Maintenance Procedures Course

The authority to maintain our own aircraft is a valued privilege for amateur builders, but it carries some important legal responsibilities. Having built an aircraft, in some cases many years ago, does not ensure that the holder of the maintenance authority is up to the job today. The SAAA Maintenance Procedures Course aims to ensure all who hold maintenance authority for their amateur built experimental aircraft are able to meet their responsibilities.

Background

Many of our older members built aircraft under the ABAA system (Amateur Built Aircraft Acceptance) which did not give them any maintenance authority. The SOAG group in Queensland, who mainly operate ABAA built aircraft, approached CASA some years ago to obtain maintenance authority similar to that for experimental builders. CASA agreed with the concept provided they completed a course designed to meet the requirements of the CASA Basic Airworthiness Administration Syllabus plus demonstrating practical maintenance skills.

This course has now been offered to SAAA by SOAG. This provides great value to SAAA members, not only in helping our ABAA builders to obtain maintenance authority, but also to educate all experimental builders and owners. Builders of experimental category aircraft must convince the Authorised Person who issues their C of A that they are capable of ‘continuous maintenance’ of their aircraft. Experience since the introduction of the experimental category has shown that many may be less than fully equipped for this task. There is a knowledge gap that needs to be filled. With this course now available, new CofA applicants as well as existing maintainers, can prove their competency by successful completion of this course.

Advantages of the course

The SAAA National Council believes all builders should be encouraged to do this course for their own benefit. With a thorough knowledge of the regulations builders and owners will:

  • be better able to meet their legal obligations
  • secure a better insurance discount
  • achieve greater aircraft resale value (subsequent owners can only get LAME maintenance for an aircraft with a properly documented maintenance history)
  • demonstrate SAAA and members maturity in addressing a legislative weakness and possibly prevent the imposition of outside control on our experimental privileges
  • contribute to safety, safety, and enhanced safety through knowledge for you, your passenger/s other airspace users and those on the ground

CASA approval

Once it is up and running the course, and each of the trainers, will be CASA approved. Part of the approval process is to conduct some preliminary trial courses and to assess the course presenters in action. You can assist by being part of these trial programs in your state.

When this course and the governing procedures manual have been approved by CASA the current experimental instrument (71/08) will be changed to add the privilege of self maintenance to ABAA builders. We hope this will be a stepping stone to the eventual introduction of the AMS3 course which will allow non builders or second-hand owners of an ABAA or an Experimental aircraft to maintain their aircraft.

Course structure

The course is based on six modules which cover all the regulatory requirements including demonstrations of how to access the CASA website and the correct completion of your logbooks. Into the future we envisage that Chapters will be able to follow up this learning with practical demonstrations and workshop visits covering the many skill areas needed in maintaining an aircraft.

Participant fees

There is a great deal of time and effort involved in developing and trialling the course, training the presenters and staging the courses around Australia. In these modern times there is no free lunch so there will be a charge to attend the course and receive your course certificate on graduation.

As with the CofA pack the cost will be adjusted to take account of years of membership. This fairly rewards those who have been contributing to the SAAA over a longer period of time.

* Non Members will have a year’s membership to SAAA included.
All participants must be a member at the time of the course for insurance purposes.

Who should attend?

  • Members currently in process of building
  • Members who have completed an aircraft and are exercising their maintenance authority for their aircraft
  • Non-member builders or maintainers
  • Members and others keen to expand their aviation knowledge