145.A.10
This Section establishes the requirements to be met by an organisation to qualify for the issue or continuation of an approval for the maintenance of aircraft and components.
AMC 145.A.10 Scope
(a) ‘Line maintenance’ refers to limited maintenance for the aircraft suitable to be carried out whilst the aircraft remains in the air operation environment.
Line Maintenance may include:
— Trouble shooting;
— Defect rectification;
— Component replacement with use of external test equipment if required. Component replacement may include components such as engines and propellers;
— Maintenance that will detect obvious unsatisfactory conditions/discrepancies/malfunctions but does not require extensive in-depth inspection. It may also include internal structure, systems and powerplant items which are visible through quick opening access panels/doors/ports;
— Repairs, modifications and other maintenance tasks which do not require extensive disassembly and can be accomplished by simple means.
(b) ‘Base maintenance’ refers to any maintenance for the aircraft other than line maintenance.
(c) Organisations maintaining aircraft should have a procedure to determine whether the tasks or groups of tasks to be carried out fall under the line maintenance or base maintenance scope of the organisation, with due regard to the expected duration of the maintenance, number and type of tasks, shifts and disciplines involved, work environment, etc.
For temporary or occasional cases, the organisation may also have a procedure which allows, subject to a task assessment (including all relevant aspects and conditions), to conduct a base maintenance task under line maintenance environment.
(d) In particular, maintenance tasks of aircraft subject to ‘progressive’ or ‘equalised’ maintenance programmes should be individually assessed in respect of such procedure to ensure that all the tasks within the particular check can be carried out safely and to the required standards at the designated line maintenance station.
GM 145.A.10 Small Organizations
This Guidance Material (GM) provides guidance on how the following small organisations satisfy the intent of Part-145:
(a) Organisations that only employ one person, who carries out the certification
function and other functions, and that are approved under Part-145 may use the alternatives provided below limited to the following terms of approval:
Class A2 Base and line maintenance of aeroplanes of 5 700 kg maximum take-off mass (MTOM) or less (with piston engines only)
Class A3 Base and line maintenance of single-engined helicopters of 3 175 kg MTOM or less
Class A4 Aircraft other than A1, A2 and A3 aircraft
Class B2 Piston engines with maximum output of less than 450 HP
Class C Components
Class D1 Non-destructive testing
145.A.30(b): The minimum requirement is for one full-time person who meets the Part-66 requirements for certifying staff and holds the position of ‘accountable manager, safety manager, maintenance engineer and is also certifying staff and, if applicable, airworthiness review staff’. No other person may issue a certificate of release to service and therefore if that person is absent, no maintenance may be released during such absence.
(1) The independent audit element of the compliance monitoring function of point 145.A.200(a)(6) may be subcontracted to an appropriate organisation approved under Part-145 or contracted to a person with appropriate technical knowledge and extensive experience of audits, working under the management system of
the organisation, with the agreement of the competent authority.
Note: ‘Full-time’ for the purpose of Part-145 means not less than 35 hrs per week except during vacation periods.
(2) 145.A.35. In the case of an approval based on one person using an independent audit monitoring arrangement as referred to in point (1), the requirement for a record of certifying staff is satisfied by the submission to and acceptance by the competent authority of the MOE. With only one person, the requirement for a separate record of authorisation is unnecessary because the EASA Form 3 certificate defines the authorisation. An appropriate statement, to reflect this situation, should be included in the exposition.
3.1.3. 145.A.65(c). It is the responsibility of the contracted quality monitoring organisation or person to make a minimum of 2 visits per 12 months and it is the responsibility of this organisation or person to carry out such monitoring on the basis of 1 pre-announced visit and 1 not announced visit to the organisation.
It is the responsibility of the organisation to comply with the findings of the contracted quality monitoring organisation or the person.
CAUTION: it should be understood that if the contracted organisation or the above mentioned person loses or gives up its approval, then the organisation’s approval will be suspended.
Recommended operating procedure for a Part-145 approved maintenance organisation based upon up to 10 persons involved in maintenance.
4.1. 145.A.30(b): The normal minimum requirement is for the employment on a full-time basis of two persons who meet the competent authorities’ requirements for certifying staff, whereby one holds the position of ‘maintenance engineer’ and the other holds the position of ‘quality audit engineer’.
Either person can assume the responsibilities of the accountable manager providing that they can comply in full with the applicable elements of 145.A.30(a), but the ‘maintenance engineer’ is the certifying person to retain the independence of the ‘quality audit engineer’ to carry out audits. Nothing prevents either engineer from undertaking maintenance tasks providing that the ‘maintenance engineer’ issues the certificate of release to service. This ‘maintenance engineer’ may also be nominated as airworthiness review staff to carry out airworthiness reviews and issue the corresponding airworthiness review certificate for aircraft for which Part-ML applies in accordance with ML.A.903.
The ‘quality audit engineer’ should have similar qualifications and status to the ‘maintenance engineer’ for reasons of credibility, unless he/she has a proven track-record in aircraft quality assurance, in which case some reduction in the extent of maintenance qualifications may be permitted.
In cases where the competent authority agrees that it is not practical for the organisation to nominate a post holder for the quality monitoring function, this function may be contracted in accordance to paragraph 3.1.1.