Avionics News August 2016 - 15

UNITED STATES

News & Regulatory Updates
InFO 16008, Technical Standard Order
Reciprocal Acceptance Guidance
This InFO notifies maintenance providers and aircraft
operators that the Federal Aviation Administration's Aircraft
Certification Service recently signed into effect two international agreements. These agreements document the FAA's reciprocal acceptance of European Aviation Safety Agency European
TSO articles and Transport Canada Civil Aviation Canadian
TSO articles.
The new agreements state that the FAA will accept the
EASA's and the TCCA's approval of TSO articles and will no
longer issue a letter of TSO design approval. Imported TSO
articles from Europe and Canada will not require an FAA TSO
marking, and will have: (1) ETSO or CAN-TSO markings,
and (2) an authorized release certificate for installation on U.S.
products. Likewise, the EASA and the TCCA will no longer
issue approvals for TSO articles produced in the U.S. Answers
to frequently asked questions about practical implementation
may be viewed on the FAA's website.
According to the FAA (InFO 16008), maintenance providers
should not reject ETSO- or CAN-TSO-marked articles based
solely on the lack of FAA TSO markings during a receiving
inspection. These articles still require the proper ARCs. ETSO
and CAN-TSO articles will not be directly interchangeable with
FAA TSO articles unless specifically identified in the design
approval. Articles accepted under this process will still require
a separate installation approval, and ETSO or CAN-TSO markings on articles will indicate the articles are FAA approved.

CANADA

News & Regulatory Updates
Transport Canada to rewrite AME licensing
policy and guidance
Suppose you're a licensed AME in your home country and
have worked a number of years as an AME, eventually teaching
young apprentices at the college. You are well respected and
offered a job in Canada. Deciding whether to go is based on the
fact that you will be able to receive a Canadian license.
When you come to Canada from a country in the
Commonwealth community, having gone to school based on the
British model and curriculum, you expect that your credentials
will stand in good stead. Think again.
Several changes to the foreign AME license acceptance

have taken place during the last 25 years, the last happening in
2008. At that time, there was a major focus on the training that
an AME undertook and the curriculum covered. Experienced
seemed to be less of a concern, and one could not receive
a license without being able to show the proper training.
Regardless of the number of years of experience, the foreign
license based on British CAA requirements or the recommendations of Canadian licensed AMEs, you could not receive a
license. After having worked for 10 or 15 years, it becomes
increasingly difficult to provide sufficient information on the
curriculum covered in your training. In most cases, information
that far back, especially from a school, are lost or archived and
difficult to obtain.
Without being able to prove your training curriculum, you
are stuck and cannot receive a license. In most cases, this means
lower pay and fewer opportunities for advancement. An oddity
in the standards is that if you received a foreign AME license
prior to 1990, you are exempt from the training requirements.
Why? If you take an online course such as the one provided by
ICS, you would now meet the curriculum requirements. Does
this course truly fit the requirements and provide you with any
better knowledge than the experience you already have?
The TCCA is in the process of writing new policy and guidance for AME licensing and has the opportunity to make some
significant changes. There are many competent AMEs who cannot get work, are not paid as well as others, or are just frustrated
and leave the profession due to this requirement. There are
many other ways to determine the competency of an individual,
and these need to be utilized. There is a shortage of AMEs now,
and it will get worse as the baby boomers retire. Getting high
school students into the profession is getting harder with so
many competing (and compelling) opportunities.
At this time, there is no planned public consultation on
the new policy and guidance. It is important that the TCCA
knows this is required in order to come up with the best
material and way forward to help resolve the shortage issue.
If you have any concerns or would like to get involved,
call the TCCA Standards group and contact the Aircraft
Electronics Association.

Access to internal TCCA policy altered
A few years ago due to government policy, many of the
TCCA's policy documents were removed from the internet. A
special site was established to allow delegates to have access
to certain policies. This site was not user friendly and would
frequently not be available. The TCCA has revised the website,
and it now can be found on the "Online Reference Center"
page. A login is no longer required. However, there are only
a few documents available, and most of the TCCA policies
remain unavailable.
Continued on following page
avionics news

august

2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News August 2016