Maintenance and Manufacturing Policy Letters (MPL)

1. Purpose

1.1 The purpose of this letter is to clarify Transport Canada (TC) policy regarding update course duration in an Approved Maintenance Organization (AMO).

2. Background

2.1 The Canadian Aviation Regulations 573.06 require AMOs to provide update training. While this requirement has always been addressed during policy manual approval, there have been some inconsistencies in interpretation of the standards. More specifically, some regions have favoured a minimum fixed time requirement as a condition of program approval, while others have taken a much broader approach. This variance has often resulted in industry complaints regarding TC program delivery.

3. Policy Statement

3.1 Update training programs should be based on the scope of approval of the organization. As such, hard time requirements are less important than having procedures in place that meet the broader objective of the requirements, which will ensure that technical personnel receive meaningful update training based on operational maintenance experience.

3.2 The program should be sufficiently flexible to allow for differences in size and type of operation, fleet age and mix, system analysis and feedback, as well as other dynamics normally associated with resource management. A good update training policy should ultimately result in improved maintenance reliability and operational performance when measured by objective in-house performance indicators.

3.3 Approval of update training programs contained in policy manuals should not be based on hard time, but rather, course duration should take into account particular needs and objectives of the organization based on operational role, maintenance experience, and in-house systems analysis.

4. Effective Date

4.1 This policy comes into effect January 25, 2001.

5. Expiry

5.1 This policy expires on January 25, 2003, or upon publication of the pertinent revisions to the Standards  contained within Chapter 573 of the Airworthiness Manual.

6. HQ Contact

6.1 The responsible officer indicated below may be contacted for i  i   information regarding this MPL:

M. McDonald, AARPB
Aircraft Maintenance & Manufacturing
E-mail: mcdonam@tc.gc.ca
Phone:      (613) 952-4386
Facsimile: (613) 952-3298

D.B. Sherritt
Director,
Maintenance and Manufacturing