Do they mean me :eek:

Certainly not ETOPS! ;)

What they mean is that when I as the demonstration test pilot fly the plane, If I use exceptional skill or alertness to make the plane do what the requirement says it must - it might not have passed. Another test pilot might come to refly it, and use "regular" skills, and see if they can fly the same maneuver.

This can be a really tough call to be objective. The demonstration test pilot must have lots of experience, but in essence, they are not really supposed to call upon that skill, unless something goes wrong.

I42, That's copied from the latest FAA FAR Part 23, though the wording for that requirement has been largely unchanged since the CAR 3 days.

tmmorris,

No need to apologize. Resurrecting an old thread is often better than creating a new one, since readers can see what was posted previously. Often very useful, if the thread was missed before or forgotten about.

In a C152 POH I found online (1980 vintage) I see the exact wording is:

maximum demonstrated crosswind velocity 12kts (not a limitation)

Which is pretty clear. Other POHs may vary.

Further to previous extracts from CS 23 (previously JAR23) which correctly stated that the certifier only has to test to a minimum crosswind component of 0.2 of Vso, if they think that there is a higher limiting figure they should put it in section 2 of the flight manual. I don't think I've ever seen one given.

IMHO an AT3 (first production as later models may be different), should have a limit applied given it's handling characteristics on the ground