Actually this is an update. I talked to my PMI at the Scottsdale FSDO today. He's a good guy, not new on the block. He confirmed that as of 2/23/05 and the examiners manual change that a bunch of items were taken from him as having authority to approve changes. These are all the items in Fig.1-3. He doesn't like it either. Use the link above to go to the Fig 1-3 and you can read what items need "national" authority. For the dual pucks it's section E.910 landing gear. Although it only requires evaluation, that must now be done at National Headquarters. For rotorcraft it's even worse. Almost nothing can be approved at the local level.
It could take up to three months but that's OK by me.
A real problem is that any change to an STC installation needs to go to National. Therefore I need to word the 337 to utilize all approved sizes as shown on the STC for the 180. This could create real problems if, say a certain air filter was called out on an STC and one couldn't get that brand anymore.
I'm looking forward to my IA refresher in March
