FAR 23.2000 — Part 23 Applicability

FAR 23.2000 is the opening section of Part 23, which contains the airworthiness standards the FAA uses to issue type certificates (and approve changes to them) for airplanes in the normal category. In other words, this is the rulebook airplane manufacturers must meet to get a new small airplane design certified.

The section does two things:

• Sets applicability: Part 23 governs type certification of normal-category airplanes — the small, general-aviation-class airplanes most student pilots actually fly during training.
• Defines a key term used throughout Part 23: an airplane that can achieve continued controlled flight and landing, even if emergency procedures are needed, without requiring exceptional pilot skill or strength. Some airplane damage on landing is acceptable under that definition following a failure condition.

Why it matters operationally: this standard is the reason your training airplane is designed so that, after a system failure, an average pilot using normal training and checklist procedures can still bring it down safely.