Airworthiness Directives; Fairchild Aircraft SA226 and SA227 Series Airplanes

This amendment supersedes Airworthiness Directive (AD) 95-19- 07, which currently requires the following on Fairchild Aircraft SA226 and SA227 series airplanes equipped with certain main landing gear (MLG) and nose landing gear (NLG): repetitively inspecting, using ultrasonic methods, the left-hand and right-hand MLG yokes and the NLG yokes for stress corrosion cracking, and, if any cracked yokes are found that exceed certain limits, replacing either the cracked yoke, the yoke/cylinder combination, or the affected MLG or NLG assembly. This action also supersedes priority letter AD 95-19-07 R1, which was issued to incorporate revised service information. Reports of landing gear failures on the affected airplanes prompted the original AD action. This action requires the same inspections, but requires replacing any MLG and NLG assembly with any cracks instead of allowing flight until certain crack limits are exceeded. The inability to determine or predict crack growth on areas where stress corrosion occurs on primary structure with a single-load path (MLG and NLG assemblies are considered such structure) prompted this action. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent MLG or NLG failure caused by stress corrosion cracking in the yokes, which could result in loss of control of the airplane during landing operations.