Issues Concerning Horizontal Stabilizers

The FAA has issues a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) for owners and operators of True Flight Aerospace LLC (Grumman American) Model AA-5 airplanes (Traveler, Cheetah, Tiger), of an issue concerning the horizontal stabilizer forward spar attachment and surrounding structure in the aft fuselage area.

At this time, this airworthiness concern is not an unsafe condition that would warrant AD action.

During a routine inspection, maintenance personnel found cracked and deformed structure in the aft fuselage area including horizontal stabilizer forward spar attachment structure, spar support angles, and stiffeners. While there are no previous reports of similar damage in the AA-5 airplanes, there have been reports for the AA-5A and AA-5B models. In 2003, the FAA issued SAIB CE-04-34 to inform owners of this potential issue on the AA-5A and AA-5B models and the SAIB included an inspection of this area of the airplane. In 2003, the type certificate owner issued an update to the maintenance manual to add instructions for this inspection for the AA-5A and AA-5B airplanes.

 There are currently no clear instructions in the maintenance manual for inspecting this area of the AA-5 model.

The FAA encourages owners and maintenance personnel to perform detailed visual inspections of the horizontal stabilizer forward spar attachment structure, and surrounding area, of the AA-5 airplanes at the following times:

• At every annual/100 hour inspection.
• After hard landings, tail strikes, or any other notable impact or force in tail area.

The FAA recommends that the maintenance manuals for the airplane be consulted for more information. True Flight Aerospace informed the FAA that the basic inspection points should be applicable to all of the AA-5 series models.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.trueflightaerospace.com