Database Alerts, Exclusions and Certifications

To our valued pilots and directors of flight operations,

On Dec. 6, 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) posted an Airworthiness Directive (AD) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for Pro Line 4 and 21-equipped operators equipped with FMS 3.3X through 4.X to address an issue that can occur when a “Climb To” altitude has been edited either manually or by using the Temperature Compensation (Temp Comp) feature. Collins Aerospace (Rockwell Collins) issued an Operators Service Bulletin (OPSB) 0166-17R6 about this FMS issue on July 25, 2018.

The NPRM is the official document that announces and explains the FAA’s plan to address a problem or accomplish a goal. All proposed rules must be published in the Federal Register to notify the public and to give them an opportunity to submit comments. The proposed rule and the public comments received on it form the basis of the final rule.  The NPRM is available here and will be open for public comment until Jan. 22, 2019. Collins Aerospace is drafting its own comments and will post prior to the deadline.

Since our initial notification regarding the Temp Comp issue, we have continued to work closely with the FAA exploring ways to retain the approximately 10,000 affected navigation procedures while minimizing the impact to operations and keeping you safe.

Moving forward, all previously re-instated procedures related to the Temp Comp issue will remain in place and operators will not be required to upgrade their FMS software. However, operators will need to continue to perform the FMS Temp Comp calculations manually, when necessary. To prevent the issue, operators must refrain from manually editing “Climb To” altitude on both departures and missed approaches.

Two Service Information Letters and an OPSB were previously released to provide information addressing these actions. These documents are currently available through the Collins Technical Publications website located here.

• SIL CSU-XX00-18-1 [PN 523-0825521] addresses the process to deactivate the FMS Temp Comp function.
• SIL FMC-XX00-18-1 [PN 523-0825523] addresses the process to update respective AFMs.
• Operator Bulletin 0166-17R5 (OPSB PN 523-0824828) reflect most current information

Beyond commenting on the AD NPRM, if desired, no action is required at this time. We will continue to provide you with updates as we move forward.

If you have any comments or questions about this issue, please see our Frequently Asked Questions page. If you have further questions or your operation utilizes the FMS Temp Comp feature, please email customerservices@rockwellcollins.com or call us at 1-319-295-5000.