Airworthiness Directives; Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc. (Type Certificate Previously Held by Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH) Airplanes

The FAA is superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2009-10-04 for certain Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH (type certificate now held by Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc.) Model DA 40 and DA 40 F airplanes. AD 2009-10-04 required repetitively inspecting the nose landing gear (NLG) leg for cracks and replacing the NLG leg if cracks are found. Since the FAA issued AD 2009-10-04, Transport Canada updated mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) to correct this unsafe condition on these products. This AD results from changes made to the part replacement options and the repetitive inspections. This AD requires doing repetitive detailed inspections of the NLG leg pivot axle for cracking and if cracking is found replacing that part with a serviceable part. This AD also requires eventually replacing all NLG legs having certain part numbers with serviceable parts, if not already done, and prohibits installing affected parts. Replacing affected parts with serviceable parts is terminating action for the repetitive inspections specified in this AD. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.