Ryan International Airlines

4949 Harrison Ave. Rockford, IL 61108 October 20, 2011

Docket Operation U.S. Department of Transportation West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590

Subject: Petition for exemption for a portion of Federal Aviation Regulation 14 CFR §121.344(f) and Appendix M – Airplane Flight Recorder for Airbus A330-343 Aircraft MSN 1231 operated by Ryan International Airlines.

Reference: Attachment ‘A’ - Current FAR rules 121-344 (f) an d Appendix M –Digital Flight Data Recorder Regulations (DFDR), final Rule. Attachment ‘B’ – Airbus Comments to docket No. FAA-2005-20245. Notice No. 10-01, extension of the compliance date for cockpit voi ce recorder and digital flight data recorder regulations.

Note: Please refer to Section 1 (attachment B). DFDR Sampling Rates for additional technical information provided by Airbus.

Ryan International Airlines, a FAR 121 Oper ator is requesting this exemption to Appendix M to part 121 – Airplane Flight Recorder Speci fications items 12-18 and 88, specifically note 18 which states, “For all aircraft manufactured on or December 6, 2010, the seconds per sampling interval is 0.125. Each input must be recorded at this rate. Alternately sampling inputs (interleaving) to meet this sampling interval is prohibited.” Please reference Attachment “A” to this document. Currently the aircraft is reco rding these required parameters, however they are recorded at 0.25 second sampling interval.

Ryan International Airlines is planning to receive its first A330-343 aircraft MSN 1231, and has been informed by the aircraft manufacturer (Airbus) that the current configuration of the aircraft will not comply with the requirements of the sampling rate specified in Appendix M (attachment A), as it was originally configured to EASA requirements which differ substantially from the current FAA requirements. Airbus has previously commented on the time period to implement a new sampling rate and has previously submitted information to explain the complex retrofit to the airframe in order to comply with the ruling by the deadlin e specified (Attachment B).

The retrofit options to make the aircraft capable of meeting the regulation are not currently available, but are being worked by the manufacturer and will be installed on this aircraft once released. Those options to retrofit the airc raft include replacing the SSFDR with one capable of meeting a 1024 Word Per Second (WPS) sampli ng rate or 0.125 second sampling interval, in conjunction with replacing the FDIMU software, a redesign of other critical aircraft systems which include the Flight Control Data Concentrat or, System Data Acquisition Concentrator, plus possibly others such as the Flight Warning System, and Display Management Computers. This may also entail installing new FCDC computer s in both positions, and possibly making wiring changes to the data bus.

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Therefore, Ryan International Airlines respect fully requests an exemption to these rulings until such time as the retrofits and components are available from the aircraft manufacturer, which we expect to be available prior to Decemb er, 2012. Once these are available, the aircraft can be retrofitted to the approve d configuration to meet the necessary sampling interval, required by the regulation. We have queried the manufact urer for the exact date of the release of these service bulletins and expect to have that inform ation available soon, but are under the impression it will not be prior to our technical acceptance of the aircraft. This exemption if granted would not jeopardize airplane safety because the current equipm ent, does record the required parameters at a rate that has been previously acceptable, and the aircraft does record each of parameters shown at 025 second sampling interval.

This exemption request is in interest of the United States public, as Ryan International airlines is a operator which provides support of government contracts, in addition to transporting US passengers to their destinations for business and t ourism. A delay in adding this aircraft to the Operations Specifications will no do ubt have an adverse effect, causing distress to the airline, the DOD, and several US passengers which would have u sed this aircraft for service. In addition, it will allow Ryan International a small business entity the ability to compete for contracts in the international market, open additional l ong range routes a nd expand operations.

Please contact Ryan International Airlines if you any questions or need additional information to provide this exemption.

Sincerely,

Gerald (Jim) Miller Avionics Systems Engineer Ryan International Airlines

JimMiller@flyryan.com

Tel: 520-940-2179

Fax: 520-844-1188

CC: Mr. John Medeiros Director Of Quality Ryan International Airlines

Edy Mentor Principal Avionics Inspector

Federal Aviation Administration Chicago Flight Standards District Office