Certification of Personnel

When trying to setup a maintenance program, one important item really stands out as a very important part of any maintenance program: certification of personnel. The individuals that are working on the aircraft, the supervisors and managers, and aircrew, all must possess the proper certifications to be able to truly say that an aircraft is airworthy. As this blog has focused thus far on inspections and documentation, maintainers will remain the focus of this entry.

            Once all ten elements of a maintenance program are setup, the attention must shift from the overall program and start to focus on the training and the certification of the maintainers that are working on the aircraft. Regardless of how much an individual may know (or think they know) of maintaining, inspecting, and documenting maintenance done to an aircraft, the FAA has guidelines set to determine who can really make that determination and return an aircraft to service.

            Performing maintenance on a civilian aircraft is not much different than working on a military aircraft in some respects. A big take away is that, with only a few exceptions, a mechanic cannot sign off their own work. Their work must be monitored, checked, and signed off by a certified mechanic (FAA, 2014). Normally this is done by an A & P (Airframe and Power plant) mechanic that has been certified by the FAA to sign off maintenance, train other personnel, and perform maintenance. Certified mechanic still must have any maintenance performed signed off by another certified mechanic. Some exceptions apply to experimental aircraft owners, and in some unique situations, that the FAA will allow the person performing the maintenance to be able to sign off the work.

            The FAA does not leave much to the imagination of anything else dealing with aviation, an the certification of personnel is no exception. Most of the information for the certification process can be found in Part 65 – Certification: Airmen other than Flight Crewmembers. For those trying to obtain an A&P license, working experience, school requirements, and testing requirements are spelled out in Subpart D – Mechanics. The process is lengthy and some portions of the license will have to be redone every other year. A&P mechanics must also perform certain minimum requirements to have the license remain active for the whole two year period. Of course if a license does lapse, the requirements to reinstate a license is also within the same Part 65, Subpart D.

Federal Aviation Administration. (2014). 14 CFR Part 65 Certification: Airmen other than flight crewmembers. Retrieved Decemeber 1, 2014, from http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=3d7f9fc152fc061ca1204ae17d0ca17c&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.1.4&idno=14