New FAA Legal Interpretation Potentially Destroys Mechanic Apprenticeships

It's not just pilots getting screwed over by FAA Bureaucrats changing and re-interpreting legalize and regulations, aircraft mechanics now lost their entire apprentice pathway due to a new legal interpretation by the FAA. As pointed out by Scott Manley https://x.com/DJSnM/status/1840766670819999996

Complaining that FAA bureaucracy is delaying a rocket launch is nothing compared to the current crisis in aviation maintenance where an FAA lawyer *accidentally* changed how apprentices mechanics should be supervised and upended the entire industry.

There’s lots of FAA rules, many dating back decades, to a time when people didn’t carry smartphones. There’s a rule which required trainees to have a qualified mechanic available in person to supervise work. A FAA agent asked a lawyer to clarify whether video meetings were OK.

And sure enough the lawyer clarified that ‘in person’ means physically present, but also added this was needed so they could spot mistakes and physically intervene. So now this interpretation becomes law.

To get licensed to fix pair planes you need 18months experience working under someone, they show you how to do things, and at the end they verify and sign off. But generally there’s a lot of repetitive low supervision work, so multiple trainees can get supervised simultaneously.

Now this accidental rule making is saying that the supervisor needs to watch trainees non stop, as they doe even the mundane stuff like driving every screw, or drilling out each rivet.

Sure there’s complex stuff that needs 1 on 1 supervision. The mechanic uses their discretion.

So, this small clarification suddenly makes it a lot harder for uncertified mechanics to get the experience needed at a time when there’s already not enough people in the field. And removes the incentive for the ‘owner assisted annual inspection.

I’m glossing over a lot here, but the point is, FAA rules sometime pick up byzantine problems unintentionally from otherwise well meaning people just doing their job.

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