Aging wiring on aeroplanes - FAA acts at last!
In the latest issue of Boeing Service Facts they reveal that FlightSafety Boeing (FSB) is to offer a training course which is the first that satisfies anticipated regulatory requirements from the US Federal Aviation Administration. Recent aviation reports suggest that wiring training should be the foundation of future wiring systems maintenance on aging aircraft. Really? Well how surprising. I never would have thought of that! FSB will offer a 30 hour course on airplane wiring systems and a 12 hour course on airplane wiring skills.
Do they mean that up to now aircraft wiring maintenance has been done by people who had no idea what they were doing? Now, I may be biased by the fact that I entered aviation as an apprentice aircraft electrician, but that doesn't seem quite right to me. Under JAR 66, trained and experienced people are about to give up their responsibility for electrical system maintenance to airframe and powerplant specialists, whose only training on wiring is mugging up on multi-choice question answers at various web sites - the very people who previously referred to wiring contemptuously as electric string and thought a time domain reflectometer was something out of Dr Who and the Daleks.
A case of the FAA finding out the hard way while the JAA puts on their blinkers?
Oh well, at least the world's biggest regulator is finally heading in the right direction...
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Through difficulties to the cinema
[ 02 November 2001: Message edited by: Blacksheep ]