Planning for Exams

On of the task to be taken by an approved school is to prepare the students for the examination. The examinations are conducted by the country's airworthiness authority. In Malaysia, the authority is DCA (Department of Civil Aviation Malaysa), in UK is the British CAA. The Malaysian DCA  produces the Airworthiness Notice, AN1101, giving the guides and the requirements to acquire the license. The requirements are aligned to the EASA articles, however, getting the Malaysia License does not entitle the holder to hold the EASA license.


EASA allowed two approaches to manage and operate the examinations. They are...

1. Examinations are managed and conducted  by the country's authority.
2. The country's authority may delegate the role of holding the examinations and marking the papers to an approved 147 school.

The approach in Malaysia is slightly different, all examinations are done online and conducted by DCA Malaysia. However, approved training organisations may manage the examination centers. The training organisation needs to prepare the computers and network infrastructure to meet the requirements of  an approved examination center to manage the examination.

One the issues to be decided by the training center is to come up with an approved scheduling model. The modular exams enables the students to sit for the paper as early as in year 1. This is different from the previous section L BCAR exam, where the candidate has to be at least 3 years undergoing the training.

Program Design For B1.1 Training

The part 66 requirements and the guide under part 147 do not dictate how the training schedule are designed. To provide some ideas of how other organisations conduct their training programs, I include some of the programs which I have the first hand knowledge.

A. Airline A.
The program is three year, combining work and learning.
- Year 1 - Basic Training
The students spend their whole year at ground school, where the students are taught the basic of aircraft maintenance. The sessions consist of classroom and practical. The classroom training include subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, aerodynamic, covering about the same content of the present module 1 to 10.
The practical elements include basic engineering, welding, milling and lathe machine. Students do not touch any aircraft, as they are considered to inexperienced to contribute to the production.

- Year 2 - Experiencing different areas.
 The students are sent to the maintenance base. They are attached to operation crews. The areas include the toolcrips, workshops and heavy maintenance. The works on the tarmac are avoided due to the potential risk to aircraft departures timing.
The classroom sessions are provided by the government college through a block release program where students spend 3 month per year attending the classroom session.


- Year 3 - Sharpen the skills - This year the students are more focused. They are spending more time at the base maintenance and become part of the regular work force.

- Year 4 - Selecting the new home. Based in the company's manpower requirements, the trainee are joing their almost dedicated functions. Some may join the D check or HMV, some may be working in the periodic check doing the C check and lower.

 Summary:
The class hours total up to...
1. Year one   40 hour/week for 43 week = 1720 hours
2. Year two - 40 hour per week for 13   =        520 hours
3. Year 3  40 hours per week for 13       =        520 hours

Total                                                          2760 hours
The hours exceeds the EASA requirement.  

B: Airline B