129 

Federal Aviation Administration, DOT 

§ 121.343 

(c) Except as provided in paragraph 

(l) of this section, no person may oper-
ate an airplane specified in paragraph 
(b) of this section unless it is equipped, 
before May 26, 1995, with one or more 
approved flight recorders that utilize a 
digital method of recording and storing 
data and a method of readily retrieving 
that data from the storage medium. 
The following information must be 
able to be determined within the 
ranges, accuracies and recording inter-
vals specified in appendix B of this 
part: 

(1) Time; 
(2) Altitude; 
(3) Airspeed; 
(4) Vertical acceleration; 
(5) Heading; 
(6) Time of each radio transmission 

either to or from air traffic control; 

(7) Pitch attitude; 
(8) Roll attitude; 
(9) Longitudinal acceleration; 
(10) Control column or pitch control 

surface position; and 

(11) Thrust of each engine. 
(d) No person may operate an air-

plane specified in paragraph (b) of this 
section that is manufactured after May 
26, 1989, as well as airplanes specified in 
paragraph (a) of this section that have 
been type certificated after September 
30, 1969, unless it is equipped with one 
or more approved flight recorders that 
utlitize a digital method of recording 
and storing data and a method of read-
ily retrieving that data from the stor-
age medium. The following informa-
tion must be able to be determined 
within the ranges, accuracies, and re-
cording intervals specified in appendix 
B of this part: 

(1) Time; 
(2) Altitude; 
(3) Airspeed; 
(4) Vertical acceleration; 
(5) Heading; 
(6) Time of each radio transmission 

either to or from air traffic control; 

(7) Pitch attitude; 
(8) Roll attitude; 
(9) Longitudinal acceleration; 
(10) Pitch trim position; 
(11) Control column or pitch control 

surface position; 

(12) Control wheel or lateral control 

surface position; 

(13) Rudder pedal or yaw control sur-

face position; 

(14) Thrust of each engine; 
(15) Position of each thrust reverser; 
(16) Trailing edge flap or cockpit flap 

control position; and 

(17) Leading edge flap or cockpit flap 

control position. 

For the purpose of this section, 

manu-

factured 

means the point in time at 

which the airplane inspection accept-
ance records reflect that the airplane is 
complete and meets the FAA-approved 
type design data. 

(e) After October 11, 1991, no person 

may operate a large airplane equipped 
with a digital data bus and ARINC 717 
digital flight data acquisition unit 
(DFDAU) or equivalent unless it is 
equipped with one or more approved 
flight recorders that utilize a digital 
method of recording and storing data 
and a method of readily retrieving that 
data from the storage medium. Any pa-
rameters specified in appendix B of this 
part that are available on the digital 
data bus must be recorded within the 
ranges, accuracies, resolutions, and 
sampling intervals specified. 

(f) After October 11, 1991, no person 

may operate an airplane specified in 
paragraph (b) of this section that is 
manufactured after October 11, 1991, 
nor an airplane specified in paragraph 
(a) of this section that has been type 
certificated after September 30, 1969, 
and manufactured after October 11, 
1991, unless it is equipped with one or 
more flight recorders that utilize a dig-
ital method of recording and storing 
data and a method of readily retrieving 
that data from the storage medium. 
The parameters specified in appendix B 
of this part must be recorded within 
the ranges, accuracies, resolutions, and 
sampling intervals specified. 

(g) Whenever a flight recorder re-

quired by this section is installed, it 
must be operated continuously from 
the instant the airplane begins the 
takeoff roll until it has completed the 
landing roll at an airport. 

(h) Except as provided in paragraph 

(i) of this section, and except for re-
corded data erased as authorized in 
this paragraph, each certificate holder 
shall keep the recorded data prescribed 
in paragraph (a), (b), (c), or (d) of this 

VerDate Sep<11>2014 

08:20 May 17, 2019

Jkt 247048

PO 00000

Frm 00139

Fmt 8010

Sfmt 8010

Y:\SGML\247048.XXX

247048