider’s request for relief from the requirements of 

§ 145.103(b). Lider has performed maintenance at its repair station on N-registered fixedwing aircraft since 1979 and at its satellite repair station since 1998. As stated in Lider’s 

petition, each repair station has suitable permanent housing, but the hangars, built 40 years 

ago, lack front doors. 

Over the years, the FAA has both granted and denied housing exemption requests to 

repair stations. A common theme in the requests that were denied involved aircraft that 

would not completely fit in the hangars (but with temporary work docks proposed for the 

exposed portions), or that would be outside of any housing for the work being proposed. The 

denials were premised on the requestors’ lack of capability to protect the work that would be 

performed. Some of the repair stations were in Arizona, and the FAA’s denials cited the 

adverse weather conditions in the area, specifically wind, sun, and dust storms. In other 

situations, the FAA has granted similar requests where the aircraft would not fit entirely in a 

hangar. Those grants were premised on the repair stations’ being located in a more favorable 

climate and the FAA’s assessments that the work being proposed would be adequately 

protected from whatever adverse environmental conditions were likely to be encountered. 

None of those requests involved the issue of whether doors were installed on the hangars. 

In denying Lider’s original exemption request on September 30, 2010, the FAA 

concluded that Lider did not address how aircraft in a door-less hangar would be protected 

from elements such as heat, dirt, and dust. While this reasoning may have been sound in 

evaluating petitions from repair stations located in Arizona that would be subject to duststorms, we recognize that it does not apply to the locations of Lider’s hangars. In view of the 

tropical climate in Brazil, the best way to protect workers from heat (absent air conditioning) 

would be to leave hangar doors (if they were installed) open. Further, Lider’s hangars are 

not subject to dust storms. As Lider observed, Brazil’s climatic conditions (including 

tropical thunderstorms) during the past 40 years have not presented adverse environmental 

working conditions when the work is performed well inside its hangars. 

Lider has shown that a grant of this exemption would not adversely affect safety 

because, when necessary, Lider would position the airplanes being worked on well inside its 

hangars to protect them from whatever adverse weather conditions might be presented. 

Therefore, to the extent that the requirement in § 145.103(b) to provide “suitable permanent 

housing to enclose the largest type and model of aircraft . . .” would be interpreted to mean 

the housing would have to have doors, no matter the size of the housing, the FAA has 

determined that a grant of this exemption request would provide a level of safety at least 

equal to that provided by the regulation. Moreover, the FAA recognizes Lider’s unique 

circumstance of being the only authorized Hawker Beechcraft service center in Brazil and 

notes that the two airports where Lider’s hangars are located handle the majority of domestic 

and executive flight operations in Brazil. In view of these circumstances and the equivalent 
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level of safety finding noted above, the FAA finds that a grant of this exemption would be 

in the public interest. 

The FAA’s Decision: 

 In consideration of the foregoing, I find that a grant of exemption is in the public interest. 

Therefore, pursuant to the authority contained in 49 U.S.C. §§ 40113 and 44701, delegated to 

me by the Administrator, Lider Signature S/A is granted an exemption from 

14 CFR § 145.103(b) to the extent necessary to exempt Lider from having to provide an 

enclosed hangar by installing doors on its hangars in the facilities at Belo Horizonte and 

Sao Paulo, Brazil, to enclose the largest type and model of aircraft listed on its operations 

specifications, subject to the conditions and limitations listed below. 

Conditions and Limitations: 

1. Lider must cease maintenance activities at any time when and if there is a change in 

environmental conditions where lack of hangar doors would adversely affect the 

ability to protect aircraft parts, assemblies, and subassemblies during disassembly, as 

well as any cleaning, inspection, repair, alteration, or assembly as applicable to its 

ratings. 

2. Repair station workers must be protected so the quality of the work performed will 

not be impaired. 

This exemption terminates July 31, 2013, unless sooner superseded or rescinded. 

Issued in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2011. 

/s/ 

David Gilliom 

Acting Director, Flight Standards 

 Service