AGING AIRCRAFT RELIABILITY

IN RELATION TO
CIVIL AVIATION SAFETY REGULATION

Directorate of Airworthiness And Aircraft Operations

ABSTRACT
• Aircraft reliability can only be measured
through service experience, as we all
understand aircraft reliability in general
mean the readiness or availability of the
aircraft to keep up with the need of the
operation and utilization, safely and
efficiently/ economically.
The aircraft reability it self will dependent on:

 Design maturity-Human resource qualification

 Effective maintenance program

 Sufficient or availability of maintenance facilities

 Manufacturer or factory continuing support on

engineering and spare part
On the Aging aircraft, they have strengths and
weaknesses which, generally:

 Design maturity; well experience person and maintenance facility

availability are consider as strengths.   
 Out of date or do not meet with the current safety requirement
and also high maintenance cost are consider as weaknesses.

Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASRs) do not

differentiate requirement and safety level between new
aircraft and aging aircraft, they are basically contain
policies/ procedures and standards that are currently
applicable or enforceable adopted by the majority of
International Civil Aviation Organization contracting states.
When we operate aging aircraft, basically we have
to face 2 (two) major problems:

 To keep the aircraft reliability high.

 To compliance the current regulation requirements.

  In this presentation we try to discuss points

to consider so that operation of aging
aircraft will not degrade aircraft reliability
and still in compliance with the current Civil
Aviation Safety Regulations (CASRs)
 I
INTRODUCTION
I. INTRODUCTION

• It is the reality in Indonesia that for one and other

reason we are still operating aging aircraft with
quite significant number of aircrafts and also various
aircraft types.
• To stop or phasing out this aging aircraft will
affecting the air transportation activities as well as
economy activities into worse situation 
• This given condition will add more obligations to
Indonesia Civil Aviation Community to assure civil
aviation safety
I. INTRODUCTION
• The process of analyzing and evaluating to operate aging
aircraft are actually covering the Whole Civil Aviation Safety
Regulation such as design standard eligibility: previous
operator reputation: complete and actual record; physical
aircraft condition; compliance whit aircraft equipment
requirement; compliance with mandated aging program;
manufacturer supports; availability and sufficiency of qualified
person and facilities and so on.

• The final point to make decision after the safety consideration

is wheater it is still feasible to operate the particular aircraft or
not, by having a figure of total operating cost effectiveness
and efficiency, otherwise the operator will go to bankruptcy or
in other way endangering safety
II. AIRCRAFT RELIABILITY

When we discuss about aircraft

reliability does not mean only the
reability of the aircraft it self, but there
are number of supporting factors that
will affect the reliability.
Aircraft reliability maybe broken down into;

 Component reliability,
 Aircraft system reliability,
 Powerplant reliability,
 Structural reliability,
 Dispatch reliability.

It will be impossible to operate aircraft reliable

without the above supports.
 
Meaning that the supporting factor will be
spread out onto;

 Aircraft manufacturer,
 Component or vendor manufacturer,
 Repair station or aircraft maintenance
organization,
 The aircraft operator,
 Powerplant manufacturer.
 It will be impossible to operate aircraft reliable
without the above support
III. AGING AIRCRAFT REABILITY

When we are dealing with aged aircraft

commonly we are dealing with aircraft
damaged, which are basically divided into;

 Environmental damage (ED)

 Fatigue damage (FD), and
 Accidental damage (AD)
III. AGING AIRCRAFT REABILITY

To assure the reability of aged aircraft we have

to be able to detect in early stage of the above
damages and more importance is to rectify/
repair them properly to its original design
strength and performance specification/ criteria
in accordance with the applicable standard/
regulation, and again it will be dependent on the
supporting factors.
III. AGING AIRCRAFT REABILITY

• The detection of ED and FD can be programmed by

determination of point/ area; method of inspection
or task; initial and periodical time limit base on
calendar time, flight cycle or flight hour, but on AD
will only be dependent on the discipline care and
quality system compliance. But nevertheless all of
the damage need immediate response and
corrective action.
III. AGING AIRCRAFT REABILITY

• Civil Aviation Authority and the aircraft

manufacturer had provide us guidelines to maintain
the aging aircraft, but mostly only concerning the
aircraft structural integrity there are only few
guidance or instruction to maintain aircraft system
integrity/ reability of aging aircraft.
III. AGING AIRCRAFT REABILITY

Generally the aging aircraft structural

maintenance and modification
guidance covers;
 Structural modification,
 Corrosion prevention and control (CPCP),
 Supplemental structural inspection,
 Structural repair assessment requirement, and
 Structural maintenance program general guide line,
as well as airplane manufacturers model specific
guidelines
III. AGING AIRCRAFT REABILITY

In addition to the above there are some other aspects have to

be considered on aging airplane:
 
• Structural inspection interval, to reduce the time between
inspection in the maintenance program as the airplane age
according to the
 
– 1. Finding from successive inspection
– 2.  When discrepancies begin to occur and
– 3. When finding following the CPCP implementation
indicate the need for more frequent inspection
 
 III. AGING AIRCRAFT REABILITY

• Airplane Down Time (days out of service), expected to

increase the amount of work required during heavy
maintenance visit
• Airplane utilization, the Structural Inspection Program is
especially important as utilization rate change.
• Low utilization airplane or subject to a higher degree of
environmental damage on both the airplane and engine
• Maintenance facilities for aging aircraft, can have
significant influence on the quality of work perform and
the effectiveness of the maintenance program
The transport category aging aircraft type
fleets in Indonesia are:

 British aerospace model BAC 1-11

 British aerospace model HS 748
 Boeing B737-200 series
 Boeing B747-200 series
 Fokker F27 Series
 Fokker F-28 Mk.3000 & Mk.4000
 McDonnell Douglas MD 80
 McDonnell Douglas DC 10-30
 CN 235 and CASA 212
 IV
CASR FOR AGING
AIRCRAFT
IV. CIVIL AVIATIONS SAFETY REGULATION FOR AGING

AIRCRAFT

• Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASRs) were developed

to rules/ regulate the air transportation to higher degree
of safety level based on same or one standard for each
category aircraft and/ or organization regardless there
are new or aged.

• So if we are discussing about aging aircraft, the

regulation are the same with the new aircraft, the only
differences will be in the method and procedure of
compliance.
 
 IV. CIVIL AVIATIONS SAFETY REGULATION FOR AGING
AIRCRAFT

• Such method and procedures are usually described and

published in the manufacturer technical publication e.g.
Service Bulletin; Maintenance Planning Data;
Maintenance Manual; Aging Aircraft Document, etc.
 
• The Civil Aviation Authority describes the instruction/
directives and guideline in the Airworthiness Directive
and Advisory Circular.
As reference to maintain and operate aging aircraft we may
highlight several paragraph of the CASR as follow:

 Part 21 subpart D – Change to type certificate

 Part 21 subpart E – Supplemental type certificate
 Part 25.1529 – Instruction for continued airworthiness
 Part 34 – Fuel venting and exhaust gas emission
 Part 36 – Noise level
 Part 39 – Airworthiness directives
 Part 43 – Maintenance, preventive maintenance, rebuilding
and alteration
 Part 43.13 – Performance rules (general)
 Part 43.16 – Airworthiness limitation
As reference to maintain and operate aging aircraft we may
highlight several paragraph of the CASR as follow:

 Part 91 – General operating and flight rules

 Part 91-609 – Flight data recorder and cockpit recorder
 Part 121.157 - Aircraft certification and equipment requirement
 Part 121.343 – Flight recorder
 Part 121.358 – Global Positioning System
 Part 121.359 – Cockpit voice recorder
 Part 121.360 – Ground Proximity Warning/ glide slope
deviation alerting System GPWS
 Part 121.373 – Continuing analysis and surveillance
 Part 121.363 – Responsibility for airworthiness
Refer to AC 120-73, Propose of revision of CASR:

 Part 25.571 – Damage tolerance and fatigue evaluation of

structure
 Part 25.1529 – Instruction for continued airworthiness
 Part 91.410 – Repair assessment for pressurize fuselage
 Part 121.370 – Repair assessment for pressurize fuselage
 Part 129.32 – Repair assessment for pressurize fuselage
There are also some Advisory Circular concerning
the aging aircraft such as:

 AC 43-4A, Corrosion control for aircraft

 AC 120-73, Damage tolerance assessment of repair
to pressurize fuselage
 AC 25-71-1C, Damage tolerance and fatique
evaluation of structure
 AC 25-1529-1, instruction for continued
airworthiness of structural repair on transport
airplane.
There are also some Advisory Circular concerning
the aging aircraft such as:

Where the existing repair assessment implementation

at 75 % of Design Service Goal (DSG).
 
And other Advisory or information material such as
Handbook Bulletin for Airworthiness (HBAW) e.g.
HBAW No. 96-01, information and guidance
pertaining to structural maintenance program for
aging large transport and other transport airplane.
From the regulation material we can summarized some
points or considerations, that aging aircraft will facing group
of major problems which are:

 Maintenance program effectiveness

 New or current airworthiness requirement consisting
of additional equipment and environmental
protection requirement
 Special action on structural integrity by special
inspection and modification program
 V
DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSION
Discussion
• When we are talking about aging aircraft in Indonesia, we can
identify which one from aircraft fleet have been operated by
Indonesian operator since new or which one were imported as
used aircraft, meaning that if the aircraft was operated since
new the overall control since new of the maintenance was
under Indonesia Civil Aviation Authority but for used aircraft
was under foreign CAA.

• Why we have to consider this, because some foreign authority

might not enforce the requirement on aging aircraft.
Discussion

• The reputation of the previous operator is also one

consideration to decide which used aircraft is to be imported
to Indonesia

• Operating aging aircraft is not a bad choice, but considering

the risks and consequences are very wise and correct.

• The type of aircraft to be chosen is also important since it is

known that only good reputable manufacturer that will able to
support the maintenance and operation of that product
Conclusion
 When we are going to operate aging aircraft
we have to have and consider the following:

1. Select the type of aircraft that has good and full

support from the manufacturer and maintenance
facility are available in the country or regionally
2. When we buy or lease used aircraft chose the good
source, usually good operator will have good
maintenance on their fleet
3. Choose the used aircraft with detail and complete
historical record since new
Conclusion
4. Evaluate and determine what requirements that
have not been met to calculate additional and
future expenditures to decide
5. Be properly prepare on maintenance human
resources; logistic; facilities and engineering
6. The operator/ AOC holder is responsible for the
airworthiness of their aircraft regardless of the
maintenance arrangement or ownership of aircraft
( CASR 121.363 )
References:

• Indonesian Civil Aviation Safety Regulation

• Boeing Document No. D6-38505
• AC No. 120-73 Damage Tolerance Assessment of
Repair to Pressurize Fuselage
• Handbook Bulletin for Airworthiness No.96-01