Story ID: 
Ensuring Airworthiness: Well-Trained Technicians Are Key
By: Martha Jercinovich
Caption: Ensuring your aircraft is ready to fly when you are begins with an adept team of maintenance professionals.
Word Count: 972
Flight delays are always inconvenient, but when they could have been avoided, they are particularly frustrating. Having a well-trained maintenance team is essential in helping to preempt costly delays due to avoidable mechanical issues.
FlightSafety International (FSI) provides comprehensive, expert instruction for the industry’s most elite aviation maintenance professionals. By incorporating innovative methods, in-depth knowledge from manufacturers and instructors, and a thorough curriculum, FSI equips technicians with the knowledge and skills to quickly assess and service aircraft. The experience gained through this training leads to faster maintenance turnarounds and, ultimately, aircraft that spend more time in the sky than in the hangar. 
Cutting-Edge Training Devices
FSI’s maintenance training programs combine academic instruction with hands-on experience, providing technicians with the critical opportunity to develop, expand, and refine their proficiency. The interactive applied training helps to reinforce lessons learned while practicing and improving skills in real time.
For maintenance technicians who work with Pratt & Whitney Canada engines, FSI already offers Virtual Engine Trainers (VETs). These animated, interactive models provide a detailed view of the engine, as well as individual components, and enable technicians to conduct essential procedures, including part replacement. VETs are also equipped with an “X-ray and move” function, which provides dynamic cross-section views of nearly every part to ensure technicians are thoroughly familiar with how and where parts connect. Another advantage of VET training is the ability to conduct a borescope inspection. Typical wear and tear is simulated in the VET; students use the borescope to assess damage and engine dispatchability. The training is so realistic that Virtual Engine Training is EASA-accepted for up to 50 percent of practical engine training.
A Deep Knowledge of Aircraft Equipment
In addition to its high-tech training devices, FSI relies on strong partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to enhance the value of its elite technician training. These relationships, which include collaborations with Beechcraft, Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault Falcon, Embraer, Gulfstream, Hawker, HondaJet, Pilatus, and Sikorsky, leverage the OEMs’ extensive knowledge of aircraft design, manufacture, and support, as well as FSI’s world-class training expertise.
These longtime partnerships also help ensure FSI’s courses and courseware are updated as changes to aircraft components are made. Moreover, the collaboration creates more standardization of maintenance practices in the field and improved aircraft reliability, ultimately benefitting the flight operation the technician works for.
Specialized Engine Expertise
FSI also works with two leading engine manufacturers to develop engine-specific training. The partnership with Pratt & Whitney Canada, which extends back to 2010, has led to a comprehensive program that covers the full range of Pratt & Whitney Canada engines—including turboprop, turbofan, and turboshaft—as well as APU/APS. FSI’s collaboration with Honeywell Aerospace means technicians can come to FlightSafety to learn the best techniques to service Honeywell engines, APUs, avionics, environmental controls, and satcom systems.
FSI’s engine-specific programs use full-scale systems trainers, maintenance task simulators, test equipment, major component cutaways, and working models to provide the most effective training, based on real-world experience.
Electronics Training
FSI’s courses and courseware are regularly updated to ensure technicians can expertly service modern safety and security programs. For example, FlightSafety offers AERO IT to train professionals on aircraft networks and instruct them on how to troubleshoot the system. FSI also offers an Avionics Standard Practices course, which provides hands-on experience for today’s most sophisticated wiring and connector installation and repair.
Online Availability Adds Flexibility
To supplement its extensive hands-on training opportunities, FlightSafety has continued to invest in its online program. Nearly all maintenance courses can now be delivered via instructor-led LiveLearning. These courses cover thorough instruction on maintaining aircraft and engine types, with technicians working directly with FSI instructors—from the convenience of their own location.
The robust library of these courses includes:
	Maintenance Initial	Maintenance Updates	Operational Maintenance Procedures	Advanced Troubleshooting	Avionics	Cold-weather Operations	Dangerous Goods Handling	Engine Condition Trend Monitoring	Engine Run and Taxi	Engine-specific Repair and Maintenance	General Maintenance	Human Factors	Safety Management SystemsTraining With the Best in the Business
FlightSafety’s detailed curriculum is delivered by the industry’s most skilled, factory-trained instructors. These experienced professionals ensure technicians understand how to effectively troubleshoot, repair, and maintain the aircraft they are responsible for—quickly and accurately.
Elevate Safety and Efficiency With Master Technicians
For flight operations looking to fully leverage the efficiencies of a well-trained maintenance team, FSI also provides a Master Technician Training Program. This comprehensive program complements both the experience gained from day-to-day operations and skills learned from standard training. Those who successfully complete the courses, schedules, and examinations join an elite group of technicians who exceed industry standards.
The well-respected Master Technician program develops more advanced skills at every level, producing higher standards for the technician and flight operations. This improves safety, lowers operational costs, and increases aircraft dispatch reliability.
FSI’s five-step, type-specific program can be completed in airframe, avionics, cabin systems, composites, engine-specific mastery, and management.
Prepared for Anything
An expertly maintained aircraft (or fleet) ensures passengers travel safely and efficiently. Investing in the proper training for technicians—like the kind FlightSafety delivers—prepares those critical members of a flight operation with the skills and knowledge to meet any challenge. With more than 820 maintenance courses encompassing aircraft- and engine-specific, as well as non-aircraft-specific programs, FSI provides an elite level of training that is compliant with virtually every leading aviation authority worldwide. This is why flight operations around the world rely on it to prepare technicians with the expertise necessary to ensure their aircraft are always ready for their next flight.
To learn more about FlightSafety’s safety-focused training for maintenance technicians, visit flightsafety.com/business-commercial/maintenance/.