Avionics News May 2023 - 39

THE VIEW FROM WASHINGTON
Continued from page 17
This raises a question: How does an avionics shop
hire a qualified and experienced " certificated person? "
The simple answer is, you outbid the competition and
offer more pay and benefits than the other competing
companies. If that isn't viable for whatever reason,
you grow your own. You combine your repair station
training program of qualifying your workforce into an
apprenticeship program with the intent of supporting
eventual certification of the individual.
With avionics installation activity more prevalent, the
modern " avionics shop " is more airframe centric than the
bench-focused radio and instrument repair of yesteryear.
As such, the modern repair station specializing in aircraft
electronics systems needs both repairmen qualified in
radios and instrument as well as mechanics qualified on
aircraft alterations and maintenance.
The requirements for certification as a repairman is
contained within 14 CFR Part 65, subpart E. There are a
couple of requirements that are universal for certification:
You must be at least 18 years old, and read, write, speak,
and understand the English language. Besides the basic
requirement that they are specially qualified to perform
maintenance, which is already a requirement of Part 145,
the experience requirements for a repairman are similar to
a mechanic. They must have at least 18 months of practical
experience or have completed formal training.
To support the " grow your own " path and the
certification of qualified individuals, the AEA has
developed two clearly defined options in cooperation with
the FAA.
To satisfy the formal training requirement of section
65.101 (a)(5)(ii), the AEA petitioned the FAA and received
approval for the recognition of ASTM's NCATT aircraft
electronics technician certification. The letter can be
found on the AEA website at aea.net/AET under step 2:
Repairman Certification.
In addition to the AET certification, the AEA in
cooperation with the Urban Institute developed and
published a competency-based occupational framework for
avionics technician apprentices. The apprentice program
is thorough and complete, beginning with an occupational
overview and including a work process schedule, crosscutting
competencies, and detailed job function analysis.
You can find the program and full descriptions on the
AEA website at aea.net/apprentice along with its FAA
recognition for satisfying 14 CFR 65.101 (a)(5)(ii) for the
issuance of a repairman certificate.
The second technician certificate for a repair station
is a mechanic certificate. We begin with the regulations,
this time, Part 65, subpart D for mechanics. Again,
aligned with the criterion of repairman requirements, a
mechanic must have either formal training given at a Part
147 certificated aviation maintenance technician school
or " at least 18 months of practical experience with the
procedures, practices, materials, tools, machine tools, and
equipment generally used in constructing, maintaining,
or altering airframes or powerplants, appropriate to the
rating sought. "
We have two requirements here: first, to document 18
months of experience (for a single rating); and second
to document a broad spectrum of airframe tasks (for an
airframe rating). When considering the modern repair
station specializing in aircraft electronics systems, only
the repair and alteration of instruments is outside the
scope of an airframe rating. As such, all of the work the
technician performs that is not instrument repair will
count toward the 18 months; removal and reinstallation of
interiors, wiring, lighting, in-flight entertainment systems,
antennas, corrosion control and avionics installations -
they all count!
FAA Order 8900.1, Volume 5, Chapter 5, Section
2 instructs the FAA workforce on how to evaluate
mechanic applicant experience under Part 65. This
section was outdated with the publication of the revision
to Part 147 in May 2022. As such, the FAA published
a memorandum on Oct. 4, 2022, which authorizes a
deviation from the original order to align it with the
revision of Part 147 and the elimination of the Part 147
appendixes. So instead of showing 50% of the skills
contained within appendix A through D of Part 147, the
requirement now reads that the applicant has verifiable
experience in 50% of the skill elements in the subject
areas of the mechanic ACS FAA-S-ACS-1, Aviation
Mechanic General, Airframe, and Powerplant Airman
Certification Standards, dated Nov. 1, 2021.
To assist the certification of technicians who wish to
pursue their mechanic certificate, the AEA has a checklist
of technical content necessary for certification at https://
bit.ly/3MreyYi. Again, only half of the required areas need
to be addressed based on the technical work available to
the apprentice. The Aviation Mechanic General, Airframe,
and Powerplant Airman Certification Standards are
available at https://bit.ly/40PZwjo.
The repair station training program should provide the
foundation for qualifying individuals and begin the documentation
for certification. By supplementing the basic
repair station requirements with a basic mechanic's logbook,
the repair station is on its way to an apprentice program
and yet another way to grow your own. q
avionics news * may 2023 39
http://aea.net/AET https://bit.ly/3MreyYi https://bit.ly/3MreyYi https://bit.ly/40PZwjo http://aea.net/apprentice
Avionics News May 2023

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