Technical Log - Operations of a Flight Regarding the Aircraft - Assignment Example

Air Legislation Data on the technical and operations of a flight regarding the aircraft is kept in a documentation which is called a technical log. This data can include malfunctions, block times, faults and fuel consumption. It can also contain records of any installed explosive devices and scheduled removal components. The data is important as it aids the continuous operation of the aircraft and the flight across the aviation organization. The aircraft should be certified before it has carried out any flight, it therefore through the entries made in the aircraft that will enhance certification. The person who certifies the aircraft carries out an inspection or any other maintenance procedure that is deemed necessary. The logbook is supposed to be signed by the commanding officer, o-level maintenance Officer, I-level maintenance officer, D-level director of operations and OMD Officer. Other persons who can sign or certify the records are any other personnel chosen by the mentioned persons. The entries in the logbook are made by three categories of persons. These persons include the logbook holder, the assessor and the task supervisor. The log book is then kept in copies to the maintenance department The logbook holder: Engineers may not certify their own entries, but in some cases certain pages require the name and signature of the logbook holder. This will help in identification maybe when the logbook pages are separated from the logbook and used in separation. The assessor: This section is filled to describe the basic skills. An assessor can be a qualified instructor who is approved to carry out the assessment or a qualified and licensed aircraft maintenance engineer employed by the maintenance organization, he can also is any person authorized by the states’ civil authority. It is the duty and responsibility of the assessor to make sure that the logbook holder can identify the appropriate standards and can select and use the correct tools for the maintenance process. The task supervisor: The purpose of the task supervisor is to make sure and ascertain confirmation that all the required entries in the logbook are made upon the requirements. It is after this confirmation that his/her name, signature and license number is appended in the right column. After this the log book can be said to be valid and the aircraft is airworthy The key contents of the maintenance schedule tries to figure out, what to maintain, when to maintain and how to maintain. It is important to note that some airlines may choose to maintain their aircraft in accordance with a maintenance Programme. The maintenance Programme consists of a maintenance schedule and reviews to ensure that it is effective and realistic. An operator will write to Civil Authority Department to apply for approval of the maintenance schedule. When writing the application it should be accompanied by the draft maintenance schedule, the maintenance schedule compliance check list and the operator’s certification statement. The checklist should have the general requirements, schedule basis e.g. is the maintenance schedule based upon the MRB report changes- this will reflect any changes or modifications, the permitted variations to maintenance periods, periodic review of maintenance schedule contents, reliability programs that can include pooling arrangement programs of applicability and finally the Civil Engineering Department (CAD) required items. The maintenance team should be acquainted with the maintenance manual to enable them to perform smooth maintenance inspection or when performing the actual maintenance. The bulletins are publications that are made by the manufacturer of the aircraft or aircrafts components with the purpose of; naming the appropriate airframe, description and the functioning of the engine and its components, detailed instruction in case of service alteration, adjustment or inspection and to some extent the number of hours required to achieve the work. Each and every aircraft has a service bulletin that is provided by the manufacturer. Depending on the manufactures’ preference it is also known as “mandatory service bulleting,” “technical service bulleting,” “service letter” or “service instruction.” As a maintenance manager one should not assume that the service bulleting is automatically sent to the maintenance providers. For this reason the maintenance providers should be provided with a copy of bulletin. The service bulleting comprises an endorsement from the manufacturer from which it believes the aircraft owner should conform. The service bulleting helps the aircraft maintenance team to form a development as a result of the manufacturer’s recommendations. It can also address a defect in the aircraft. From the service bulleting the maintenance team can liaise with the manufacturer whereby the manufacturer helps to recommend to certain type of inspection, replacing certain components after a given period of time, guiding on how to perform some maintenance procedure in a certain manner. Although the service bulleting is tagged as mandatory it is worth noting that it is not a compulsory compliance of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR). The airworthiness directives contents include; the aircraft itself, engine, propeller, or appliance model and serial numbers affected. It also includes the compliance time or period, a description of difficulty experienced and the necessary corrective action. The airworthiness directive which is commonly abbreviated as AD is a notice that is issued to the owners and certified aircraft that an identified safety deficiency of a particular model of an aircraft is in existence and should be corrected. In case a particular aircraft has an unsettled airworthiness directive that has not been complied with it is considered as not airworthy, for this reason it is mandatory for every aircraft to comply with an issued Airworthiness directive contrary to which it will be declared not airworthy. Airworthiness directive can be as a result of reported difficulty in operation or from an investigation that occurred during an accident. The bodies responsible in the issuance of ADs can include national civil aviation authority of the country that the aircraft belongs to. The main purpose of ADs include; to notify the aircraft owners that the aircraft may have an unsafe condition, the aircraft does not conform with the basis of certification, some compulsory action should be carried out which will enhance progressive safe operation of the aircraft, to deter the aircraft from been flown so that a counteractive action strategy is designed and carried out. It is therefore important for the maintenance organization to have satisfactory capability and right qualifications to maintain aircrafts and aircrafts components in accordance with the Continuing Airworthiness (CA) from the manufacture. Air Directives is a mandatory unless on some exceptional cases such as flying an air craft to maintenance premises. Certificate of airworthiness is a document that is issued by the FAA as an authorization to operate an aircraft in flight. A registered owner or the owners’ agent may apply for this certificate. The certificate can be either of; standard air worthiness certificate or special airworthiness certificate. The certificate of air worthiness can be revoked if the aircraft doesn’t meet the approved design and is not in an airworthy condition as defined by the Federal Aviation Authority. The certificate of airworthiness will be valid if the aircraft is in an airworthy condition and the entire required tool is on board, serviceable and functioning, it is therefore the mandate of the maintenance management to make sure that these requirements are met. Also, the validity of the certificate will hold if there has been appropriate and procedural inspection that have taken place and entered into the journey log. The aircraft should also be carried out in accordance with the Aircraft Operating Manual (AOM) and the weight and balance requirements. It is also the duty of the maintenance management to make sure that the any defect on the aircraft is rectified and certified by the relevant bodies. When the aircrafts doesn’t meet these requirements then it can be said to be not in force. It is also important to note that the certificate is renewed on a yearly basis failure to which it can cause it to be revoked. Each AOC holder is supposed to establish a quality system and entitle a quality manager to monitor its compliance. Also, there should be adequate procedures that are required to ensure safe operational practices and the airworthiness of the aircraft. Monitoring the compliance can include putting in place a feedback system in regard to the concerned manager to ensure corrective action is necessitated. An appropriate quality system should be set up in accordance with the quality assurance Programme which enhances that all procedures are carried out with due applicable provisions, standards and measures. It will also be important and mandatory to document the quality system. A maintenance manager can appoint two Quality managers to ensure that both the operations and maintenance are taken care of; this will enhance the application of the quality system uniformly and throughout the entire operations. The light aircraft maintenance schedule is set up to ensure that the light aircrafts are set up to enhance their compliance with any aviation regulatory board. This ensures that the aircraft has to comply with the standards and if not the certificate of airworthiness can be invalidated. The LAMS will enable the operations of the light airplanes that the maintenance is carried out properly and efficient which will make the aircraft to be airworthy. The light aircraft maintenance organs will enable the aircraft to receive services such as inspection, replacements, repairs, modification, fault diagnose and analyses, compass check and adjustment, wash and valets or dismantling and shipping. A large air transport aircraft will have a log book which is large usually in a three-ring binder. The number of the aircraft log book can increase if the aircraft has been in service for a long time. The logbook should be comprehensive enough to enable the understanding of the aircrafts’ maintenance history. It is also important to enter eligible and comprehensive data to enhance the process of inspection and certifying that the aircraft is airworthy. The entries that can be incorporated in the log book can include the fuselage and hull group such as systems and components, the cabin and cockpit group such as windows and wind shield or instruments, the engine and nacelle group this is the engine section or the studs and nuts, landing gear group, wing and center section, empennage group, the communication and navigation group such as the radio and electronic group, other miscellaneous such as first aid equipment, parachutes, flares and so forth and autopilot system. All this entries when incorporated they will enhance that the maintenance of the aircraft is effective and the safety of the aircraft and other components in the aircrafts are assured. The objective of the MOR scheme is to contribute to the improvement of the flight safety. This is achieved as the necessary information on the safety is collected, stored, protected and disseminated. The recording of occurrences will curb further accidents or incidences which in turn will not attribute any blame or liability to anyone. Any incident which is deemed to endanger or which if not rectified can put the aircraft, its occupant or any other person in peril. The occurrence report are kept and treated as a classified to protect the identity of the individual as prescribed by the any authority. JAR145 is a set of requirements to approve/accept maintenance organizations to maintain any aircraft used for commercial air transport. JAR-145 is the joint aviation requirements for approval of maintenance organization (AMO) The Air Operator Certificate is applicable to the carriage of passengers, goods or mail for compensation or hires by persons whose principle place of business or permanent residence is located in the state where the aircraft will be operational. There is no operator that can operate an aircraft in commercial air transport unless that person is holding an AOC for the operations being conducted. A person who is applying for an Air Operator certificate shall submit a form and manner that is prescribed by the authority and fill any information that the authority requires for the applicant. When the authority receives the application it will investigate if the applicant is a citizen of the said state, has his principle place of business located in the said state, meets the appropriate regulations and standards for the owner of an AOC, the aircraft is well furnished with equipment for safe operations that are required in the commercial maintenance of the aircraft and holds the economic authority issued by that state of reference under the provision of aviation act. The authority can deny the applicant AOC if previously he had his AOC revoked. The authority will also conduct a comprehensive investigation to ascertain whether the applicant is adequately equipped for safe operations in commercial air transport and maintenance of the aircraft. EASA can issue permit to fly when the following four elements are met; the application for approval of flight conditions, application for permit to fly, approval of the flight conditions and then finally the issue of EASA permit to fly. An EASA permit to fly is only valid to only the EU members’ state. It is important to note that despite this the national operational airspace access and use requirements remain applicable. Registered aircraft owners, maintenance organization, continuing Airworthiness management organization (CAMOs) or the individuals that are authorized by the aircraft owner can apply for EASA permit to fly. Bibliography Alfares, H.K., 1999, Aircraft maintenance workforce scheduling: a case study, Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 78-88. Al-kaabi, H., Potter, A. & Naim, M., 2007, Insights into the maintenance, repair and overhaul configurations of European airlines, Journal of Air Transportation, Vol. 12 No. 2,pp. 27-42. Bird, C.J., 1976, A branch and bound approach to an aircraft and maintenance scheduling problem, PhD thesis, The University of New South Wales, Sydney. 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