Practical training

Practical training is a structured training event which consolidates the knowledge gained during the theoretical phase of type training and as such, may be performed after or integrated within the theory training. However, it must not be performed before theoretical training.
Practical training should:

1. Address the different parts of the aircraft which are representative of the structure, the systems/components installed and the cabin.
2. Include the use of technical manuals, maintenance procedures and the operational interfaces with the aircraft (e.g. FMC, electronic flight bag, etc).
3. Include common maintenance and ground handling activities.
4. Cover both type specific and generic safety elements of the aircraft’s maintenance.
5. Develop the student’s competence in performing safe maintenance, prior to the practical assessment.

Purpose of Practical training is not to include all the maintenance tasks associated with a particular type, but a representative sample of them that will allow the student to acquire the knowledge, attitude and skills to safely carry out maintenance on that type.
The PTS should be a list of tasks created by analysing each of the ATA chapters with reference to the aircraft type concerned and should be representative of the complexity and individuality of those systems, particularly if there are important safety issues that ought to be addressed.
How each task is categorised (LOC, SGH, etc), should be based upon the potential gains for the students’ competency or its impact on safety. Availability should not be a reason to omit a pertinent task and consideration should be made to mix ‘actual hands on’ and ‘task simulation’ to complete an important or critical learning objective.
All pertinent sub-tasks, associated with the safe completion of each main task, such as Isolating mechanical/electrical systems, opening/closing CBs, locking flight controls, etc, should be included and the applicable aircraft maintenance manuals used.
Suitability of each task should be based upon:

1. Relevance to the type.
2. Frequency, variety, safety, criticality, novelty, complexity of the maintenance tasks for the type.
3. uniqueness of components or maintenance task (e.g. Wing heaviness adjustment ).
4. Feedback from in-service experience.
5. Use of type specific special tooling.

Task syllabus must:

1. Be distributed in order to cover all applicable ATA chapters.
2.  Include all of the task categories (LOC, FOT, SGH, R/I, MEL, TS) and may include others deemed appropriate to the type (e.g. ‘INS’pection, ‘ADJ’ustment).
3. Include an appropriate number of each task category for the aircraft type’s training requirements to be met.
4.  Be sufficient to cover at least 50% of the crossed tasks in Part-66.