...Module 3 Aircraft Systems and Aircraft Maintenance Learning Objective #10 Determine the requirements for maintenance records, compliance with Airworthiness Directives (AD), preventive maintenance, and alterations. Web Support link: http://www.avweb.com/news/savvyaviator/190596-1.html The Savvy Aviator While browsing the Internet and reading through various FAA websites, I came across a column by a passionate pilot that likes to spread the good, educated, aviation word. I chose column #23: Maintenance Records highlighting the importance of detailed and accurate records, and compliance with FARs. One thing I found refreshing was how casual the author speaks to his audience, yet delivers a wealth of knowledge that is typically only gained through years of experience, both on and off the ground. The author goes into great detail as to what is required from the regulatory sense and what is required per good pilot and mechanic sense. He further breaks it down by addressing complying with airworthiness directives and how to annotate them properly, alterations and the depth at which they need to be captured, and preventive and routine maintenance. I found this article to be very informative and challenged my current maintenance practices, both personally and professionally. The article was simplistic enough that the youngest of aviator or manager would glean the basics, and maybe a few inches deeper of aviation knowledge, and those that have been at this for more than a...
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...Name: Ramiro Rivera Date: 31 August 2013 Module 3 Aircraft Systems and Aircraft Maintenance LOB 8: Explain how an operator can fly an aircraft with inoperable instruments or equipment within the limits of an approved minimum equipment list (MEL). Web Support link: http://www.nbaa.org/ops/maint/inoperative-equipment/minimum-equipment-list.php Inoperable Equipment and Minimum Equipment List I have chose to use NBAA.org as a good resourceful tool for learning in general when it comes to aviation. This web link will teach you an easy and simple way the definition and use of a MEL. Definition of MEL: A Minimum Equipment List (MEL) is one method aircraft operators may use to obtain relief from Federal Aviation Regulations that generally require that all equipment installed on the aircraft be operative at the time of flight. A MEL is a precise listing of instruments, equipment and procedures that allows an aircraft to be operated under specific conditions with inoperative equipment. It will explain you step by step the procedure and use of an MEL, such as: * Obtaining FAA approval * Conducting operations with an MEL * Correcting MEL inoperative items * Record keeping requirements NBAA.org is an excellent website for any professional in aviation or for anyone interest in aviation. Using this beside you can find information from student material, airport operations, security, maintenance, job search and much more. As a professional pilot, I recommend...
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...Impacts of New Technology on Aircraft Maintenance Abstract In this research paper the author identifies several key areas of interest when introducing new technologies in the aviation industry. The majority of the focus surrounds the maintainability of these new technologies and the significant impacts to the maintainers themselves. Much emphasis is given to the people responsible to maintain the aircraft from a human factors perspective. There are many maintenance aspects addressed in the paper to include the impacts on Training and Certification of aircraft mechanics, design considerations in terms of capabilities and ease of access of components and associated equipment. Advancements in procedures, interactive technical manuals and specific emerging maintenance techniques and troubleshooting are introduced from the maintainer’s perspective and those impacts addressed. The key impacts of new technology are summarized for domestic, international, military aircraft operational environments, and the paper concludes with an examination of the advantages and disadvantages of new technologies on aircraft maintenance. Keywords: aircraft maintainability, design for maintenance, personnel training, human factors Impacts of New Technology on Aircraft Maintenance Advancements in technology are a continuous and necessary aspect of our culture. The desire to stay ahead of the competition in both domestic and international environments is what makes our country’s aviation and...
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...AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE RATINGS AND PRIVLEGES John INTRODUCTION TO AERONAUTICAL SCIENCE, AMGT 202 MR. ROGER TAYLOR AUGUST 15, 2009 In order to perform, certify repairs and airworthiness of aircraft in the aviation industry one must possess a license(s) issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With each rating comes privileges issued and authorized by the FAA. The ratings are: Mechanics, Repairman, Parachute Riggers and Aircraft Dispatcher. Certification of these jobs is covered under Part 65 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR’s). Also included under Part 65 is Air Traffic Controllers, but I’ll not address this career in this paper. Aviation maintenance is a demanding career that has many training requirements. An entire sub industry has been created to train aviation professionals. Schools and their training and curriculum requirements are governed by FAR 147. Under this FAR, only Airframe, Powerplant and Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) ratings may be taught. Curriculums have minimum FAA requirements and must be FAA approved. There are many schools throughout the United States that teach aviation maintenance; in fact the FAA’s web site lists over 150 certified schools within the United States alone. Additionally, many airlines and repair stations have in-house and on the job training programs to ensure personnel maintain proficiency, learn the latest techniques and newest technology. Aircraft maintenance ratings are broken down...
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...Aircraft Maintenance Safety Compliance I found an article published in Aero Safety world raised serious concerns about safety compliance among aircraft maintenance technicians and their managers. The report is about compliance procedures to ensure aircraft safety. This report is based on a Baines Simmons employee safety culture survey that canvassed 2,000 maintenance professionals in union and non-union aircraft maintenance shops in North and South America over a period of three years (2007-2010). Within this survey the findings were quite alarming, such as, more than eighty percent of the maintenance personnel surveyed said that it is necessary and actually acceptable to sacrifice safety and compliance to complete their jobs on time. Also, sixteen percent of the managers agreed with the statement, “Due to limited time or resources, there have been times when I signed off for work that was not completed.” Lastly, the article stated that fifty three percent of Aircraft Maintenance Technicians disagreed with the statement, “Before I start a job I am always given the necessary information.” These and similar results within the report indicate that it’s not uncommon for technicians and their managers to ignore procedures, and perform maintenance without the proper information as well as signing off on work that was not completed. It is stressed that there is great importance in cultivating/instilling Safety Management System (SMS) into the maintenance process. With...
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...control mechanism in an aircraft maintenance facility and within the entire field of maintaining aircraft is detailed annotation of all work performed. This data is compiled into a logbook which stays with the aircraft for the duration of its service life. Another practice that is performed to mitigate risks during flight is part traceability. This way if a defective part fails on an aircraft it can be discovered how and why this anomaly occurred. The control mechanisms are put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration and set forth in the FAR/AMT (Federal Aviation Regulations/Aviation Maintenance Technician) in great detail. It is up to the individual Aviation Maintenance Technician Airframe and Power plant mechanic to adhere to and enforce these regulations. In addition partial responsibility lies upon the owner/operator of such aircraft to ensure these guidelines are met. Largely these controls are definitely respected and adhered to as any deviation from them is punishable by federal law. These are laws in every sense of the word. Unfortunately there are some people who may wish to make a “quick buck” by bending or breaking these regulations. They are often caught up with, yet occasionally some slip through the cracks. The greatest and most obvious benefit of these control mechanisms is that it ensures the safety of the pilots and passengers whom utilize these aircraft. The FAR/AMT Part 43.12 b also describes acceptable maintenance practices. These are a...
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...Influence of time pressure on aircraft maintenance errors TAKAHIRO SUZUKI, TERRY L. VON THADEN, WILLIAM D. GEIBEL University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Introduction Even though proper maintenance is crucial for aviation safety, tracing the effect that human error in maintenance operations has on accidents and incidents remains a difficult task. According to a UK Civil Aviation Authority study (2003), maintenance and inspection deficiencies ranked fourth (12%) as a factor in aviation accidents overall. Other studies have described that as technology has improved, aviation accidents attributed to mechanical failures alone have decreased, yet those attributed to human error have not shown the same reduction (Wiegmann & Shappell, 2003). Aircraft maintenance requires high reliability and is an important concern in the human factors realm for several reasons. On the one hand, automation, which has reduced flight crew workload, does not apply in maintenance operations (Reason & Hobbs, 2003). On the other hand, maintenance tasks generally access critical areas where human errors lead to serious consequences (Reason, 1997). From a human factors perspective, in the current competitive environment of commercial aviation, occupational opportunities relating to aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs) are declining. While oil prices soar, fares remain low due to competition (Bond, 2008). Employing fewer technicians and making turnaround at the airport gate shorter are...
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... Because of this, the staff at the airport is constantly working on making the facility and its planes as functioning and safe as possible. Mark Hopkins is the Maintenance supervisor for all the airplanes owned by Purdue University. His job is to make sure all aircraft are inspected and fixed according to FAA regulation and by the specific plane manufacturer. An airport does not have the luxury of debating whether a maintenance department can be seen as a cost or profit facility; it’s a necessity. All the planes must be in nearly perfect working order before they leave the tarmac. If a failure happens during the flight, the accident may be catastrophic. To prevent these disasters from happening, Hopkins must implement various preventive and predictive maintenance measures. According to Hopkins, 50% of maintenance activities for the planes is preventive and 20% is predictive. Planning, however, is harder to determine. This is because planning maintenance for the airplanes is a task that requires the airport, the FAA, and the manufacture of the planes. Purdue must submit a Maintenance plane to the FAA for approval, as well as work with the manufacturer in order to establish the best maintenance plan for their planes. Hopkins also mentions that firefighting activities can vary from 20-40 percent of their maintenance depending on weather conditions, planes, and pilots. Budget is determined by the finance department based on the requirements from past experience. Equipment is bought...
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.... Chapter Failure prevention and recovery 19 Eurotunnel response team during one of their regular patrols in the tunnel Source: Eurotunnel Introduction One obvious way of improving operations performance is by preventing failure. Failure is rarely unimportant, but in some operations it is vital that processes do not fail. Failure in aircraft in flight, for example, or electricity supplies to hospitals, or car seat belts, or the emergency services can be literally fatal. For these operations dependability is not just desirable, it is essential. Even in less critical situations, having dependable processes can give a competitive advantage. But no process is perfect and failures will occur. So it is important that we learn from all failures and have plans in place which help them recover and minimize their effects. Figure 19.1 shows how this chapter fits into the operation’s improvement activities. Operations strategy Failure prevention and recovery Operations process improvement makes processes better Design Operations management Improvement Total quality management organizes process improvement Planning and control Failure prevention and recovery stops processes becoming worse Topic covered in this chapter Figure 19.1 This chapter covers failure prevention and recovery . 618 Part Four Improvement Key questions I I I I I ??? Why do operations fail? How is failure measured? How can failure and potential failure be...
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...MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT Prof. O.P. Gandhi ITMMEC, IIT Delhi The term ‘maintenance’ means to keep the equipment in operational condition or repair it to its operational mode. Main objective of the maintenance is to have increased availability of production systems, with increased safety and optimized cost. Maintenance management involves managing the functions of maintenance. Maintaining equipment in the field has been a challenging task since the beginning of industrial revolution. Since then, a significant of progress has been made to maintain equipment effectively in the field. As the engineering equipment becomes sophisticated and expensive to produce and maintain, maintenance management has to face even more challenging situations to maintain effectively such equipments in industrial environment. This brief lecture on maintenance management includes maintenance strategies, functions of maintenance department, maintenance organization and elements of maintenance management. MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES OR OPTIONS A maintenance strategy or option means a scheme for maintenance, i.e. an elaborate and systematic plan of maintenance action. Following are the maintenance strategies [1] that are commonly applied in the plants. • Breakdown Maintenance or Operate to Failure or Unplanned Maintenance • Preventive or Scheduled Maintenance • Predictive or Condition Based Maintenance • Opportunity Maintenance • Design out Maintenance The equipment...
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...MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT The term ‘maintenance’ means to keep the equipment in operational condition or repair it to its operational mode. Main objective of the maintenance is to have increased availability of production systems, with increased safety and optimized cost. Maintenance management involves managing the functions of maintenance. Maintaining equipment in the field has been a challenging task since the beginning of industrial revolution. Since then, a significant of progress has been made to maintain equipment effectively in the field. As the engineering equipment becomes sophisticated and expensive to produce and maintain, maintenance management has to face even more challenging situations to maintain effectively such equipments in industrial environment. This brief lecture on maintenance management includes maintenance strategies, functions of maintenance department, maintenance organization and elements of maintenance management. MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES OR OPTIONS A maintenance strategy or option means a scheme for maintenance, i.e. an elaborate and systematic plan of maintenance action. Following are the maintenance strategies [1] that are commonly applied in the plants. • Breakdown Maintenance or Operate to Failure or Unplanned Maintenance • Preventive or Scheduled Maintenance • Predictive or Condition Based Maintenance • Opportunity Maintenance • Design out Maintenance The equipment under breakdown maintenance...
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...Aircraft maintenance is a huge part of any operation dealing with aircraft and flying, whether it is military or commercial flying. On average there is between ten and fifteen man- hours of maintenance for each hour of flight time. Strict procedures and guidelines are set in place, and strictly enforced to ensure the safety of all involved, maintainers, aircrews and the aircraft. Aircraft maintenance is so important and throughout the years it has been becoming more efficient and reliable with more policies put in place. Aircraft maintainers are highly skilled technicians that are required to go through specific training, which is required by the Federal Aviation Administration. For most commercial aircraft maintenance jobs it is required for each person to hold a mechanic’s certificate, also know as an airframe and power plant license. To obtain one of the licenses you must have at least eighteen months of either power plant or airframe practical experience, or at least thirty months working on each at the same time. Another acceptable requirement to work in the maintenance field is you could graduate from one of many approved maintenance technician schools such as Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Whether the technician goes to college to get their training, or received hands on experienced and passes a number of tests we can be confident in their knowledge. Maintenance departments are a huge part of any flying organization. They are responsible for scheduled and unscheduled...
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...Aviation Maintenance from A Manger’s Perspective Lisa A. Williams Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Management 203 Christopher Urdzik April 26, 2015 Abstract This paper explores aviation maintenance from a Manager’s perspective. There are various governing bodies that control or oversee how maintenance is performed on a routine basis for commercial aircraft. The main governing body that is discussed here is the FAA. Also discussed is the required training of the Airframe and Powerplant mechanic and how management can be assured that mechanics are qualified to release aircraft after performing maintenance certifying these aircraft are safe to fly. Also, in this paper, the attempt is made to show where mechanics need ongoing training to assure management that the mechanic is trained on new technologies that are developed and used in commercial and corporate aviation. The answers are not mapped out by the FAA or training programs so it is up to the company to be sure that the mechanic is made aware of these new technologies through FAA study groups that managers can attend and brief technicians on new developments. Human error cannot be eradicated it is indispensable fact of the human behavior (Maddox, 1998). Although, aviation maintenance managers have acquired high levels of technological skills training related to their profession, the above statement from Dr. Michael Maddox is true in regards to human error. Research in the industrial...
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...ABNORMAL EVENTS All aircraft are designed to withstand the normal flight and landing loads expected during a typical flight cycle. These loads will include the normal manoeuvres the aircraft is expected to make. The designer will build in a safety factor to compensate for loads slightly larger than normal. Sometimes extreme circumstances occur which cause stresses outside the normal design limits. If the design limits are exceeded, then damage may occur to the aircraft. If it is known or suspected that the aircraft has be en subjected to excessive loads, then an inspection should be made, to ascertain the nature of any damage that may have occurred. The manufacturer will normally have anticipated the nature of some of these occurrences and detailed special checks for these µAbnormal Occurrences¶. 1.1 T YPES OF ABNORMAL OCCURRENCES The aircraft maintenance manual will normally list the types of abnormal occurrences needing special inspection. The list may vary, depending on the aircraft. The following items are a selection from a typical aircraft: y y y y y y y y y y y Lightning strikes High-intensity radiated fields penetration Heavy or overweight landing Flight through severe turbulence Burst tyre Flap or slat over-speed Flight through volcanic ash Tail strike Mercury spillage Dragged engine or e ngine seizure High-energy stop. 1.2 T YPES OF DAMAGE It is not intended to describe the types of damage applicable to every type of occurrence. It is more important...
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...inherited both an aging fleet of Boeing 727-300 aircraft and Stephen Ruth. Stephen was a tough former Secretary of the Navy who stepped in as new president and chairman of the board. Stephen’s first concern in creating a financially solid company was maintenance costs. It was commonly surmised in the airline industry that maintenance costs rise with the age of the aircraft. He quickly noticed that historically there had been a significant difference in the reported B727-300 maintenance costs (from ATA Form 41s) both in the airframe and engine areas between Northern Airlines and Southeast Airlines, with Southeast having the newer fleet. On February 12, 2008, Peg Jones, vice president for operations and maintenance, was called into Stephen’s office and asked to study the issue. Specifically, Stephen wanted to know whether the average fleet age was correlated to direct airframe maintenance costs, and whether there was a relationship between average fleet age and direct engine maintenance costs. Peg was to report back by February 26 with the answer, along with quantitative and graphical descriptions of the relationship. Peg’s first step was to have her staff construct the average age of Northern and Southeast B727-300 fleets, by quarter, since the introduction of that aircraft to service by each airline in late 1993 and early 1994. The average age of each fleet was calculated by first multiplying the total number of calendar days each aircraft had been in service at the pertinent point...
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