Version 1.0

Aviation Maintenance Technicians

Model Code of Conduct

Tools to Advance AMT
Safety, Citizenship and Professionalism

Provided to the AMT Community by:

[Insert Sponsoring Organization]

©2009 Michael S. Baum. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction

The Aviation Maintenance Technicians Model Code of Conduct (Code of Conduct) offers recommendations to advance aviation maintenance technicians (AMTs) professionalism.

The Code of Conduct is not a standard and is not intended to be implemented as one. Instead, the Code of Conduct presents a vision of excellence for AMTs. Its principles complement and underscore legal requirements.

The Code of Conduct is intended for all aviation maintenance technicians.

The Principles:

The Code of Conduct has seven sections, each containing Principles and Sample Recommended Practices.

I. General Responsibilities of Aviation Maintenance Technicians

II. Third-Party Safety

III. Training and Proficiency

IV. Security

V. Environmental Issues

VI. Use of Technology

VII. Advancement and Promotion of Aviation Maintenance

The Sample Recommended Practices:

Sample Recommended Practices are basic suggestions for applying the principles of the Code of Conduct and tailoring them to individual AMTs and organizations implementing the Code of Conduct. The Sample Recommended Practices may be modified to satisfy the unique capabilities and requirements of each AMT, work task/project, training event, aircraft, and organization. Some Sample Recommended Practices exceed the provisions of the associated Code of Conduct principles. They are not presented in any order of importance.

The Commentary:

Commentary on selected provisions of the Code of Conduct is published at <www.secureav.com>. The Commentary provides discussion, interpretive guidance, and suggested ways to adopt the Code of Conduct. Published commentary on any provision does not imply greater importance of that provision. Additional provisions will be added as the Commentary evolves.

Benefits of the Code of Conduct:

The Code of Conduct benefits AMTs, the aviation industry, and the aviation community by:

• highlighting practices to support professionalism and safety among AMTs,

• promoting improved training, appropriate conduct, personal responsibility, and contributions to the aviation community and society at large,

• encouraging the development and adoption of good judgment and ethical behavior,

• advancing self-regulation through the aviation community as an alternative to government regulation,

• supporting improved communication between AMTs, aircraft owners, pilots, regulators, and others in the aviation industry, and

• promoting recognition of aviation maintenance as a highly respected and rewarding profession.

Note: Not all maintenance operations are authorized in all jurisdictions internationally. References to the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are used as examples. In all jurisdictions, applicable laws and regulations must be followed.

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Aviation Maintenance Technicians Model Code of Conduct - Principles

I. General Responsibilities of Aviation maintenance technicians

AMTs should:

a. make safety their highest priority,

b. seek excellence in workmanship,

c. develop and exercise good judgment, and apply sound principles of technical decision-making,

d. recognize and manage risks effectively,

e. adhere to prudent operating practices and personal operating parameters (e.g., tolerances, limitations, and other human factors),

f. advance professionalism,

g. act with responsibility and courtesy,

h. adhere to applicable laws and regulations, and

i. comply with training and performance requirements.

Explanation: Code of Conduct Section I serves as a preamble to the Code of Conduct’s other principles. It emphasizes safety, excellence, risk management, and responsibility.

Sample Recommended Practices:

• Approach aviation maintenance with seriousness and diligence, recognizing that lives and safety depend on you.

• Maintain each aircraft as if you owned it and your family would be flying in it.

• Understand and comply with the privileges and limitations of your certificate, license, and any additional ratings.

• Recognize, accept, plan for, and correctly estimate the costs of implementing proper safety practices for the work environment.

• Identify and adapt to changing work conditions based on sound principles of safety, risk management and compliance. Stop work and do not approve an aircraft or component for return to service if safety or compliance has been compromised.

• Recognize the increased risks associated with maintenance performed under time pressure, in distracting environments, in inclement weather, at night, in congested areas and other adverse environments. Plan for and manage such risks using accepted risk management principles. Never subject others to risks you would not prudently take.

• Use accepted/approved methods, techniques, and practices to perform maintenance or other authorized tasks. Use approved parts and supplies, as applicable.

• Use, periodically review, and contribute improvements to checklists, including errata, and adopt personal minimums for acceptable maintenance practices. Review these materials regularly with AMTs holding an Inspection Authorization (IA), AMT instructors, or other trusted mentors.

• Make personal wellness (both mental and physical) and an honest self-evaluation of your fitness a precondition of commencing each work shift or task.

• Be aware of personal susceptibility to (and seek to avoid or manage) fatigue, stress, extreme temperatures, claustrophobia, and distraction.

• Listen and be heard. Be prepared to speak up if you see unaddressed safety or compliance issues.

• Comply with Airworthiness Directives (ADs).

• Urge owners/operators to comply with recommended inspections, timed component changes/overhaul periods, and Service Bulletins (SBs).

• Plan and research every task carefully. Ensure that you have the proper knowledge, experience, and qualifications (or engage such personnel), and the tooling, materials, facilities, environmental conditions, technical data, and processes to perform or approve the required work.

• Document all maintenance tasks performed, and review aircraft logs for relevant maintenance history. Be prepared to provide a detailed shift or task handover to the next technicians.

• Perform operational checks and reinspect. If practicable, have another qualified person inspect your work before return to service.

• Return aircraft in an equal or better state of cleanliness than received.

• Adhere to applicable rules, methods, techniques, and practices of your maintenance organization, customer, company, industry, and regulators.

• Communicate all discrepancies effectively and promptly.

• Provide feedback to manufacturers and regulatory personnel on discrepancies and unsafe conditions found in aircraft and aviation parts.

• Submit and review Service Difficulty Reports (SDRs) as appropriate.

• Become familiar with, confirm, and perform only work permitted by the service center, repair station, operations specifications, capabilities list, or ratings.

• Perform only work authorized by the owner/operator.

• If applicable, notify your management if the operations specifications require updating, and seek to apply for necessary changes and/or ratings to update the operations specifications.

• If applicable, follow the procedures to add or modify new items to the capabilities list.

• Within the scope of your responsibilities and authority, ensure that all contract work is performed by qualified parties.

• Within the scope of your education, training, and authority, apply a systems approach to safety considering aircraft design, production, materials, tools, equipment, facilities, software, and human factors. Consider adopting a safety management systems (SMS), a reliability centered maintenance framework, and a maintenance resource management approach, as appropriate.

II. Third-Party Safety

AMTs should:

a. maintain a safe work place environment,

b. manage risk and avoid unnecessary risk to aircraft occupants, people and property on the surface, and people in other aircraft,

c. brief team members on maintenance procedures and inform them of any significant or unusual risk associated with the task,

d. seek to prevent unsafe conduct by third-parties, including coworkers and pilots, and

e. avoid operations and behavior that may alarm or disturb aircraft occupants, people on the surface, or other third-parties.

Explanation: AMTs are responsible for the safety of the aircraft, work area, fellow employees, and aircraft occupants, all of whom place their lives in AMTs’ hands. AMTs should exercise sufficient care on their behalf. Such care includes, but is not limited to, disclosing unusual risks and exercising prudent risk management. AMT responsibilities also extend to people on the ground and in other aircraft.

Sample Recommended Practices:

• Keep your coworkers and aircraft occupants as safe as possible, as though they were your closest loved ones.

• Approach and complete the job in a manner that would give you unqualified confidence to fly in the aircraft once it is approved for return to service.

• Act professionally and ethically with your colleagues, aircraft occupants, and regulators.

• Promote safety among pilots, aircraft owners, and other interested parties by contributing to their safety education.

• Wear (and encourage others to wear) appropriate safety equipment. Demonstrate the use of safety equipment to third parties.

• Consider the experience, background, skills, and concerns of fellow employees.

• Provide a thorough briefing prior to shift or task handover.

• Minimize task handoffs when practicable.

• Never pressure, coerce, or allow fellow employees to perform maintenance tasks they do not feel confident or competent to perform.

• Insist on a safe working environment, including but not limited to lighting, noise, chemical protection, and cleanliness.

• Familiarize yourself with all applicable safety procedures.

• Remember that aircraft occupant safety begins on the ramp before entering the aircraft. Monitor crew and passengers closely, and keep them clear of ground-based hazards (e.g., fuel trucks, propellers, engine thrust/blast, tools, slippery surfaces).

• Seek to develop and maintain meaningful communication and rapport with the aircraft owner, operator, and pilots.

• Facilitate, where appropriate, active participation by aircraft owners in the maintenance of their aircraft.

• Caution owners and pilots whenever a post-maintenance functional check flight should be conducted without passengers on board.

• Take appropriate safety actions when refueling aircraft with people on board.

III. Training and Proficiency

AMTs should:

a. participate in regular recurrent training to maintain and improve proficiency,

b. participate in aviation maintenance safety education programs,

c. remain vigilant and avoid complacency,

d. train to recognize and deal effectively with emergencies, and

e. maintain an accurate log to satisfy training and recent experience requirements.

Explanation: Training and proficiency underlie aviation maintenance safety. Recurrent training is a primary component of proficiency and should include both classroom and on-the-job training. Each contributes significantly to aviation maintenance safety and neither can substitute for the other. Training sufficient to promote aviation maintenance safety often exceeds legal requirements.

Sample Recommended Practices:

• Pursue a rigorous, lifelong course of aviation maintenance study.

• Follow and periodically review programs of study or series of training exercises to improve proficiency. Consider a training plan that will yield new certificates, skills, and professional citations.

• Know current maintenance regulations and understand their implications and rationale.

• Attend aviation maintenance training programs and safety seminars offered by industry organizations and the FAA.

• Participate in the FAA Aviation Maintenance Technician Awards Program.

• Stay updated with diverse and relevant aviation maintenance publications.

• Conduct periodic reviews of recent maintenance-related accidents and incidents, focusing on probable causes.

• Ascertain that your training is adequate and documents are current prior to performing aviation maintenance, even if you have performed these tasks in the past.

• Learn the Service Difficulty Reporting (or other applicable defect reporting) system, including its benefits, underlying rationale, and compelling need for collective participation.

• Maintain proficiency that exceeds minimum regulatory requirements and professional standards.

• Maintain and review a log to track errors and lessons learned, and evaluate trends for each task performed.

• Achieve and maintain proficiency in the troubleshooting and repair of avionics and automation. Otherwise outsource such tasks to qualified specialists.

• Review and understand airport diagrams and procedures to prevent runway incursions.

• Register at <www.faasafety.gov> to receive announcements of safety meetings, literature, and to review and complete appropriate safety courses.

• Operate aircraft systems and components, and taxi aircraft, only after receiving proper instruction and demonstrating an ability to do so.

IV. Security

AMTs should:

a. seek to maintain the security of all persons and property associated with their aviation activities,

b. remain vigilant and immediately report suspicious, reckless, or illegal activities, and

c. secure aircraft and associated equipment to prevent unauthorized use.

Explanation: Enhanced security awareness is essential for the aviation community. Threats to security demand responsive action. This Section addresses the AMT’s role in promoting national security and preventing criminal acts.

Sample Recommended Practices:

• Query unfamiliar people found in safety sensitive or secure areas. Be prepared to challenge and report irregularities, including unauthorized or suspicious people.

• Secure all unattended aircraft and equipment. Use additional or enhanced locks or other approved anti-theft mechanisms to secure all aircraft, as appropriate.

• Confirm that ramp access gates are closed securely behind you to prevent “tailgating” by unauthorized persons.

• Become familiar with Airport Watch (866-GA-SECURE) and other means to report and deter suspicious activities.

• Report security concerns, flight or ground safety hazards or anomalies whether or not they are in your area.

• Complete required security training.

V. Environmental Issues

AMTs should:

a. recognize and seek to mitigate the environmental impact of aviation maintenance,

b. minimize the discharge of fuel, oil, refrigerants, and other chemicals into the environment during refueling, ground, servicing, and maintenance operations,

c. respect and protect environmentally sensitive areas,

d. comply with applicable noise-abatement procedures and mitigate aircraft noise near noise-sensitive areas, and

e. review and adhere to prudent hazardous materials handling procedures.

Explanation: Reducing pollution caused by aviation maintenance will reduce health problems, environmental impact, and unfavorable public perceptions of aviation. Environmental issues can also close airports and maintenance facilities, and increase regulatory burdens.

Sample Recommended Practices:

• Use environmentally sound devices/procedures for defueling, sumping fuel, and disposing of fuel samples.

• Learn and adopt environmentally responsible methods for all aspects of aircraft care, especially degreasing aircraft, de-icing, and handling run-off.

• Conduct static power run-ups and high-speed taxi testing in appropriate areas.

• Be aware of the noise signature of each aircraft, and follow procedures to reduce noise such as reducing engine power and propeller RPM, as soon as practicable when ground-testing engines or propellers.

• Mitigate the impact of maintenance on wildlife where practicable or required.

• Utilize subcontractors and vendors that adhere to environmentally friendly practices.

VI. Use of Technology

AMTs should:

a. become familiar with and properly use appropriate technologies, recognize their limitations, and supplement with conventional skills when helpful or required,

b. keep current with the requirements and applicable procedures for all technologies that they service/maintain,

c. recognize that advanced technologies may require a systems-oriented approach to service/maintenance, and

d. contribute to the advancement of technology by providing appropriate feedback based on practical experience.

Explanation: Innovative, compact, and inexpensive technologies have greatly expanded the capabilities of aviation maintenance. This Section encourages the use of such safety-enhancing technologies.

Sample Recommended Practices:

• When practicable, invest in new technologies that advance aviation maintenance. Train to use them properly. Learn and understand the features and limitations of such technologies.

• Recognize that technically advanced aircraft (TAA) and corresponding technically advanced service operations are a reality and require special tools, training, test equipment, and procedures.

• Develop constructive ongoing relationships with vendors and airframe or component manufacturers, as appropriate, recognizing that TAA tend to require enhanced ongoing communications among all such parties.

VII. Advancement and Promotion of General Aviation Maintenance

AMTs should:

a. advance and promote aviation safety and adherence to the Code of Conduct,

b. volunteer in and contribute to organizations that promote aviation, and use their aviation maintenance skills to contribute to society at large,

c. demonstrate appreciation for other aviation professionals and service providers,

d. advance a aviation maintenance culture that values openness, humility, integrity, positive attitudes, and the pursuit of personal improvement,

e. promote ethical behavior within the aviation community, and

f. mentor future aviation maintenance technicians.

Explanation: Aviation has a well recognized and worsening public relations problem. Vigilance and responsive action are essential to ensure industry vitality and to enhance the aviation maintenance community.

Sample Recommended Practices:

• Strive to adopt the Code of Conduct.

• Become familiar with and consider adherence to the Aviation Mechanic’s Creed (see Additional Resources, below).

• Serve as an AMT ambassador to the public by providing accurate information and refuting misinformation concerning aviation maintenance activities, and by encouraging potential student AMTs.

• Recognize that AMT actions and attitudes reflect upon the entire aviation community.

• Volunteer in support of the aviation industry, such as with youth groups and “career days” to share your AMT expertise and enthusiasm.

• Make charitable use of your aviation resources (for example, providing maintenance services to charitable organizations and youth programs).

• Express appreciation to other service personnel for their valuable assistance.

• Participate in aviation-related fundraising events.

• Invite constructive criticism from your fellow AMTs and provide the same when asked.

• Adhere to the highest ethical principles in all aviation dealings, including business practices.

• Expressly advise customers of intended work, rationale, and estimated cost and time, obtain express consent prior to commencing work, and seek cost effective solutions consistent with regulations and safety. Keep customers apprised of material variances from the estimate and obtain approval before proceeding.

• Seek to resolve disputes informally and congenially.

Additional Resources

• Notes for Prospective Implementers helps facilitate Code of Conduct implementation. Available at <www.secureav.com/Notes-for-Implementers.pdf>.

• Resources to help [insert your organization here] advance AMT skills and promote safety are available at <www.[your organization].org/>.

• Annotated Commentary helps implementers interpret the Code of Conduct and provides source materials and supplemental aides. Available at <www.secureav.com>.

• Further information about AMTs is available at:

FAA: <www.faa.gov>, and
<www.faasafety.gov>

AMTSociety: <www.amtsociety.org>

AWAM: <www.awam.org>

EAA: <www.eaa.org>

NBAA: <www.nbaa.org>

PAMA: <www.pama.org>

• The Aircraft Mechanic’s Creed is available at: <www.secureav.com/Creed.pdf>.

• The Aviation Maintenance Technicians Model Code of Conduct, the Aviators Model Code of Conduct, the Glider Aviators Model Code of Conduct, the Light Sport Aviators Model Code of Conduct, the Seaplane Pilots Model Code of Conduct, and the Student Pilots Model Code of Conduct are available at <www.secureav.com>.

Abbreviations

AD Airworthiness Directive

AMT Aviation Maintenance Technician(s)

ATC Air Traffic Control

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

IA Inspection Authorization

PTS Practical Test Standards

SB Service Bulletin

SDR Service Difficulty Report

SMS Safety Management System

TAA Technically Advanced Aircraft

Notice

The [insert your organization’s Code of Conduct] is a customized version of the Aviators Model Code of Conduct created by Michael S. Baum. ©2003-2009 Michael S. Baum. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use are available at <www.secureav.com>.

AMTs and the aviation maintenance community may use the Code of Conduct as a resource for code of conduct development although it is recommended that this be supported by independent research on the suitability of its principles for specific or local applications and situations. It is not intended to provide legal advice and must not be relied upon as such.

Edits, Errata, Comments

The Aviation Maintenance Technicians Model Code of Conduct is a living document, intended to be updated periodically to reflect changes in aviation maintenance practices and the aviation environment. Please send your suggestions, edits, errata, questions and comments to: <PEB@secureav.com>.

Acknowledgments

The Aviation Maintenance Technicians Model Code of Conduct Drafting Team includes: Michael S. Baum, Jeff Gruber, Joseph C. Hawkins, John Hopkins, Ric Peri, Phil Randall, and Don Steinman. The Code of Conduct has had the benefit of extensive editorial comment and suggestions by a diverse body of the aviation community, and beyond. See “Acknowledgments” at <www.secureav.com/ack.pdf>. The Permanent Editorial Board of the Code of Conduct is presented at <www.secureav.com/PEB.pdf>.

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