800 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20591

March 25, 2010

Regulatory Docket No. FAA-2008-0959

Mr. Freddy Pearce

Director of Maintenance Aero Contractors, Ltd.

P.O. Box 1139 Smithfield, NC 27577

Dear Mr. Pearce:

This is in response to yo ur letter dated November 15, 2008, petitioning the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on behalf of Ae ro Contractors, Ltd. (Aero Contractors), for an exemption from part 125.

Aero Contractors’ current exemption request is based in part on a letter from the FAA dated October 15, 2008, that responded to your August 26, 2008, request for exemption from the flight recorder requirements of § 125.226. The FAA apologizes that the

October 15 letter contained some co nclusions that are incorrect.

The petitioner’s DC-3 aircraft is a transpor t category airplane. The designation as transport category dates back to 1950 and wa s confirmed when the supplemental type certificate (STC) to Basler was issued. Alt hough the original type ce rtification basis for the DC-3 remains Aero Bulletin 7A, Aero Cont ractors voluntarily modified the airplane, and it was properly designated transport category.

Because the petitioner’s aircraft is properly designated as transport category, is turbine powered, and is not included in the excepted list of § 125.22 6(l)(2), Aero Contractors must meet the applicable flight record er requirements of § 125.226. The specific parameters of flight data to be recorded are based on the age of the airplane. The petitioner acknowledged this ap plicability in its initial request of August 26, 2008, when it asked to be “exempted” from § 125.226(l)(2). Later in that reque st, Aero Contractors indicated it thought that the DC-3 model s hould have been included in that paragraph, which lists airplanes excepted from § 125.226 that must continue to operate under § 125.225.2

When the list of excepted airplanes was proposed in 1996 (for §§ 121.344 and 125.226), the FAA requested that operators submit aircraft models to be listed as excepted. The list of models contained in the current regul ations came from operator requests and consideration by the FAA for inclusion of i ndividual models. The absence of the DC-3

from the list indicates that ei ther no one requested its inclus ion or that proper support for the request was not submitted.

The petitioner’s current request for exempti on from part 125 as a whole was based, in part, on incorrect information in the FAA’ s October 2008 letter and is denied. The designation of the petitioner’s airplane as transport categor y is not the sole reason for denying this exemption request. As a matte r of policy, the FAA has determined that routinely issuing deviations from all of pa rt 125 for prolonged periods renders part 125 meaningless and defeats the purpose of the ru les. Deviations granted under § 125.3 are done for individual sections on a case-by-case basis and require that the operator show that it can maintain an equivalent level of sa fety. The petitioner’s re quest is considered a request for a blanket deviation, wh ich the FAA no longer considers.

More specific to your original request, on December 2, 2008, the FAA issued a regulation that prohibits any deviations from the flight recorder requirements of part 125 (73 FR 73171). Operators are on notice that any curr ent deviations from the flight recorder requirements expire on February 12, 2012. Oper ators need to plan for compliance with the flight recorder regul ations of part 125.

If you wish to petition the FAA for rulemaking to have the DC-3 included in the paragraph (l)(2) list (a nd thus remain subject to § 125.225), you may do so. Request for inclusion is not automatically granted. Hist orically, requests must provide information concerning whether an aircra ft is still in production, how many of the model are operational worldwide, a valid estimate of the cost to comply with the applicable flight recorder regulations (from someone other than the operator, such as an STC holder or modification facility capable of doing the wo rk), the current value of the airplane, its general use, and estimated life. Age and production status alone do not determine whether aircraft will be added to the list, and simple statements that “it is too expensive to comply” are not acceptable. The FAA also considers significant modifications to an original model as a factor in deciding wh ether compliance with the flight recorder regulations are appropriate.

Accordingly, your request for exempti on from § 125.226 is denied, and Docket No. FAA-2008-0959 is being closed.

Sincerely,

/s/

John W. McGraw Acting Director, Flight Standards

Service