The FAA has extended the comment period for a proposed change to Part 147 regulations governing the curriculum and operations of FAA-certified aviation maintenance technician (AMT) schools. The new comment period closes Feb. 1, 2016 (see Docket No. FAA–2015–3901 at regulations.gov).
The changes would “modernize and reorganize the required curriculum subjects in the appendices of the current regulations,” according to the FAA. “They would also remove the course content items currently located in the appendices and require that they be placed in each school’s operations specifications so they could more easily be amended when necessary.”
Comments posted thus far are both positive and negative. One commenter suggested that the FAA “set a minimum standard and let the industry build from there.”
An AMT school faculty member wrote: “The suggestion to remove specific content out of Part 147 is ill advised. It is also entirely at disingenuous, at best, to purport that the reason to do this is because the current situation prevents updates to this content. The facts are there have not been many attempts to change this content, and where it has been attempted, the attempts were successful. What you are proposing will lead to curriculum divergence across the country in ways that are costly and are likely to lead to increased confusion and frustration in fulfilling the critical role played by aviation maintenance schools and colleges.”
An instructor at a college AMT program is “pleased [that] changes are proposed. I would like to see training going closer to what Canada and Australia are doing. I have been an A&P mechanic since 1979 and traveled to many countries where my A&P was not valid. Our training is lighter and it needs to match more closely to the world’s view of aviation maintenance.” This commenter is also concerned that the new rules propose a change in instructor qualification, which could mean AMT certification is not required to be an instructor, as is currently the case, “so you are cutting A&Ps out of jobs.” Another concern he outlined is that an FAA inspector could force a school to change the course content in the school’s operations specifications (OpSpec). “With the proposed changes it sounds as if our FAA inspector could come in and decide we needed to concentrate on lavatory systems and mandate that Ops change without a [rulemaking]. It could leave our school with an undue economic impact without any notice just because one inspector favors one area of training over another.”