Two-year IA Renewal
A win/win for technicians, employers, and the FAA
By Brian Finnegan, President, Professional Aviation Maintenance Association
As I begin the final leg of this year's tour across the country to attend as many Inspection Authorization (IA) seminars as possible, I am left with an unmistakable feeling of déjà vu. Here we have this fantastic training opportunity, but very little exposure to the leading edge of maintenance technology. Are we really validating an inspector's ability to inspect in eight, 50-minute sessions? How could we make it more representative, involve more vendors, and encourage a greater participation by the aviation maintenance community? PAMA supports extending the IA renewal cycle to two years from one and the training commitment from eight hours to 16.
This annual pilgrimage to FAA-approved training sessions is an important aspect of professionalism. Many more thousands of technicians also attend to achieve recognition through the FAA's Aviation Maintenance Technician Awards program. However, the FAA's administrative burden of validating this training every year and the financial burden on companies is taking its toll. As government and corporate budgets are squeezed, we need to work smarter and more efficiently.
The benefits of such a change will be immediate and measurable. Sixteen hours of training is a significant achievement. It could be accomplished in a yet-to-be developed forum or breed a new form of continuous training that guarantees meeting the training need through interactive, web-based, and hands-on blended training. Travel expenses for training opportunities will immediately be cut in half as two-day events consume no more travel time than one. Scheduled correctly, events could start late on the first day to allow for morning travel and begin and end early on day two, allowing for an afternoon return home. Vendors, their costs similarly reduced, will be drawn to multi-day events as never before. Support for training will surge.
Michael Harkins, president of PAMA's First State Chapter in New Castle, Delaware, and the director of maintenance at Aero Taxi, drafted and submitted a proposal to make this change last June. Since then, he has smoothed the proposal's path through the bureaucracy. In addition, suggestions from veteran PAMA Teterboro Chapter members Leonard Levy and Neil Nederfield have successfully elevated this issue to a high priority within PAMA National Headquarters. Those of you who have heard the FAA's Bill O'Brien speak know that he is a strong advocate for taking personal responsibility for initiating change. This effort puts his advice into action.
For several months in our JetBlast! e-newsletter to our members, PAMA has requested input on extending the IA renewal from one year to two. Those comments have been steadily filtering in and are posted on our web site (www.pama.org). I invite everyone to read those comments and then to follow the links to the FAA's Docket Management System (DMS). Once the proposal is released for comment, which it has not been at the time of this writing, we'll be posting the submittal process on the PAMA web site.
Harkin's proposal has received its (DMS) Docket Number FAA-2003-15493-1 and we ask all maintenance professionals, providers, representative associations, and other advocates to submit comments in support of this effort to achieve efficiency and encourage training.
PAMA's commitment to its members requires we stay focused on the issues that affect the integrity of our work and the safety of those that fly in the aircraft we maintain. Chapter involvement and affiliation, where the local aviation maintenance community comes together at the grass roots, is the most tangible of PAMA membership benefits. Washington, D.C., influence and advocacy on legislative, regulatory, and legal matters are among the most valuable professional returns on your membership investment in PAMA. As a national organization with members worldwide, our views are sought by those who look for an unvarnished perspective of the individual aviation maintenance professional. Personal integrity and professionalism is strengthened by individual membership and corporate support for PAMA.
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