I detect that I have set a new personal record (woohoo!) for the amount of acronyms in a blog article title at four. If you’re reading this, you probably already have a good handle on what they mean, but more on that later. Before we get started I wanted to make a suggestion to those of you who are responsible for maintaining those pesky Approved Supplier Lists required by nearly all quality standards. Many of you give automatic approval to firms who are accredited, for example, to the ASA-100, ...

Many of you buy and sell avionics parts and/or have Repair Stations/Approved Maintenance Organisations. As such I’d like to share with you the options that exist globally regarding the credentials which avionics technicians may bring to your attention during the hiring process, including the relatively new NCATT (National Center for Aircraft Technician Training) Certification. Before starting, since this article is addressing a global topic, we need to point out that generally, the terms Technic...

I was once in Miami and a friend shared a story. He works in a Repair Station there that performs maintenance on aircraft, and has frequent FAA visits. It seems one day an FAA Inspector expressed concerns to him that he had doubts some Repair Station Technicians and Inspectors could competently comprehend English as contained in Quality and Maintenance Manuals. The person responded; “Then why did you issue them A&P and Repairman Certificates?” It is, after all, the FAA’s responsibility to determ...

I do a lot of work with Repair Stations/AMOs (Approved Maintenance Organization). For MROs (Maintenance Repair and Overhaul) which do business internationally, the customer’s national CAA (Civil Aviation Authorities) often require that maintenance performed on aircraft based there be performed by MROs certified to their nation’s regulations. Thus, it is common to see MROs with multiple certifications for all the nations they do business with. Each nation typically charges fees, and requires a de...