AD 97-04-11 62 FR 7152

This amendment adopts a new airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain Air Tractor, Inc. (Air Tractor) Models AT-802 and AT-802A airplanes. This action requires revising the Airworthiness Limitations section of the applicable maintenance manual to change the life limit of the tail landing gear spring. This action results from analysis of the life limits of both the tail landing gear and main landing gear after a fatigue failure of the main landing gear on one of the affected airplanes. This analysis revealed that the life limit of the tail landing gear spring should be 3,000 hours time-in-service (TIS) instead of 3,500 hours TIS to be consistent with the main landing gear spring. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent fatigue failure of a tail landing gear spring before the life limit of the part is achieved, which could result in loss of control of the airplane.