New Rats: Repair Station Training Requirements Overview

Since the overall purpose of a training program is to ensure that the product coming out of the repair station is airworthy, the first step should be to define the product(s) and each of the processes that you use to maintain it.

Caution! Many would-be-training program authors will give this step only a cursory peek. Why? They figure they have been doing the same work, in the same place, forever, and they don’t need any stinking assessment of what they do every day. They are wrong! It is very important that you take your time and get the true picture of your repair station products, and the work performed, so you can define the training needs based on the tasks performed.

Before I would start my actual walk around, I would first look in your repair station manual and find your repair station’s capability list (Ref: 145.215). This list identifies the products your repair station is allowed to sign off. Next, get down on the floor and identify the tasks for each of those products as well as those associated tasks to make it airworthy. This includes inspection, supervision, and recordkeeping tasks.

After you have performed your needs assessment of the repair station’s products and tasks, you should have a good idea on how your training program will be formatted. For example, the training program could be designed to address training by product line, or for individual shops within your repair station, or by the tasks performed by individual employees. This assessment should also identify which tasks would require more technical training based on complexity versus those tasks which require less. A smart person would document how the needs assessment was accomplished and put that in a chapter or section of the training program. Why? Well, first of all because it is required to be in the program and second, the next time a needs assessment must be performed you have a template to guide you.

Kinds of Training Required

AC 145.10 breaks up employee training into three categories. They are:

1. Initial training which includes:
indoctrination, technical, and specialized
2. Recurrent
3. Remedial, based on demonstrated need.

Indoctrination category forms the core training for all repair station personnel. This kind of training can vary based on the tasks the employee must perform or it can be one size fits all kinds of training. While not a FAA requirement, indoctrination training is a good place to explain the repair station’s goals, objectives, culture, and values.

Indoctrination/initial training must include the following:

a. Appropriate review of Federal Aviation Regulations, such as Part 1, Part 21, 39, 43, 91, 121, 135, and 145 and how the repair station complies with these regulations.
b. Use of repair station’s manuals, policies, procedures, and practices including quality control, processes, etc.
c. How the repair station complies with Department of Transportation hazardous materials requirements, OSHA, and EPA regulations, as well as any appropriate local, state, and federal laws requiring training for different employee job tasks. While it is a good idea to have all the required training in one place, I would put this “other agencies” required training in a separate chapter/section in the training program, and identify that chapter/section as not required by the FAA so that chapter/section does not have to be “approved.”
d. Training in human factors is required. See the list of required subjects in AC 145.10 page 10.
e. Training in computer systems and software applications that relate to the operation of the repair station are also required.
f. And in this day and age, you have to train your employees on how security is maintained in and around the repair station facility.

Technical training is next. With your list of each of your product’s maintenance tasks that you identified during your repair station’s needs assessment in your hot little hand, you can now develop the technical training that each employee may need to perform that task.