Commonwealth legislation

AD/OPTICA/5 - Airframe Retirement Life

In ForceCTH

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Commonwealth

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legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

2/10 complexity

This rule forces retirement of early-model FLS Aerospace Optica OA7 aircraft (serials up to 019) before they reach 2,600 hours TIS, based on a re‑evaluation that found the primary structure’s safe fatigue life limited to 2,600 hours. It directly affects owners/operators, who must track hours, retire or replace affected airframes and bear the economic and administrative costs. Later production Series 300 aircraft are not covered.

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AD/OPTICA/5 - Airframe Retirement Life

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA (Civil Aviation Regulations 1998), PART 39 - 105 CIVIL AVIATION SAFETY AUTHORITY

SCHEDULE OF AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVES

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FLS Aerospace OA7 Optica Series Aeroplanes

AD/OPTICA/5 Airframe Retirement Life 7/95

Applicability: All Optica OA7 aircraft up to and including Serial Number 019.

Note: Retirement lives for later serial numbers are defined in Chapter 4 of the Series 300 Maintenance Manual, OA7/TP/20.

Requirement: Retire the airframe from service. Compliance: Before 2600 hours time in service.

Background: Several deficiencies were found in the original fatigue evaluation of early model Optica aircraft. Re-evaluation of the data has concluded that the primary load bearing structure has a safe fatigue life of only 2600 hours. Subsequent aircraft, designated as Series 300, were built with redesigned primary structure with much higher fatigue lives. Retirement lives for Series 300 aircraft are listed in the Airworthiness Limitations Chapter of the Maintenance Manual.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 AD/OPTICA/5 - Airframe Retirement Life