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Welcome to Avia Tests

What type of Engineer do you want to be? What qualification will you require?

To help you choose, you will first need to understand something of the process of certification.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is the organisation that regulates all aviation activity within Europe and it delegates authority for implementation of its regulations to National Aviation Authorities; in our case the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

To assure safety within the industry, engineering personnel are licensed in the same way as pilots and air traffic controllers. If suitably licensed an engineer can certify the work that has been carried out on an aircraft and return it to service.

There are several categories of licence which cover different levels and disciplines and, as in other professions, a variety of routes exist to achieve them. Let us deal with the type of work and the licences required first.

Ramp or Line Maintenance Certifying Mechanic is a person who is qualified to work on operational aircraft performing relatively minor maintenance tasks and part replacements that are required between major service overhauls and to subsequently certify these tasks; this work is generally done while the aircraft is in service, during turnrounds or overnight. A Category A Licence is required for this. It is attained after graduation from a 6 month approved course and after 1 year of appropriate certified experience. The alternative route to this licence is the self-improver, which can be achieved by self-study or attending a modular course. In this case 3 years appropriate experience is required.

Base Maintenance Certifying Technician is a person who is qualified to work on aircraft that have been withdrawn from service for routine periodic servicing or major overhauls and re-fits and who can then subsequently certify his/her own and other work. A Category B Licence is required for this. It is attained after graduation from a 2 year approved course and after 2 years of appropriate certified experience. Category B licences are further divided into specialist skills such as mechanical or avionic. The alternative route to this licence is the self-improver, which can be achieved by self-study or attending a modular course. In this case 5 years appropriate experience is required.

If you decide that you would like to be a Mechanical Engineer specialising in scheduled maintenance, restoration and re-fit of airframes, power plants, fuel systems and associated pneumatic, hydraulic and air-conditioning systems then you can select from both category A & Blicence routes. The licence issued will show which category of aircraft it applies to - which will be one of the following:

  • B1.1 Fixed Wing: Aeroplanes with Turbine Engines

Turbine Engines(often referred to as jet engines) and also called combustion turbines, are rotary engines that extract energy from a flow of combustion gas. It has an upstream compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between. Turbine aircraft may be propeller or jet driven.

  • B1.2 Fixed Wing: Aeroplanes with Piston Engines

Piston Engines: (otherwise known as reciprocating engines) use fundamentally similar technology to those used by cars and motorcycles where pistons in cylinders are used to generate motive force for propulsion by turning pressure into a rotating motion. These engines are always propeller driven.

  • B1.3 Rotary Wing: Helicopters with Turbine Engines
  • B1.4 Rotary Wing: Helicopters with Piston Engines

If you are more electronically orientated and decide that you would like to be an Avionics Engineer specialising in scheduled maintenance, restoration and modification of communication, navigation, radar equipment; guidance and control systems including auto-pilot/auto-land and cabin entertainment then this discipline is only licensed at category B level.

  • B2 Avionic: Electronic systems fitted to all aircraft
World-wide, the business of aircraft maintenance is enormous, and is set to expand. The approximate number of aeroplanes currently in service world-wide is around 500,000 passenger and cargo aircraft and about four million smaller private aircraft used for business or pleasure. Etihad board is likely to meet next week to firm up its investment plans in India. The board will consider proposal of both cash-trapped airlines Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines , reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. It is learnt that Etihad-Jet talks may factor in two-part deal. Jet promoters hold 80% in the company through Tail Winds and is likely to issue warrants which can be converted to equities later. Post deal, Etihad is likely to hold 22-24% in Jet which currently has a debt of USD 2.3 billion. Meanwhile, the Gulf carrier may also consider revival plans of Kingfisher. Earlier, Etihad had sought more clarity on operations and fund infusion from UB Group. According to sources, Etihad wants all dues cleared ahead of any possible deal. MRO at Thiruvananthapuram to be fully operational by Feb Thiruvananthapuram: The maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility of Air India Charters here will become fully operational by February. Mandatory clearance from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is awaited ahead of commencing ‘C’ checks of Boeing 737-800 aircraft of Air India Express. The MRO is situated within the precincts of the international airport here. Air India Charters has sought more land from the State to set up auxiliary industrial units in the form of a hub around the MRO. This was stated by K.C. Venugopal, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, who chaired a high-level meeting here on Monday. Venugopal said the MRO would be equipped to take up third party business although initially it will take care of the aircraft in the Air Indian Express (AIE) fleet. 27/12/12 Business Line India has risen in the past decade to become the world's fourth-largest economy, and together with its technology sector, one industry in particular has mirrored the nation's growth: aviation, according to International Business Times. India's domestic aviation market has tripled in the past five years and, even as its growth rate has slowed this year, the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines rose 0.5 percent to 39.82 million during the January to August period, compared with a year earlier. India, long an underdog in commercial flying, is now the ninth-biggest civil aviation market in the world in terms of traffic. The nation's airlines fly the newest Boeings and Airbuses, and flag carrier Air India is one of just a handful operating the Boeing 787, the most advanced jetliner in the world. No one in Europe, for example, does yet. Government relaxed rules for Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) in several sectors including aviation, allowing foreign airlines to own up to 49 percent of any Indian carrier

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