Author: neilw

In the last two decades aviation has seen more than its share of troubles. The commercial side experienced bankruptcies and contraction in the wake of 9/11. And then, just a few years later, the recession hit, dealing misery all round.

During these years many Part 147 airframe and power plant (A&P) schools disappeared and many A&P mechanics retired or found work in other industries. Now that aviation is beginning to recover, is the work force keeping up with the demand or is there a current or a prospective shortage of A&Ps? Pretty much all of Embry-Riddle’s maintenance graduates find jobs in aviation, says Chuck Horning, head of the school’s Aviation Maintenance Science program. Is that a sign of a shortage? And, if there’s a shortage, is it a supply and demand issue or something more serious? We asked MROs, airlines, schools and industry groups and received a range of answers.

Some observers say there will be a grave shortage in the years ahead as a result of structural problems. They point to changing attitudes toward lifestyles and manual labor and to competition from industries that pay more and demand less. Fewer A&Ps are coming out of the pipeline and many of these don’t go into aviation. This, in addition to the wave of retirements expected in the not too distant future, suggests that the work force will be shrinking at both ends. To avoid this fate, they say things need to change now.

Others perceive a shortage but think of it as a cyclical phenomenon that is already correcting itself as wages rise. There is disagreement about this, however. The lackluster U.S. economy and sluggish growth in the maintenance, repair and overhaul business seem to be depressing wage growth in the MRO sector. MROs are trying to grow their own talent with a combination of recruitment, apprenticeships, partnerships with schools and tuition aid.

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by Joy Finnegan
Editor in Chief
Aviation Maintenance Magazine

You’ve probably seen some of the promotional materials for our AVM Summit to be held next month in Orlando on November 21 and 22. We are excited about this event to say the least! We’ve held the AVM Summit Europe in London for two years running and will do so again in January 2014. But this is the first time we have held the Summit in the U.S.

We are bringing together two tracks of maintenance info. One track is focused on commercial maintenance and the other track is focused on business jet maintenance. We have some amazing speakers set to share their expertise with our attendees.

Our keynote speakers are Chris Markou, deputy director, Engineering with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Marshall Filler, managing director and general counsel with the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA). We are honored to have these two top leaders in the MRO world headlining our event and look forward to their thought leadership at the AVM Summit.

On the commercial side we have experts in efficiencies, process improvements and lean. We also have experts that will give insights on the complexities of the globalization of the MRO industry including import/export laws and the continuing trend of outsourcing.

Another session in our commercial track will discuss SMS, just safety culture, quality systems and the use of MSG-3 to build an effective maintenance program.

We’ll also be looking at the next generation of IT systems designed for MRO. There are a lot of systems on the market. Are any of them perfect? No. But come and learn how many are improving and broadening their product and service offerings.

In our commercial track we have some of the top MRO leaders in the world offering their insights. These leaders include Jorge Leite, VP of quality and safety at TAP Maintenance & Engineering, an innovative, global Airbus, Boeing and Embraer maintenance provider with 4000 employees. Leite will address SMS implementation, development, difficulties, gains and what lies ahead. Leite is an excellent speaker with intimate knowledge on SMS—you will come away from his presentation with actionable information that can be put to use in your business.

We are also delighted to have Luiz Silva, executive director of TAM MRO. TAM developed and implemented Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) based on the Theory of Constraints to improve turnaround times (TAT) on heavy checks. Come to his session to learn how they reduced TATs by 20 percent and increased workforce productivity by more than 40 percent.

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It is reasonable to conclude that Boeing can breathe a sigh of relief that the recent fire episode involving the Honeywell Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT) appears not to be the result of being connected to the aircraft’s primary power. However the recent announcements by the UK CAA, EASA and the FAA, have revealed an alarming truth regarding the management of a fire event in a part of the aircraft where there is no fire suppression equipment, and for which access on the part of the cabin crew during flight would be difficult.

The AAIB report presented on Friday, July 19, revealed that it took two attempts for fire-fighters to bring the blaze under control. The first failed attempt utilized a Halon fire-extinguisher (which cabin-crew would have access to during flight). The second successful attempt involved stronger measures with the forced entry into the affected area by removing a ceiling-panel and then dowsing the flames with water. The latter is not at all available to cabin-crew during flight.

The AAIB report was, to certain extent, correct and proportionate, in that the recommendation to disable the ELT on all B787s and then to perform inspections of other aircraft types that employ the same ELT, and more recently, the FAA’s response that now seems to mirror AAIB suggestions. Previously, the FAA seemed to advocate the wait and see approach.

When the reader considers the safety implications of the incident in context of an aircraft in-flight, then it can be argued that the wait and see approach is breathtakingly dangerous. Thankfully, the FAA has now seen the light in this regard. “I do not know of any fire-fighters able to fight a fire like this at 36,000 ft.,” says Steve Mullen of Avia Intelligence.

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The FAA is working on a totally new paradigm for oversight that could result in important new privileges for the aviation community. One of the centerpieces of this program could be the opportunity for facilities to approve their own data.

Nearly all maintenance facilities rely on approved data. In the U. S., this can come from a wide variety of sources. Production approval holder maintenance manuals (instructions for continued airworthiness) are based on type design data, which is considered to reflect FAA-approved data.

Supplemental type certificates are sources of approved data. Designated Engineering Representatives (DERs) sign 8110-3 forms in order to document their approval of data on behalf of the FAA. Depending on how you count them, there are dozens of different ways to obtain approved data to support MRO activities.

But every method for achieving approved data relies on the intervention of the FAA at some point in the process. Empirical data has shown that this intervention does not seem to guarantee any uniformity in the process. More than 10 years ago, the Aircraft Electronics Association commissioned Dale Horner to study FAA form 337s filed in Oklahoma City to record major alterations and/or repairs.

After reviewing several hundred of them, he found that only about a third of them were correct. About one third of them were minor repairs or minor alterations that had been mischaracterized as major, and for which the FAA had approved data despite the fact that it was a minor repair or alteration that did not need approved data. And another full third of them were actually major changes in type design that should have been reflected in Supplemental Type Certificates (but were not).

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More than one million employees in Great Britain experience noise levels that put them at great risk for hearing loss and tinnitus, a “ringing in the ears” that can plague sufferers for a lifetime. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates that the average number of cases of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) caused or made worse by work between 2009/10 and 2011/12 was 19,000. (http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/deafness/). While hearing loss is perhaps the more common and better understood condition, tinnitus can be equally, if not more debilitating, leading to stress, anxiety, depression or difficulty sleeping or concentrating.

According to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), a basic guideline to assess potentially injurious noise exposure is whether two workers having a conversation several meters apart must shout above background noise. A normal conversation measures around 60 decibels (dB). According to the Health & Safety Executive’s Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, employers must prevent or reduce risks of constant loud noise in the environment, provide training and enforce hearing protection for workplace noise exceeding 85 dB, the volume of a vacuum cleaner.

Similarly, in the U.S., where 30 million workers are exposed to occupational noise each year, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires implementation of hearing conservation programs for workers exposed to noise levels, also above 85 dB. Between 90 and 95 dB, hearing loss can occur if noise exposure is sustained. http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/noisehearingconservation/index.html

Aircraft workers are particularly susceptible to hearing loss and tinnitus. Individuals standing within 25 meters of a jet aircraft taking off experience noise levels above 160 dB. The sound is so jarring that over an extended period most people would find it unbearable. According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the aviation environment is rife with sources of high volume noise beyond take-off, including aircraft equipment power plants, jet efflux, propellers, rotors, pressurization systems, and the aerodynamic interaction between ambient air and aircraft surfaces.

International law exempts aircraft from noise regulation during landing, takeoff or flying. Nearby residents are subjected to the noise, even though engines today are typically 75 percent quieter than jets flown in the 1960s. However, employers must also follow noise at work regulations to prevent hearing loss among aircraft maintenance workers.

Options for hearing protection include off-the-shelf foam ear plugs or custom-made silicone ear plugs. For custom plugs, an audiologist makes an ear impression and orders them from a manufacturer. These can be standard ear protectors that block as much sound as possible or ear plugs which typically contain a filter and are designed to block out all frequencies equally to provide protection while maintaining sound quality. A high-end option would be an electronic earplug that passes soft sounds unaltered, and compresses louder sounds into the safe range without distortion.

Hearing Protection Still No Guarantee Against Tinnitus
Even with regulatory safeguards and improvements in preventive technologies, workers may still suffer noise damage and develop hearing loss and/or tinnitus, typically described as a ringing, buzzing, whooshing, or other noise in the ears.

According to the British Tinnitus Association, about 10 percent of the UK population has tinnitus all the time, and up to one percent of adults experience tinnitus so severely they can’t relax or sleep; they are truly debilitated. In fact, they must come to terms with the fact that they may never enjoy silence again. And since tinnitus is an invisible condition, most people do not comprehend the extent of the suffering.
Each instance of short-term tinnitus due to noise exposure likely causes a small amount of permanent hearing damage. Repeated damage can accumulate and hearing loss, tinnitus or both can become noticeable. Fortunately, advances in sound therapy can provide relief. In some instances, treatment allows sufferers to reach a point where they are no longer bothered by the sound.

Tinnitus has many possible causes, but most cases are related to noise damage to the auditory system. Many people have experienced this for a short time after exposure to loud sound—for example after attending a rock concert. Usually this resolves on its own. But for those with chronic persistent tinnitus, productivity and the overall quality of life can be diminished.

Tinnitus Can Be Treated and Managed
The best way to prevent tinnitus and hearing loss is by protecting your hearing. Continuous exposure to loud noise or even intermittent exposure to excessively loud bursts of sound can still cause auditory damage.
Those who are experiencing tinnitus should see a qualified audiologist. While primary physicians may be the first point of contact for seeking treatment, audiologists are better equipped to test and prescribe more advanced treatments for tinnitus. An audiologist can conduct both hearing and tinnitus evaluations and recommend the best course of action. Those with only mild tinnitus may benefit from a hearing aid or a tabletop masker that plays soft relaxing or distracting sounds.

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Aviation maintenance software is now more important than ever and much more is being required of it. Aviation software applications are evolving with end users’ needs for more data analysis and forecasting capabilities being based on faster and easier access to greater quantities of maintenance information or FBO “events.” As a result, more information and maintenance “advice” can be delivered to the first responders and technicians performing maintenance activities. This includes remote access to maintenance manuals, diagrams, pictures and videos with the end result being quicker return of assets to an approved operational status.

What are present and future aviation software trends? Z Bar-ON, founder and CEO of Component Control, San Diego believes that trying to figure out what’s “next” is not hard to predict for aviation software. “More connectivity, better integration between systems, more mobile devices, more touch screens capability, more cloud capability, and RFID will eventually take off,” he says. “Different software products will attempt to lead simultaneously in these different areas. Ultimately it’s the customer or the end user of the software that will determine where these software products go. We have always let our customers lead us in terms of innovated technologies and how best practice is reflected in the functional processes the software supports.”

In addition to this customer information, leading aviation software providers also now have decades of product development built into their systems, offering a robust and stable software system on which to add next-generation features, modules or apps. The best providers consistently add functionality and features in direct response to the needs and experiences of their users.

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It came oh so close to happening again.

If not for some truly great piloting, yet another example of technician-error could have lead to a serious, if not fatal, aircraft accident. Because it’s still under “investigation”
I can’t share any of the details, but in a nutshell here’s what happened:

A technician was working on the elevator trim tab on a popular business jet, then for some reason, the technician was interrupted before he finished the job. Fast-forward to later that morning when the crew arrived to take delivery of the airplane. And after a pretty thorough inspection, (that unfortunately did not include climbing up on a ladder to look at the elevator), they fired-up and off they went. That’s when things literally came unglued.
Right after gear-up the aircraft started shaking and bucking. The crew then declared an emergency and was, according to the captain, “real lucky to wrestle it back to the runway…” After being escorted back to the maintenance center by the crash trucks, the crew and the DOM saw the problem.

The elevator trim tab was just hanging there. Obviously, technician had not finished attaching it to the elevator.

The unanswered question is why? Why did the technician get called away from the airplane at this critical time? Why was the work signed-off as completed? Was it a critical issue or just a lapse in judgment? (In all too many cases it’s proven to be the latter).

“I think to some the mindset is that it’s (being an aircraft technician) just a paycheck. It’s not. And you have to understand what you are doing and the importance of it,” explained Richard Komarniski, president, Grey Owl Aviation Consultants (www.greyowl.com). “It is easy for some people, in some situations, to lose sight of that fact.”

Just how serious is what technicians do on a daily basis? When you stop and look at it, it’s pretty darn serious. So much so that Komarniski likens it to being a surgeon. And rightfully so.

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