The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) has posted the Category Parts List (CPL) referenced in Advisory Circular (AC) 43-18 on the FAA website. Here is a link to the document. The CPL link also is available from this page on FAA’s Aircraft Certification website.

AC 43-18 (link to a .PDF version of the AC here), “Fabrication of Aircraft Parts By Maintenance Personnel,” describes the CPL as a necessary tool “to determine the criticality category of the part and the level of AIR involvement needed in the design data approval process for certificate holders fabricating parts.”

The AC, released in March, also says the CPL “is regularly updated and maintained in electronic format on the Aircraft Certification Service’s website by AIR.”

Several members recently informed ARSA that they couldn’t find the CPL online. ARSA quickly determined that, contrary to what the AC states, the list wasn’t available outside of the FAA.

The Association sent the agency a letter pointing out the discrepancy and asking it to be corrected. The agency soon informed ARSA that the CPL was available.

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