Tue, Apr 30, 2024
Inspection to Rudder Control Linkage Required Within 200 Hours for Diamond Twin Operators
Diamond has issued a revised Airworthiness Directive for the DA42, DA42 NG, and DA42 M-NG aircraft that replaces a rudder axle, superseding a previous publication regarding the same part.
The shift comes after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency took the original FAA AD into consideration, and updated their own guidance to "to correct an unsafe condition" on a handful of Diamond planes. The Directive orders the inspection of a self-locking nut used in the rudder T-yoke's bolt, and its installation should the nut be missing to begin with. Should the assembly not be correctly installed, operators run the risk of developing increasing play in the vertical movement of the bolt, diminishing effective rudder control in flight.
The Airworthiness Directive goes into effect on the 28th of May 2024, giving operators some time to match the inspection up to their 100-hr inspection. The FAA notes that the Final Directive received a scant few comments for the proposed rule, with the majority of commenters in favor of the rule without any revisions.
One commenter, DAI, proposed that the compliance time in the Directive be adjusted from "within 200 hours time-in-service or 9 months after the effective date of this AD". They said that extending the compliance time by 3 months would "not affect safety and allow the inspection of the rudder steering bracket and the installation of the T-yoke bolt to be performed during the annual inspection." The FAA ultimately decided to use "time in service" as opposed to "flight hours" since the former is defined in FAA regulations with respect to maintenance records.
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