Technical English 2

Semana 18

Inst. carmen muñoz villalobos

 Aircraft
Equipment
Maintenance
Inst. Carmen Muñoz Villalobos
Definition
• No aircraft is so tolerant of neglect that it is safe in the
absence of an effective inspection and maintenance
programme. The processes that affect an aircraft are
Deterioration with age (e.g. fatigue, wear and corrosion) as
well as chance failures (e.g. tyre burst, excess structural
loads).
• Aircraft Maintenance can be defined in a number of ways
and the following may help understand the different
aspects:
• “Those actions required for restoring or maintaining an item in a serviceable condition including
servicing, repair, modification, overhaul, inspection and determination of condition”. [World Airlines
Technical Operations Glossary]
• “Maintenance is the action necessary to sustain or restore the integrity and performance of the
airplane” [Hessburg, 2001]
• “Maintenance is the process of ensuring that a system continually performs its intended function at
its designed-in level of reliability and safety.” [Kinnison and Siddiqui, 2013]
Activity
• Aircraft Maintenance is that part of the process of aircraft technical activity which is
conducted on aircraft whilst it remains in the line maintenance or base maintenance
environment. Aircraft Maintenance is intended to keep the aircraft in a state which
will or has enabled a certificate of release to service to be issued.
• A hangar environment may be available but is often not necessary. The reasons for
carrying out maintenance are neatly summarised by [Lam 2002]:
• Aircraft safety – airworthiness at its heart
• Keep aircraft in service – Availability, which is of key importance to an operator i.e. the
aircraft can meet its schedule.
• Maximise value of asset (airframe, engines and components) – of prime importance
to the owner or lessor.
• Maintenance will consist of a mixture of Preventive and Corrective work,
including precautionary work to ensure that there have been no undetected chance
failures. There will be inspection to monitor the progress of wear out processes, in addition
to:
• Scheduled or Preventive work to anticipate and prevent failures.
• Unscheduled work – Repair maintenance and On-condition maintenance
• In general terms, for preventive work to be worthwhile, two conditions should be met:
1. The item must be restored to its original reliability after maintenance action, and
2. The cost of maintenance action must be less than the failure it is intended to prevent.
Light or Line Maintenance
• This would typically include Pre-flight checks, Daily checks (before first flight) Fluids, Failure
rectification as well as Minor, scheduled maintenance tasks as follows. According to EASA
Part 145, AMC 145.A.10, Line Maintenance should be understood as “any maintenance that
is carried out before flight to ensure that the aircraft is fit for the intended flight.” This may
include:
• Trouble shooting
• Defect rectification
• Component replacement, up to and including engines and propellers, with use of external
test equipment if required
• Scheduled maintenance and/or checks including visual inspections that will detect obvious
failures but do not require extensive in depth inspection. It may also include internal
structure, systems and powerplant items which are visible through quick opening access
panels/doors
• Minor repairs and modifications which do not require extensive disassembly and can be
accomplished by simple means
• EASA Part 145, AMC 145.A.10 also explains that “for temporary or
occasional cases (ADs, SBs) the Quality Manager may accept base
maintenance tasks to be performed by a line maintenance
organisation provided all requirements are fulfilled as defined by
the competent authority”. It is also noted that “Maintenance tasks
falling outside these criteria are considered to be Base
Maintenance”.
 Base or Heavy Maintenance
• Base Maintenance may be referred to as Heavy (or Depth) Maintenance, and consists of tasks that
are generally more in-depth and long-lasting than those above, but are performed less frequently.
An MRO company will have to have large facilities and specialised equipment and staff to undertake
base maintenance, and many operators contract-out this function. The different activities may
include:
• C and D Checks (Block checks see Maintenance Programme) which will check for deterioration of the
airframe, engines and systems, e.g. corrosion, fatigue
• Removal of defects – implementation of Service Bulletins (SB) and Airworthiness Directives (AD),
although this can also be done during Line maintenance.
• Technology upgrade – fitting of Terrain Avoidance and Warning System (TAWS), Airborne Collision
Avoidance System (ACAS) etc
• Cabin reconfiguration, painting etc.
 Shop or Component Maintenance
• The third form of maintenance can be termed as “Workshop” or just Shop
maintenance. This covers maintenance on components when removed
from aircraft e.g. engines, APU, seats. Sometimes this is carried out within
the same organisation as the Base Maintenance, but sometimes special
companies carry out this work separately.
Maintenance Intervals
• The intervals of maintenance are parameters set within the
Approved Maintenance Schedule (AMS), which is in turn based on
the Maintenance Planning Document (MPD). These will be set
according to different criteria, mostly depending on how well
damage can be detected and failure predicted [CAA, 2017]:
Hard time
• "Preventative process in which known deterioration of an Item is
limited to an acceptable level by the maintenance actions
• Carried out at periods related to time in service (e.g. calendar time,
number of cycles, number of landings)."
On-condition
• “Preventative process in which Item
are inspected or tested, at specified
periods, to an appropriate standard
to determine whether it can
continue in service
• Such an inspection / test may reveal
a need for maintenance action.
• Fundamental purpose of On-
Condition is to remove an Item
before its failure in service.”
Condition monitoring
• “Information on Items gained from
monitoring is collected, analysed
and interpreted on a continuing
basis as a means deciding whether
or not to implement corrective
procedures.”
• This process is normally
automated and may form part of
the aircraft’s on-board health
management system.
Units for Maintenance Intervals
• Flight Hours (FH), for items that are in
constant operation e.g. Fuel Pumps,
Electric Generators
• Flight Cycles (FC), for items operated
once or twice per flight e.g. Landing
gear, air starter, brakes, hull
pressurisations
• Calendar Time (Cal), for items exposed
whether operated or not e.g. Fire
Extinguishers, Corrosion to Structure
Operating hours, for items not operated
every flight, or otherwise independent
of FH or FC e.g. APU operation.
Scheduled maintenance
checks
• Aircraft maintenance in civil
aviation generally organized
using a maintenance checks
system, which are periodic
inspections that have to be
done on an aircraft after a
certain amount of time or
usage.
Power-by-the-Hour

• A Power by the Hour program provides budget predictability, avoids installing a loaner during repairs when
an aircraft part fails and enrolled aircraft may have a better value and liquidity. This concept of unscheduled
maintenance was initially introduced for aircraft engines to mitigate engine failures. The term was coined
by Bristol Siddeley in 1962 to support Vipers of the British Aerospace 125 business jets for a fixed sum per
flying hour. A complete engine and accessory replacement service was provided, allowing the operator to
accurately forecast this cost, and relieving him from purchasing stocks of engines and accessories.
• In the 1980s, Rolls-Royce plc reinstated the program to provide the operator with a fixed engine
maintenance cost over an extended period of time. Operators are assured of an accurate cost projection and
avoid the breakdowns costs; the term is trademarked by Rolls-Royce but is the common name in the
industry. It is an option for operators of several Rolls-Royce aircraft engines. Other aircraft engine
manufacturers such as General Electric and Pratt & Whitney offer similar programs.
• Jet Support Services provides hourly cost maintenance programs independently of the
manufacturers. GEMCO also offers a similar program for piston engines in general aviation aircraft.
Bombardier Aerospace offers its Smart Services program, covering parts and maintenance by the hour.
Maintenance release
• At the completion of any maintenance task a person authorized by
the national airworthiness authority signs a maintenance release
stating that maintenance has been performed in accordance with the
applicable airworthiness requirements. In the case of a certified
aircraft this may be an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer or Aircraft
Maintenance Technician, while for amateur-built aircraft this may be
the owner or builder of the aircraft. A maintenance release can be
called a certificate of release to service (CRS).
Maintenance personnel
• The ICAO defines the licensed role of aircraft maintenance
(technician/engineer/mechanic), noting that "The terms in brackets
are given as acceptable additions to the title of the license. Each
Contracting State is expected to use in its own regulations the one it
prefers. "Thus, aircraft maintenance technicians, engineers and
mechanics all perform essentially the same role. However different
countries use these terms in different ways to define their individual
levels of qualification and responsibilities.
In American licenses for aircraft maintenance personnel include:
• Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME), also called Licensed Aircraft Maintenance
Engineer (LAME or L-AME).
• Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT), or colloquially Airframe and Powerplant
(A&P).
• Aircraft Maintenance Mechanic (AMM).
• As there will be 41,030 new airliners by 2036, Boeing expects 648,000 new
commercial airline maintenance technicians from 2017 till then: 256,000 in Asia
Pacific (39%), 118,000 in North America (19%) and 111,000 in Europe (17%).
• In Europe aircraft maintenance personnel must comply with Part 66,
Certifying Staff, issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This
regulation establishes four levels of authorization:
• Level 1: General Familiarisation, Unlicensed
• Level 2: Ramp and Transit, Category A
• can only certify own work performed for tasks which he/she has received documented
training
• Level 3: Line Certifying Staff and Base Maintenance Supporting Staff, Category
B1 (electromechanic) and/or B2(Avionics)
• can certify all work performed on an aircraft/engine for which he/she is type rated
excluding base maintenance (generally up to and including A-Check)
• Level 4: Base Maintenance Certifying Staff, Category C
• can certify all work performed on an aircraft/engine for which he/she is type rated, but
only if it is base maintenance (additional level-3 staff necessary)
• this authorization does not automatically include any level 2 or level 3 license.
Future of aircraft
maintenance
 Aircraft health
monitoring

• Airbus has indicated that data diagnostics could put an end to aircraft

unscheduled grounding for fault repairs around 2025, supported by big data and
operational experience. Predictive maintenance, diagnostics and health
monitoring could eliminate unscheduled groundings, by making maintenance
schedule intervals more frequent to avoid AOGs and the associated operational
interruptions, ultimately eliminating them. Data or monitoring can tell that
some parts do not need a scheduled check, but a full transition to this model
will need much greater experience. With more history, examples
and regulatory confidence, the maintenance program and associated manuals
could become a dynamic documents for each specific aircraft with maintenance
schedule based on operational history of the aircraft.
Electric aircraft
• In October 2018, consultant Roland Berger counted 134 electric propulsion projects: 70% electric
engines with batteries recharged on ground and 30% hybrid-electric with a fuel generator, in
parallel or in series; 45% are urban air taxis, 43% general aviation and 12% airliners. All-electric is
sometimes selected for sub-19 seats commuters, and more often for smaller 2-4-seat aircraft
like urban air taxis or trainers. Electric motors will probably require less maintenance than a fuel
engine, while batteries and cables may need to be exchanged more often than fuel systems.
• The all-electric Pipistrel Alpha Electro two-seat trainer is already certified as a LSA in Europe,
Australia and possibly the US. Redmond, Washington-based MagniX is integrating a 350 hp
(260 kW) electric motor on its iron bird testbed before a first flight of a Cessna Caravan in 2019,
with a 750 hp (560 kW) Magni500 replacing its PT6 single turboprop. MagniX expects to certify
the Magni500 and the 375 hp (280 kW) Magni250 by 2020, and the Caravan conversion by 2022
with a range of 100–200 mi (160–320 km) as it is typically operated over less than 100 mi
(160 km). A Britten-Norman Islander retrofitted with electric propulsion should be demonstrated
by 2021 by Cranfield Aerospace before commercial service in 2023. Roland Berger expects a 50-
seat hybrid-electric airliner in 2032 with a 340 km (210 mi) range.
 Maintenance automation
• Automated aircraft inspection
systems have the potential to make
aircraft maintenance safer and
more reliable.
• Various solutions are currently
developed: a collaborative mobile
robot named Air-
Cobot, and Unmanned aerial
vehicles from Donecle or Easyjet.