The FAA now accepts completion of the American Bonanza Society Maintenance Academy weekend course for renewal of the FAA Inspection Authorization (IA).
Certificated mechanics holding an IA will be able to use a course completion certificate from ABS toward the biennial renewal requirement under FAR 65.93 beginning with the September academy at Tullahoma, Tennessee, according to officials.
The ABS Maintenance Academy is a 2-½ day event that includes a 50/50 mix of classroom and hands-on training covering common Beechcraft squawks found in ABS Service Clinics. It teaches participants how to conduct a Service Clinic-level inspection on their customers’ airplanes, with special emphasis on control surfaces, the engine, and landing gear inspection, rigging and repair as presented in the ABS maintenance guides.
Enrollment in the ABS Maintenance Academy course is competitive, and is limited to certificated Airframe mechanics (or international equivalent) with at least five years of verifiable experience maintaining piston-powered general aviation aircraft. Inspection Authorization is highly desirable. Applicants must be employed full time by a fixed-base facility that regularly maintains Beech piston airplanes and eligible to receive aviation training in the United States. ABS holds these high entry standards to ensure the limited number of training slots available (about 40 per year) go to working mechanics who will use this training on a large number of ABS member airplanes, officials explain.
The next ABS Maintenance Academy, hosted by the Beechcraft Heritage Museum at Tullahoma, Tennessee Sept. 18-20, is full, officials note.
For more information about the ABS Maintenance Academy and the 2016 schedule when it is announced, see Mechanic Training at Bonanza.org. Non-credit videos of segments of the ABS Maintenance Academy are available free to ABS members in the ABS Online Learning Center, linked from the ABS website home page.