Shifts Classifications Of Many Electronic Displays

The FAA has revised its Order 8900.1 field approval policy for aviation safety inspectors, correcting the challenges raised by the AEA late in 2011.

This policy, as briefed at the AEA International Convention & Trade Show, is a dynamic, and will be changed regularly until it becomes an interactive evaluation tool. As briefed, the complexity of aircraft, equipment and system interfaces today discourages the use of a simple paper analysis policy. As such, AFS-360 is migrating to an interactive decision tool, which is predicted to be available in 2013.

Major changes to the current policy include:

• Multifunction displays (MFD) or electronic map displays (EMD) is now classified as Engineering (ENG) for all aircraft types.
• Terrain awareness and warning systems Class A (TAWS-A) is now ENG for all aircraft types.
• Terrain awareness and warning systems Class B (TAWS-B) is now EVL for transport category aircraft.

As always, a thorough review of the entire policy is encouraged to assure you know what your inspector has been authorized to support before you contact the local FAA office requesting a field approval.

FMI: www.aea.net, Full Policy