612
14 CFR Ch. I (1–1–24 Edition)
§ 29.783
containing the index finger. Other en-
gine power controls, excluding the col-
lective control, must operate with a
forward motion to increase power.
(c) Normal landing gear controls
must operate downward to extend the
landing gear.
[Amdt. 29–24, 49 FR 44437, Nov. 6, 1984]
§ 29.783
Doors.
(a) Each closed cabin must have at
least one adequate and easily acces-
sible external door.
(b) Each external door must be lo-
cated, and appropriate operating proce-
dures must be established, to ensure
that persons using the door will not be
endangered by the rotors, propellers,
engine intakes, and exhausts when the
operating procedures are used.
(c) There must be means for locking
crew and external passenger doors and
for preventing their opening in flight
inadvertently or as a result of mechan-
ical failure. It must be possible to open
external doors from inside and outside
the cabin with the rotorcraft on the
ground even though persons may be
crowded against the door on the inside
of the rotorcraft. The means of opening
must be simple and obvious and so ar-
ranged and marked that it can be read-
ily located and operated.
(d) There must be reasonable provi-
sions to prevent the jamming of any
external doors in a minor crash as a re-
sult of fuselage deformation under the
following ultimate inertial forces ex-
cept for cargo or service doors not suit-
able for use as an exit in an emergency:
(1) Upward—1.5g.
(2) Forward—4.0g.
(3) Sideward—2.0g.
(4) Downward—4.0g.
(e) There must be means for direct
visual inspection of the locking mecha-
nism by crewmembers to determine
whether the external doors (including
passenger, crew, service, and cargo
doors) are fully locked. There must be
visual means to signal to appropriate
crewmembers when normally used ex-
ternal doors are closed and fully
locked.
(f) For outward opening external
doors usable for entrance or egress,
there must be an auxiliary safety
latching device to prevent the door
from opening when the primary latch-
ing mechanism fails. If the door does
not meet the requirements of para-
graph (c) of this section with this de-
vice in place, suitable operating proce-
dures must be established to prevent
the use of the device during takeoff and
landing.
(g) If an integral stair is installed in
a passenger entry door that is qualified
as a passenger emergency exit, the
stair must be designed so that under
the following conditions the effective-
ness of passenger emergency egress will
not be impaired:
(1) The door, integral stair, and oper-
ating mechanism have been subjected
to the inertial forces specified in para-
graph (d) of this section, acting sepa-
rately relative to the surrounding
structure.
(2) The rotorcraft is in the normal
ground attitude and in each of the atti-
tudes corresponding to collapse of one
or more legs, or primary members, as
applicable, of the landing gear.
(h) Nonjettisonable doors used as
ditching emergency exits must have
means to enable them to be secured in
the open position and remain secure for
emergency egress in sea state condi-
tions prescribed for ditching.
[Doc. No. 5084, 29 FR 16150, Dec. 3, 1964, as
amended by Amdt. 29–20, 45 FR 60178, Sept.
11, 1980; Amdt. 29–29, 54 FR 47320, Nov. 13,
1989; Amdt. 27–26, 55 FR 8003, Mar. 6, 1990;
Amdt. 29–31, 55 FR 38966, Sept. 21, 1990]
§ 29.785
Seats, berths, litters, safety
belts, and harnesses.
(a) Each seat, safety belt, harness,
and adjacent part of the rotorcraft at
each station designated for occupancy
during takeoff and landing must be free
of potentially injurious objects, sharp
edges, protuberances, and hard surfaces
and must be designed so that a person
making proper use of these facilities
will not suffer serious injury in an
emergency landing as a result of the
inertial factors specified in § 29.561(b)
and dynamic conditions specified in
§ 29.562.
(b) Each occupant must be protected
from serious head injury by a safety
belt plus a shoulder harness that will
prevent the head from contacting any
injurious object, except as provided for
in § 29.562(c)(5). A shoulder harness
(upper torso restraint), in combination
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§ 29.785
with the safety belt, constitutes a
torso restraint system as described in
TSO-C114.
(c) Each occupant’s seat must have a
combined safety belt and shoulder har-
ness with a single-point release. Each
pilot’s combined safety belt and shoul-
der harness must allow each pilot when
seated with safety belt and shoulder
harness fastened to perform all func-
tions necessary for flight operations.
There must be a means to secure belt
and harness when not in use to prevent
interference with the operation of the
rotorcraft and with rapid egress in an
emergency.
(d) If seat backs do not have a firm
handhold, there must be hand grips or
rails along each aisle to let the occu-
pants steady themselves while using
the aisle in moderately rough air.
(e) Each projecting object that would
injure persons seated or moving about
in the rotorcraft in normal flight must
be padded.
(f) Each seat and its supporting
structure must be designed for an occu-
pant weight of at least 170 pounds, con-
sidering the maximum load factors, in-
ertial forces, and reactions between the
occupant, seat, and safety belt or har-
ness corresponding with the applicable
flight and ground-load conditions, in-
cluding the emergency landing condi-
tions of § 29.561(b). In addition—
(1) Each pilot seat must be designed
for the reactions resulting from the ap-
plication of the pilot forces prescribed
in § 29.397; and
(2) The inertial forces prescribed in
§ 29.561(b) must be multiplied by a fac-
tor of 1.33 in determining the strength
of the attachment of—
(i) Each seat to the structure; and
(ii) Each safety belt or harness to the
seat or structure.
(g) When the safety belt and shoulder
harness are combined, the rated
strength of the safety belt and shoulder
harness may not be less than that cor-
responding to the inertial forces speci-
fied in § 29.561(b), considering the occu-
pant weight of at least 170 pounds, con-
sidering the dimensional characteris-
tics of the restraint system installa-
tion, and using a distribution of at
least a 60-percent load to the safety
belt and at least a 40-percent load to
the shoulder harness. If the safety belt
is capable of being used without the
shoulder harness, the inertial forces
specified must be met by the safety
belt alone.
(h) When a headrest is used, the head-
rest and its supporting structure must
be designed to resist the inertia forces
specified in § 29.561, with a 1.33 fitting
factor and a head weight of at least 13
pounds.
(i) Each seating device system in-
cludes the device such as the seat, the
cushions, the occupant restraint sys-
tem and attachment devices.
(j) Each seating device system may
use design features such as crushing or
separation of certain parts of the seat
in the design to reduce occupant loads
for the emergency landing dynamic
conditions of § 29.562; otherwise, the
system must remain intact and must
not interfere with rapid evacuation of
the rotorcraft.
(k) For purposes of this section, a lit-
ter is defined as a device designed to
carry a nonambulatory person, pri-
marily in a recumbent position, into
and on the rotorcraft. Each berth or
litter must be designed to withstand
the load reaction of an occupant
weight of at least 170 pounds when the
occupant is subjected to the forward
inertial factors specified in § 29.561(b).
A berth or litter installed within 15
°
or
less of the longitudinal axis of the
rotorcraft must be provided with a pad-
ded end-board, cloth diaphragm, or
equivalent means that can withstand
the forward load reaction. A berth or
litter oriented greater than 15
°
with
the longitudinal axis of the rotorcraft
must be equipped with appropriate re-
straints, such as straps or safety belts,
to withstand the forward reaction. In
addition—
(1) The berth or litter must have a re-
straint system and must not have cor-
ners or other protuberances likely to
cause serious injury to a person occu-
pying it during emergency landing con-
ditions; and
(2) The berth or litter attachment
and the occupant restraint system at-
tachments to the structure must be de-
signed to withstand the critical loads
resulting from flight and ground load
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14 CFR Ch. I (1–1–24 Edition)
§ 29.787
conditions and from the conditions pre-
scribed in § 29.561(b). The fitting factor
required by § 29.625(d) shall be applied.
[Doc. No. 5084, 29 FR 16150, Dec. 3, 1964, as
amended by Amdt. 29–24, 49 FR 44437, Nov. 6,
1984; Amdt. 29–29, 54 FR 47320, Nov. 13, 1989;
Amdt. 29–42, 63 FR 43285, Aug. 12, 1998]
§ 29.787
Cargo and baggage compart-
ments.
(a) Each cargo and baggage compart-
ment must be designed for its plac-
arded maximum weight of contents and
for the critical load distributions at
the appropriate maximum load factors
corresponding to the specified flight
and ground load conditions, except the
emergency landing conditions of
§ 29.561.
(b) There must be means to prevent
the contents of any compartment from
becoming a hazard by shifting under
the loads specified in paragraph (a) of
this section.
(c) Under the emergency landing con-
ditions of § 29.561, cargo and baggage
compartments must—
(1) Be positioned so that if the con-
tents break loose they are unlikely to
cause injury to the occupants or re-
strict any of the escape facilities pro-
vided for use after an emergency land-
ing; or
(2) Have sufficient strength to with-
stand the conditions specified in
§ 29.561, including the means of re-
straint and their attachments required
by paragraph (b) of this section. Suffi-
cient strength must be provided for the
maximum authorized weight of cargo
and baggage at the critical loading dis-
tribution.
(d) If cargo compartment lamps are
installed, each lamp must be installed
so as to prevent contact between lamp
bulb and cargo.
[Doc. No. 5084, 29 FR 16150, Dec. 3, 1964, as
amended by Amdt. 29–12, 41 FR 55472, Dec. 20,
1976; Amdt. 29–31, 55 FR 38966, Sept. 21, 1990]
§ 29.801
Ditching.
(a) If certification with ditching pro-
visions is requested, the rotorcraft
must meet the requirements of this
section and §§ 29.807(d), 29.1411 and
29.1415.
(b) Each practicable design measure,
compatible with the general character-
istics of the rotorcraft, must be taken
to minimize the probability that in an
emergency landing on water, the be-
havior of the rotorcraft would cause
immediate injury to the occupants or
would make it impossible for them to
escape.
(c) The probable behavior of the
rotorcraft in a water landing must be
investigated by model tests or by com-
parison with rotorcraft of similar con-
figuration for which the ditching char-
acteristics are known. Scoops, flaps,
projections, and any other factors like-
ly to affect the hydrodynamic charac-
teristics of the rotorcraft must be con-
sidered.
(d) It must be shown that, under rea-
sonably probable water conditions, the
flotation time and trim of the rotor-
craft will allow the occupants to leave
the rotorcraft and enter the liferafts
required by § 29.1415. If compliance with
this provision is shown by bouyancy
and trim computations, appropriate al-
lowances must be made for probable
structural damage and leakage. If the
rotorcraft has fuel tanks (with fuel jet-
tisoning provisions) that can reason-
ably be expected to withstand a ditch-
ing without leakage, the jettisonable
volume of fuel may be considered as
bouyancy volume.
(e) Unless the effects of the collapse
of external doors and windows are ac-
counted for in the investigation of the
probable behavior of the rotorcraft in a
water landing (as prescribed in para-
graphs (c) and (d) of this section), the
external doors and windows must be
designed to withstand the probable
maximum local pressures.
[Amdt. 29–12, 41 FR 55472, Dec. 20, 1976]
§ 29.803
Emergency evacuation.
(a) Each crew and passenger area
must have means for rapid evacuation
in a crash landing, with the landing
gear (1) extended and (2) retracted, con-
sidering the possibility of fire.
(b) Passenger entrance, crew, and
service doors may be considered as
emergency exits if they meet the re-
quirements of this section and of
§§ 29.805 through 29.815.
(c) [Reserved]
(d) Except as provided in paragraph
(e) of this section, the following cat-
egories of rotorcraft must be tested in
accordance with the requirements of
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