Explanatory Statement
Civil Aviation Regulations 1988
Authorisation — pilot maintenance on Eurocopter
Exemption — pilot certification of completion of maintenance
Section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for the Act and the safety of air navigation.
Legislation
Regulation 42ZC of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 (CAR 1988) describes in detail who may perform maintenance on an Australian aircraft in Australian territory. Subregulation 42ZC (4) addresses who may carry out maintenance on a Class B aircraft. A Class B aircraft is one that is not Class A. A Class A aircraft is one that is certificated in the transport category or one under an air operator’s certificate for regular public transport operations. Among those mentioned in subregulation 42ZC (4) is a person authorised by CASA, for the purpose, under subregulation 42ZC (6).
Regulation 42ZE provides that a person who carries out maintenance on an Australian aircraft in Australian territory must ensure that completion of the maintenance is appropriately certified.
Under subregulation 42ZE (1) of CAR 1988, a person who carries out maintenance on an Australian aircraft in Australian territory must ensure that completion of maintenance is certified in accordance with the approved system of certification of completion of maintenance, or the CASA system of certification of completion of maintenance. These systems normally require certification to be made immediately after the maintenance is completed. Thus, certification is to occur at the time the maintenance is completed.
Under subregulation 308 (1) of CAR 1988, CASA may exempt aircraft, or persons in, on, or otherwise associated with the operation of, the aircraft, from compliance with specified provisions of CAR 1988. Under subregulation 308 (2), before making an exemption, CASA must take into account any relevant considerations relating to the interests of safety. Under subregulation 308 (3), CASA may make an exemption subject to any condition specified in the exemption as being necessary in the interests of safety. Under subregulation 308 (3A), it is an offence to contravene a condition of an exemption that is otherwise being relied upon for an operation.
Background
Instrument CASA 552/09 authorised the pilot of a Class B aircraft manufactured by Eurocopter to carry out maintenance involving daily operating checks listed in the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule, in particular, the before first flight (BFF) check, the turnaround (TA) check, and the after last flight (ALF) check. The instrument also authorised the TA and the ALF to be certified at the end of a day’s operations rather than separately. Conditions applied, including that the pilot must have been trained by a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer.
Amendments made to CAR 1988 and the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 (CASR 1998) by the Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Safety Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1) (registered on 14 December 2010) changed licence nomenclature and licence categories and as a result there was a need to reflect these changes for the type of person eligible to train a relevant Eurocopter pilot in maintenance. Pilot maintenance must be carried out with great care and, therefore, the opportunity has also been taken to tighten up the conditions in relation to this pilot training. Also, a specific exemption power (regulation 308 of CAR 1988) is also used to place beyond doubt the pilot’s entitlement to certify completion of the TA check and the ALF maintenance check together after the last flight.
Thus, the exemption permits maintenance in the form of a pilot TA check to be certified along with certification of the pilot’s ALF check when a day’s operations are completed.
More details of the authorisation, exemption, training and conditions are in Attachment 1.
Legislative Instruments Act
Under subparagraph 6 (d) (i) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (the LIA), an instrument is a legislative instrument for section 5 of the LIA if it is declared to be a
disallowable instrument under legislation in force before the commencement of the LIA. Under subregulation 308 (4) of CAR 1988, an exemption is a disallowable instrument. The exemption section is, therefore, a provision of a legislative character, although the other provisions in the instrument are administrative. Under subsection 5 (4) of the LIA, an instrument that contains both legislative and administrative provisions is taken to be a legislative instrument and it is subject to tabling and disallowance in the Parliament under sections 38 and 42 of the LIA.
Consultation
For section 17 of the LIA, extensive industry and public consultations were conducted on the maintenance suite of regulations (Parts 42, 66, 145 and 147 of CASR 1998). Advance notice of the consequential amendments was posted on the Standards Consultative Committee (SCC) discussion forum. No comments were received as a result of the posting.
Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR)
The exemption is of beneficial, not adverse, effect to the operator. Therefore, OBPR does not require preparation of a Regulation Impact Statement in this case because a preliminary assessment of business compliance costs in the context of the nature of the instrument indicates that it will have only a nil to low impact on business.
Making and commencement
The instrument has been made by the Director of Aviation Safety, on behalf of CASA, in accordance with subsection 73 (2) of the Act.
The instrument comes into effect on 27 June 2011. It stops having effect at the end of 26 June 2013. In the interests of prudence, 2 years is currently the usual duration of an exemption under CAR 1988. It is expected that before the instrument expires in 2013, either the regulations will have been amended to substantively address the issues, or the instrument will be remade in the same terms before it expires.
[Instrument number CASA 153/11]
ATTACHMENT 1
Details of the authorisation and exemption
1 Commencement
Under this section, the instrument commences on 27 June 2011 and stops having effect at the end of 26 June 2013.
2 Revocation
Under this section, instrument CASA 552/09 is revoked.
3 Application
Under this section, the instrument applies to the pilot of a Class B aircraft manufactured by Eurocopter (the aircraft).
4 Authorisation
Under this section, for paragraph 42ZC (4) (e) of CAR 1988 (under which certain persons may be authorised to carry out maintenance), the pilot of the aircraft is authorised to carry out maintenance (the maintenance) in the form of the daily operating checks listed in the aircraft manufacturer’s maintenance schedule. These include the before first flight (BFF) check; the turnaround (TA) check; and the after last flight (ALF) check.
5 Exemption
Under this section, for an operation, a pilot authorised under section 4 is exempt from subregulation 42ZE (1) (about certification of completion of maintenance). The exemption is to the extent that anything mentioned in that subregulation would prevent the pilot from certifying the TA check at the same time as he or she certifies the ALF check.
A Note explains that under subregulation 42ZE (1) of CAR 1988, a person who carries out maintenance on an Australian aircraft in Australian territory must ensure that completion of maintenance is certified in accordance with the approved system of certification of completion of maintenance, or the CASA system of certification of completion of maintenance. These systems normally require certification to be made immediately after the maintenance is completed. The exemption permits maintenance in the form of a pilot TA check to be certified along with certification of the pilot’s ALF check when a day’s operations are completed.
6 Conditions
The authorisation in section 4 is subject to the conditions mentioned in Schedule 1.
Schedule 1 Conditions
Schedule 1 sets out the conditions that a pilot must observe to obtain the benefits of the authorisation and the exemption.
1 The pilot must be required by the AOC holder to carry out the maintenance as part of his or her duties for the AOC holder.
2 The maintenance must not be carried out by the pilot if, under the approved maintenance data for the aircraft, the maintenance requires the use of tools.
A Note explains that tools includes tools of any description, including small hand tools.
3 In carrying out the maintenance, the pilot must not use a tool of any description.
4The pilot must hold a pilot endorsement, other than a student pilot endorsement, for the aircraft type.
5 The pilot must have completed, in accordance with Schedule 2, relevant initial training given by a person who holds a relevant subcategory B1.3 aircraft engineer licence, and rating (if any), applicable for the aircraft type (an aircraft engineer).
6 At intervals of not more than 2 years after the initial training, the pilot must complete recurrent training given by an aircraft engineer in accordance with Schedule 2.
7The initial and recurrent training undertaken by the pilot must be recorded and signed by the relevant aircraft engineer, as an annotation in the pilot’s log book.
8 The pilot must ensure that the maintenance is recorded on the aircraft’s maintenance release and, subject to the exemption in section 5, certified in accordance with subregulation 42ZE (1) of CAR 1988.
Schedule 2 Initial and recurrent training
Schedule 2 sets out the requirements of the initial and recurrent training that a pilot must undergo.
Thus initial and recurrent training must include a review of all approved maintenance data for the aircraft that is relevant to the maintenance. It must include the practical process of carrying out the maintenance, and the correct way to certify and record completion of the maintenance.