Seat upholstery / flammability certification

This comes up sporadically. I think most people just go to a company which does this and which can offer known-compliant materials.

This is an interesting read, with someone claiming that Part 91 ops don't need a certificate. This 2002 article seems good too.

Otherwise, as you probably found, a google on

aircraft upholstery flammability certificate

digs out any number of firms who will test materials in return for your money

Yes, this old chestnut. Be very clear and careful when choosing the outfit to complete the work. All refurbs will require the materials to have flammability certificates, and also the log book will require updated with work done, reference to the certs.

I had to remove all carpets, and nearly my leather seats, when a check by a DAR on my logs brought up the question, where are the burn certs?

The UK based, here we go again!!!!, maintenance company which carried out the work, then denied all knowledge of the refurbishment, despite me providing a copy of the invoice they had given me when I paid them.

A clear case of, Not me Guv, honest..........

Your best hope may be to point out that the original certification basis, which will be an older version of "CAR 3" for many GA aircraft has a much lower threshold of flammability requirement than 23.853. With some really fancy paperspeak, you might convince people that the "repair" you just did to the interior meets the requirement of "flame resistant". That may be all that's required.

Be very careful of the burn requirements for "assemblies" or "composites" of interior furnishing materials. One you glue or sew them together, yet another test might actually be required. I once had Transport Canada try to convince me that the sewn joint in zero burn webbing for which I do have burn test results, had to be retested. I did talk my way out of that.

You could also be asked for burn certs on the plastic you replace into cabin windows.

Imagine the horror when I did approval work on a Norseman, which is largely made of wood in the cabin, and we had to add more. We actually managed to "find" that the wood was "flame resistant".

This whole subject is a can of worms, and will only get worse, if owners allow inspectors to require burn certs to a higher rigour than the cert basis of the aircraft requires...

In a conversation with a UK CAA surveyor he mentioned visiting an airfield and said he couldn't help noticing that quite a few aircraft seem to have new or recent upholstery; he hoped that it complied with the Type Certificate!

In a conversation with a UK CAA surveyor he mentioned visiting an airfield and said he couldn't help noticing that quite a few aircraft seem to have new or recent upholstery; he hoped that it complied with the Type Certificate!

"Hoping" is a refreshing approach for a UK CAA surveyor

When my plane was new in 2002 and going F to G-reg, the UK CAA chap insisted on a load of placards including EXIT ones on doors. He also insisted the KLN94 is not suitable for IFR so it had to be set to VFR (no GPS procedures). He of course required the removal of the ELT (which some years later became a legal requirement...).

And this was after the DGAC required the removal of the heading from the stormscope, because if the display rotated according to heading, the pilot might use it to avoid thunderstorms!

These inspectors are the judge, jury and executioner. It seems that many/most of them make stuff up on the spot, to justify their job.

Regarding flammability of upholstery, IMHO any established firm doing this ought to know the requirements and if they put stuff into an aircraft that's illegal, they are in an interesting legal situation... it won't be long before somebody goes after them. It is not as if they were not aware of where the end product is going

Yes but make absolutely sure to keep all flammability certificates for the material used! It must come with aviation documentation but that is not so hard to get nowadays.

What can happen is that somebody involved in determining airworthiness sees that the upholstery is not original and ask for the documents. And if you can't produce it, you might do your seats once again.

Bumping this old thread.

I’m investigating the options for doing upholstery repair/replacement for an EASA Piper aircraft.

What should I look out for?
What materials can be used and who can do the work?

Would it for instance be ok to purchace FAA PMA parts from here for example?
http://www.airtexinteriors.com/index.php