IA Renewal Seminars Are For Everyone
For more than six years, Chance Aviation has sponsored an annual IA renewal seminar in conjunction with Vincennes University and Purdue University. Both institutions conduct degreed aviation programs at the Aviation Technology Center located at the Indianapolis International Airport. Our IA renewal attracts anywhere from 150-200 aviation maintenance professionals from all over Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. I started this local program several years ago because nobody else was doing it. Despite having several large aerospace companies in Indiana, most Indiana-based IAs were traveling out of state to keep their IA current. It did not seem unreasonable to me that my team could put together this event with the proper FAA blessing. As long as the event would be free to attend, the FAA would be willing to assist in the online registration of this event on a yearly basis. Due to the gracious initial support of Vincennes University, we were able to access the Aviation Technology Center for the aviation community at no charge. These types of partnerships are the best way of promoting aviation safety and professionalism throughout our industry.
For those readers who do not possess an IA, the FAA wisely requires several ways to maintain the currency of one’s IA. According to 14 CFR65.93 A (4), one of the more popular methods is by attending an approved refresher course, of eight hours in length. Upon completion of the refresher course, the attendee will receive a certificate notating the hours of attendance, and the ever-important course number which proves your attendance. The refresher course is conducted in a number of ways. One way is to sit in on an eight-hour video course. As an A&P myself, I think the eight-hour video courses are the worst. My school memories remind me that sitting in a classroom to watch videos for eight hours is pretty boring. You have no opportunity to interact with the instructor, and no way to have a healthy dialogue with other aviation maintenance professionals.
Most IA renewals are conducted with hour-long training sessions, filled with FAA-authorized manufacturer presentations. These presentations create some of the best question and answer sessions I have ever been a part of during my years in aviation. We have had manufacturers teach everything from “Eurocopter EC145 Maintenance Issues” to “Spark Plug Construction and Maintenance” by Tempest. If you think about it, everything we fix has been built by a manufacturer at one time or another. What better way is there to present your technical issues, than to do it in an environment where other like-minded aviation maintenance professionals can participate?
I am sure you have noticed that manufacturers are cutting back the amount of staff members that are used to staff technical support lines. I recently called a wheel and brake manufacturer for technical support on a Citation brake issue. Despite calling them three times, and despite my customer’s efforts, we were unable to get any assistance from this manufacturer. Their excuse later was that they are swamped, and don’t have enough staff. That is a hard pill to swallow when you ask a Citation customer to spend thousands of dollars to convert their wheels to your brand, only to be met with zero support when they need it.
Because of situations like this, attendance at IA renewals has become a smart and important decision. In many ways, going to an IA renewal is the only way to meet the correct technical or product support manager for a manufacturer.
Recently I learned that many FAA offices in other regions of the country don’t like the manufacturer one-hour-seminar format. They are opposed to this, telling several people that they don’t want manufacturers presenting. Their incorrect judgment is that these sessions are focused of selling products and pushing a certain brand. I have been attending IA renewals all over the United States since the early 1990s, and I have never once heard a sales pitch at an IA renewal. There has been a long-standing agreement for many years at these renewals, by which manufacturers are mainly interested in conveying product knowledge. They will point the difference between products, but it’s aimed at understanding the differences relating to aircraft application.
As a reader of D.O.M. magazine, you likely understand that you and fellow IAs and A&Ps are often the major decision makers when it comes to purchasing aircraft parts. Of course, if your operation is fortunate enough to have a parts manager on staff, they also play a major role in buying parts. It’s then ironic to me that airframe and parts manufacturers spend tens of thousands of dollars advertising to pilots who may only fly one or two aircraft over the span of many years. That pilot frequently knows nothing of maintenance, and doesn’t have the legal ability to install most parts on an aircraft. So why do companies spend so much money on advertising in mediums that don’t matter to them? The people who read D.O.M. either purchase aircraft parts or have a hand in buying aircraft parts for MANY aircraft. I always think it’s funny when I see parts or tool manufacturers set up booths at some of the major trade shows, thinking people are going to walk away buying thousands of aircraft maintenance widgets. These types of conventions are good for building relationships with management, gathering product knowledge or marketing your company with overseas clients. A more cost-effective way to communicate directly is with IAs is thru an IA renewal.
The title of my article is “IA Renewal Seminars are for Everyone.” The reason I want to bring this to your attention is that I will often ask customers if they are coming to our IA renewal. If my customer is an A&P, they will often ask if they are allowed to attend even though they are not an IA. The answer is yes! Several years ago, the FAA instituted the Aviation Maintenance Awards Program, as currently outlined in AC65-25E. This advisory circular was designed to encourage all aviation maintenance professionals to achieve recognition for ongoing voluntary training. A&Ps can participate in several ways for this program, but one of the easiest ways is through attending the IA renewal seminars. In addition to A&Ps, our company actively encourages parts managers, shipping and receiving clerks and repairmen to attend. These professionals can learn from the presentations while also picking up technical support literature and software that is available.
I believe that the more we educate ourselves about the various facets of aircraft maintenance, the better we can work together as a team to keep our aircraft flying. Many of the IAs that come to our event really don’t need to. They do enough inspections that would meet FAA requirements without needing to attend our event. By and large, they come anyway. I believe many people place a significant value on knowledge and professional development. This truly impresses me, because it tells me that there is an increasing amount of professionals in aviation maintenance that understand the value of staying voluntarily involved in these seminars.
My final encouragement for you to get involved with IA renewals seminars is cost. It’s easy to drop $2,000 in order to attend one of the big aviation trade shows. Between airfare, hotel, rental cars, meals and trade show admission, it’s easy to see why attending major trade shows has become somewhat cost prohibitive. Most IA renewal seminars are local, or at least regional. Our event is free to attend; while many others are still available for a modest fee. It’s much more budget friendly and time friendly to rent a van for a day to take your staff to an IA renewal, than it is to manipulate staff schedules for a week while several people are away in Florida enjoying a round of golf between maintenance seminars!
Norman Chance is President and CEO of Chance Aviation, an international aircraft parts distributor headquartered in Indianapolis. He has a degree in aircraft maintenance from Vincennes University and a degree in aeronautics from Embry-Riddle University. He holds an FAA A&P certificate.