The discussion paper is one of the General Aviation Workplan initiatives to help streamline airworthiness and maintenance. It includes a range of proposed options to improve maintenance type rating training arrangements in general, and for legacy helicopters.
We plan to continue to generally harmonise with European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type rating and processes. However, future Australian type rating decisions will place the emphasis on an assessment of whether a new aircraft type introduces technologies or techniques that:
- are not covered by the licensed aircraft maintenance engineer (LAME) category training
- require new processes which will be unfamiliar to LAMEs
- are sufficiently safety critical as to require specialised maintenance training.
Proposed options
The proposed key options are:
- General alignment with EASA type rating decisions but with some variation for the Australian context.
- Future aircraft type ratings would only be generated if safety-critical technologies or processes required to maintain an aircraft are not covered by Part 66 of CASR licence category training.
- Existing type rated aircraft - not type rated prior to commencement of Part 66 of CASR - would be reverted to no type rating.
- Type rated aircraft with similar maintenance requirements would be grouped together under a common group rating.
- Training for type ratings would be made more accessible.
Consultation is open until 12 February 2023. Visit the Consultation Hub to review and have your say.
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