Explanatory Statement
Civil Aviation Regulations 1988
Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998
Authorisation — to carry out maintenance on class A or class B aircraft
Exemption — to certify maintenance on class A or class B aircraft
Regulatory Context
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 42ZC (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).
Regulation 42ZE provides that a person who caries 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 number CASA 463/10 authorised a person employed by a particular CAR 30 organisation, Damlan Pty Limited, trading as Manta Aviation (Manta Aviation), to carry out maintenance in the form of aircraft polishing. The person was also exempted from paragraph 42ZE (1) (b) of CAR 1988. This requires a person who carries out maintenance to ensure certification of completion of the maintenance in accordance with the CASA system of certification. The CASA system is set out in Schedule 6 of CAR 1988 and although it permits certain supervised maintenance, this does not extend to supervision of maintenance carried out by a person authorised by CASA under subregulation 42ZC (6). Hence, the need for an exemption from paragraph 42ZE (1) (b), subject to conditions which required an appropriate degree of supervision for the person. Under CASA 463/10, the supervision was to be given by the holder of an aircraft maintenance engineer licence or a relevant maintenance authority.
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 supervise an aircraft polisher.
Aircraft polishing must be carried out with great care and, therefore, the opportunity has also been taken to align the definition of supervises with that in clause 30 of Part 3 of the CASR Dictionary (inserted by the Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Safety Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1)).
The instrument authorises persons employed by Manta Aviation to carry out aircraft polishing. Aircraft polishing, because of the tools and procedures that are used, may be classified as low level maintenance.
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 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
Consultation under section 17 of the LIA has been undertaken in this case on a one-to-one basis with Manta Aviation.
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 181/11]
ATTACHMENT 1
Details of the authorisation and exemption
1 Duration
Under this section, the instrument:
(a) commences on 27 June 2011 and stops having effect at the earlier of:
(i) the end of 26 June 2013; or
(ii) the day that Damlan Pty Limited, trading as Manta Aviation, Aviation Reference Number 601671 (Manta Aviation), ceases to hold a certificate of approval covering aircraft polishing under regulation 30 of CAR 1988.
2 Revocation
Under this section, instrument CASA 463/10 is revoked.
3 Application
Under this section, the instrument applies to maintenance in the form of aircraft polishing carried out by Manta Aviation on Class A or Class B aircraft.
4 Authorisation — to carry out aircraft polishing maintenance
Under this section, for paragraphs 42ZC (3) (d) and (4) (e) of CAR 1988, a person employed by Manta Aviation for carrying out aircraft polishing (an aircraft polisher) is authorised to carry out maintenance in the form of aircraft polishing subject to section 6.
5 Exemption — to certify aircraft polishing maintenance
Under this section, an aircraft polisher who carries out aircraft polishing in accordance with the authorisation in section 4 is exempt from compliance with paragraph 42ZE (1) (b) of CAR 1988, subject to the condition mentioned in Schedule 1.
A Note explains that under paragraph 42ZE (1) (b) 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 CASA system of certification of completion of maintenance.
6 Conditions on authorisation
Under this section, the authorisation is subject to the condition mentioned in Schedule 2.
7 Definitions
Under this section, important terms are defined. Thus, in the instrument:
qualified supervisor means a person who:
(a) holds an aircraft engineer licence, or an airworthiness maintenance authority, covering maintenance on the class of aircraft; and
(b) is supervising the aircraft polisher in the carrying out of the polishing operation.
supervising means:
(a) is physically present at the place that the polishing operation is being carried out; and
(b) is observing the operation being carried out to the extent necessary to enable the supervisor to form an opinion as to whether the operation is being carried out properly; and
(c) is available to give advice to, and answer questions about the operation from, the aircraft polisher carrying it out.
Schedule 1 Condition for exemption
Schedule 1 states a condition for the exemption, namely, that only a qualified supervisor employed by Manta Aviation may certify for completion of aircraft polishing by an aircraft polisher.
Schedule 2 Condition for authorisation
Schedule 2 states a condition for the authorisation, namely, that the aircraft polisher must be supervised by a qualified supervisor employed by Manta Aviation.