[Peetwo]

KC & Co win a reprieve on Part 66-

Via the Yaffa's Oz Flying:

An engineer works on a turbine engine at a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) base. (Steve Hitchen)

CASA postpones Part 66 Changes
6 July 2016

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has postponed planned changes to CASR Part 66.

The small aircraft maintenance licensing arrangements were to have come in last Monday 4 July, but maintenance training organisations and associations flagged ongoing issues with the suite of regulations.

"Key stakeholders and CASA recognised there were still outstanding issues to be resolved and some unintended consequences as a result of the proposed new small aircraft maintenance personnel structure," a CASA statement released today said.

"Issues relate to maintenance workforce flexibility, career progression and the workload for maintenance training and registered training organisations.

"In addition, more work needs to be done to ensure the regulatory requirements and the vocational training system can work effectively together."

CASA will now conduct a comprehensive review of Part 66, including working with the national education body to produce a more streamlined training package.

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/lates...OkRZcCM.99

Update to Part 66 etc.- To perhaps highlight what's at stake and the importance of getting Part 66 right, here is an article by KC off the latest AMROBA newsletter ( Volume 13 Issue 6 (0616)) ...

 

2. Overcoming concerns with declining skills – 2017 & on.


Ever since the EASR Parts 66/147/Subpart M were partially adopted into CASR Parts 42/66/147, the aviation MRO industry reportedly has seen a decline in skills. AMROBA research has identified that this decline actually started a decade or so before then. Also, this trend is not unique to this industry so proposed fixes need to identify career paths to attract, train and keep important skills within the aviation industry. The foundation of AME training depends on CASA promulgating ICAO international training standards applicable to AMEs and LAMEs as they did in the past.

The EASA LAME system is an examination system the same as CAR31 Basics. Resurrecting a LAME examination system run by CASA or a contractor(s) that has the 75% pass mark will remove the pressure that CASA applied to the AME system.

Undoing the damage that CASA did in the last decade will take time but the current management in CASA has been positive and have agreed to this review.

A return to trade training and a separate licencing examination system correctly implemented can be made to work as long as the following is implemented.

The broad based avionics and mechanical AME employable across the industry sectors is the core to resurrecting a career positive system. With the proper AME skills, a person may gain employment across the industry. AMROBA’s proposal is for a highly skilled AME that can work in avionics/mechanical or a composite of the two streams.

To obtain the licencing knowledge and skills above the trade training, an AME should be able to self-study, or do an on-line course, or a fulltime course. The LAME skills are about supervision, airworthiness requirements, management, and to certify as airworthy, these are all added to the AME trade skills.

The "group" rating system that has been created will work under the proposed licencing system if the different licences are based on aircraft design standards.

The need for the "Elementary" rating should be based on a similar process of to the FAA repairman system where the AMO makes a request for an employee to hold the "elementary" rating based on the AMO assessing the competencies of the employee. This can be limited to an apprentice half way through training or an adult employee from an allied trade.

What has to be carefully handled is the transition of current LAMEs trained under the CASR 66 system to the future system. Some have not attained the practical skills, some have not attained the knowledge so we need to replace that with experience plus employer assessment when they have the knowledge/practical skills to transition.

The last thing we need is the debacle of the introduction of CASR Part 66 and the exclusion fiasco.

The first thing CASA can do is repeal the introduction of the 5700Kg/9 seat and adopt next year’s CASR Part 23 19 seats/5818Kgs limitation. This resurrects "group" ratings up to 19 seats and type ratings above and other transport aeroplanes. The same applies for helicopters, type ratings for CASR Part 29 and "group" ratings for Part 27.

The B2 group and type ratings will basically return to a workable system.

The group rating system was introduced to enable a broadly trained AME to gain experience to obtain a licence. The next system must return to a similar system with CASA promulgating the avionic and mechanical qualifications required to underpin the LAME system. The LAME additional skills can be tested by examination.

MTF...P2