A brief introduction to certification terms to be found in the Continuous Airworthiness Management of EASA compliant aircraft. Presented by Steven Bentley – MD Sofema Aviation Services.
The Type Certificate Holder (TCH) is responsible to the regulator of the state of the designer to deliver an aircraft which is fully compliant with the System and component safety criteria.
The System Safety Analysis (SSA) ensure that the aircraft is compliant with for example Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) Federal Aviation Requirement (FAR) in this case (FAR 25.1309) or European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Certification Specification (CS) in this case CS 25.1309 requires that systems and installations are designed to ensure that aircraft operating safety is not compromised The aircraft and its systems must perform essential function under any foreseeable operating conditions.
Occurrence of failure condition which prevents continued flight and safety landing – extremely improbable 10-9
Occurrence of other failure conditions which reduce capability of crew to cope with adverse operating conditions – improbable between 10-5 and 10- 8
System Installations must provide- Warning information to alert to crew to unsafe system operating conditions.
Systems and controls designed to minimise crew errors
Compliance shown by analysis and where appropriate suitable tests
In the event that the SSA required compliance may not be reached either a redesign – (preferred) or a Certification Maintenance Requirement (CMR) may be developed.
– Airworthiness Limitations may take a number of forms
– Structures Airworthiness Limitation Items
– Flight Manual Limitation
– Certification Maintenance Requirements
– Fuel System Limitation Items
– FAL Fuel Airworthiness Limitation
– Critical Design Configuration Control Limitations (CDCCL)
Aircraft design limitations may be found in the Maintenance Planning Document (MPD) which is the source document for the Aircraft Maintenance Program AMP).
The term “maintenance programme” is an encompassing term which is meant to include not just scheduled maintenance tasks but also to include the associated procedures and standard maintenance practices as well.
On the other hand the term “maintenance schedule” is inclusive and is intended to embrace the scheduled maintenance tasks alone.
The aircraft should only be maintained to one approved maintenance programme at a given point in time. Where an owner or operator wishes to change from one approved programme to other, a transfer check or inspection may need to be performed in order to implement the change the regulator should be consulted in the case of specific advise being required.
Sofema aviation Services provide EASA compliant Part M, Maintenance Program and Reliability Training. Please see www.sassofia.com or email office@sassofia.com
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AMP, Certification Specification, Continuous Airworthiness Management, EASA compliant aircraft
