FAA Advisory Circular 43.13-1B
Acceptable Methods, Techniques, and Practices
Aircraft Inspection and Repair
AC 43.13-1B | 11. Aircraft Electrical Systems | 6. Aircraft Electrical Wire Selection | 11-78. Substitutions
9/27/01
AC 43.13-1B CHG 1
aerospace applications in open and protected
wiring applications. These wires could poten
tially be used for substitution when approved
by the OAM.
b. Areas designated as severe wind and
moisture problem (SWAMP) areas differ
from aircraft to aircraft but generally are con
sidered to be areas such as wheel wells, near
wing flaps, wing folds, pylons, and other exte
rior areas that may have a harsh environment.
Wires for these applications often have design
features incorporated into their construction
that may make the wire unique; therefore an
acceptable substitution may be difficult, if not
impossible, to find. It is very important to use
the wire type recommended in the aircraft
manufacturer’s maintenance handbook.
c. The use of current military specifica-
tion, multi-conductor cables in place of OEM
installed constructions may create
problems such as color sequence. Some civil
ian aircraft are wired with the older color se
quence employing “Red-Blue-Yellow” as the
first three colors. Current military specifica
tion, multi-conductor cables, in accordance
with MIL-C-27500, use “White-Blue-Orange”
for the initial three colors. Use of an alterna
tive color code during modification without
adequate notation on wiring diagrams could
severely complicate subsequent servicing of
the aircraft. At the time of this writing,
MIL-C-27500 is being revised to include the
older color sequence and could eliminate this
problem in the future.
11-79.11-84. [RESERVED.]
Table 11-2b. Comparable properties of wire insulation systems.
Most desirable � Least
Relative Ranking
1
2
3
4
Weight
PI
ETFE COMP PTFE
Temperature
PTFE COMP
PI
ETFE
Abrasion resistance
PI
ETFE COMP PTFE
Cut-through resistance
PI
COMP ETFE
PTFE
Chemical resistance
PTFE
ETFE COMP
PI
Flammability
PTFE COMP
PI
ETFE
Smoke generation
PI
COMP PTFE
ETFE
Flexibility
PTFE
ETFE COMP
PI
Creep (at temperature)
PI
COMP PTFE
ETFE
Arc propagation resistance
PTFE
ETFE COMP
PI
Par 11-78
Page 11-37 (and 11-38)