Thanks Robo, nice post as usual, 3 months of FAA BS squeezed into one post. Everything is & has been in the hands of the FAA, it's been over a month since the AC was issued & we haven't heard even a peep from the FAA since. Worth noting that, as far as I've heard throughout the 7 tests Baltia staff has always passed & the issues have always been faulty equipment. With that said we have to admit that the test is 2 part: equipment & staff, so technically we only passed 50%. So the equipment has to work & fixable problems need to be fixed, regardless of whose fault it is.
The problem of the slides needs to be fixed, but what they have discovered is that it's not an easy fix & they still don't know how to fix it. Not only that, but it's not just a Baltia problem.
Seams they aren't willing or, able to ground every plane that has this problem & now have to figure out a workaround/loophole/exception, not just for Baltia, but for the entire fleet. Maybe accept a specific failure rate & make that acceptable & a pass? Sorta like the FDA allows a certain amount of crap or, insect parts in our food as long as it's below a certain threshold. 80% slide deploy requirement sounds perfect to me! Can we please move on now? See? that didn't take so long...