Disposition of life-limited aircraft parts

This regulation requires anyone who removes a life-limited part (a component with a mandatory replacement limit based on hours, cycles, or other criteria) from an aircraft to track and control it to prevent installation after it reaches its limit.

Key requirements:

• When temporarily removing and reinstalling a life-limited part on the same aircraft for maintenance (without the aircraft accumulating service time), no special tracking is needed
• Otherwise, you must use one of seven approved methods to track the part's life status: recordkeeping system, attached tag/record, non-permanent marking, permanent marking, physical segregation, mutilation, or another FAA-approved method
• If you sell or transfer the part, you must include the tracking documentation (unless the part is mutilated)

This prevents dangerous situations where time-expired parts—which could fail catastrophically—are inadvertently reinstalled on aircraft. The regulation ensures parts approaching their mandatory retirement limits remain traceable throughout their service life.

*This is a plain-English summary for study only. The official 14 CFR text on this page is controlling — always read the current regulation and consult a CFI.*