Explanatory Statement
Civil Aviation Regulations 1988
Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998
Authorisation — Category A maintenance authority holder in a CAR 30 organisation
Exemption — from regulation 66.130 of CASR 1998
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 30 of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 (CAR 1988) describes in detail how a person (a CAR 30 organisation) engaged in the maintenance of aircraft must hold CASA’s certificate of approval for the activity.
Regulation 42ZC of CAR 1988 describes in detail who may perform maintenance on an Australian aircraft in Australian territory. Subregulation 42Z (3) addresses who may carry out maintenance on a Class A aircraft. 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 subregulations 42ZC (3) and (4) is a person authorised by CASA, for the purpose, under subregulation 42ZC (6). Under subregulation 42ZC (7), an authorised person may authorise another person to carry out maintenance on a Class A aircraft.
Regulation 66.130 sets out the privileges of the holder of an aircraft engineer licence in Category A. The holder may perform maintenance certification for maintenance carried out on an aircraft of a particular type, and may also issue a certificate of release to service for the aircraft only if the maintenance is line maintenance, of a type mentioned for a CASR Part 145 organisation (an approved organisation that carries out maintenance), the holder performs the certification for the organisation, he or she has completed special training and assessment for that line maintenance by the organisation, and he or she holds the organisation’s certificate of authorisation.
Under subregulation 11.160 (1) of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 (CASR 1998), CASA may grant an exemption from compliance with a provision of CASR 1998. Under subregulation 11.160 (3), CASA may grant an exemption of its own initiative. Under subregulation 11.170 (3), in deciding whether to grant an exemption, CASA must regard as paramount the preservation of an acceptable level of safety. Under subregulation 11.205 (1), CASA may impose conditions on an exemption if this is necessary in the interests of the safety of air navigation. Under regulation 11.210, it is an offence to fail to comply with a condition of an exemption. Under regulation 11.215, an exemption is a disallowable instrument for section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. Under regulation 11.225, an exemption must be published on the internet. Under subregulation 11.230 (1), an exemption ceases on the day specified within it (but no longer than 2 years after its commencement), or if no day is specified, 2 years after commencement.
Background
The Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Safety Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1) (registered on 14 December 2010) made Part 66 of CASR 1998 which sets out over time to replace the previous rules for the holding of an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME) licence.
Part 66 of CASR 1998 sets out the requirements for holding an aircraft engineer licence (AEL), and the various categories and subcategories in which such licences may be held, including a basic category known as Category A.
For transitional purposes, qualified holders of the former AME licence will be issued with the new AEL equivalent. Although there is broad equivalence between the
privileges of the holder of the previous AME licence and the holder of a new AEL, there is not always exact correspondence. For example, certain AME holders, working in CAR 30 organisations, whose equivalent AEL is in Category A, would no longer have within that CAR 30 organisation certain privileges in carrying out line maintenance that they previously had. This is because, under regulation 66.130 of CASR 1998, the privileges of a Category A licence holder must be exercised in a CASR Part 145 organisation.
For transitional purposes, and with the appropriate safety conditions, no inherent issue of safety arises from conferring these same privileges on Category A licence holders in CAR 30 organisations carrying out the same kind of line maintenance. The instrument, therefore, confers the appropriate authorisation and exempts from the obligations that tie the Category A holder to a CASR Part 145 organisation exclusively.
More details of the authorisation, exemption, 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 regulation 11.215 of CASR 1998, an exemption under regulation 11.160 of CASR 1998 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 those to whom it applies. 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 maximum duration of an exemption under CASR 1998. It is expected that before the instrument expires in 2013, CASA will have reviewed the implications of CASR Part 145 for all affected CAR 30 organisations.
[Instrument number CASA EX180/11]
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 Application
Under this section, the instrument applies to a person (the CAT A licence holder) who is the holder of a category A aircraft engineer licence issued under Part 66 of CASR 1998; and who is employed by the holder of a certificate of approval under regulation 30 of CAR 1988 (a CAR 30 organisation) to carry out maintenance.
3 Authorisation
Under this section, for paragraphs 42ZC (3) (d) and 42ZC (4) (e) (about who may carry out maintenance), a CAT A licence holder to whom section 2 applies is authorised to carry out the maintenance mentioned in Schedule 1.
4 Conditions
Under this section, the authorisation in section 3 is subject to the conditions mentioned in Schedule 1.
5 Exemption
Under this section, a CAT A licence holder to whom the instrument applies is exempt from compliance with regulation 66.130 of CASR 1998 to the extent that regulation 66.130 would otherwise restrict the CAT A licence holder to performing maintenance certification and issuing certificates of release solely on behalf of a Part 145 organisation.
6 Conditions
Under this section, the exemption in section 5 is subject to the condition that when maintenance is carried out by the CAT A licence holder, the conditions mentioned in Schedule 1 must be complied with.
Schedule 1 Authorised maintenance and conditions for a CAT A licence holder in a CAR 30 organisation
Schedule 1 sets out the conditions that must be observed to obtain the benefit of the authorisation and exemption.
1 Nature of authorised maintenance
A CAT A licence holder (the holder) may carry out on an aircraft the maintenance mentioned in paragraph 2.1 (a), within the limits of the tasks mentioned in paragraph 2.1 (b).
2 Conditions for carrying out authorised maintenance
2.1For clause 1:
(a) the maintenance is line maintenance mentioned in Appendix II of the Part 145 Manual of Standards; and
(b) the tasks are the tasks:
(i) for which the holder has been trained; and
(ii) that are endorsed on a personal authorisation given to the CAT A licence holder by CASA, or by an authorised person, under subregulation 42ZC (6) or (7) of CAR 1988.
2.2For paragraph 2.1 (b), the task training of the CAT A licence holder must:
(a) include delivery and assessment of theoretical knowledge and practical training appropriate to the task; and
(b) be carried out by the CAR 30 organisation.