1) Aircraft Maintenance Management contain a lot of terms such as

Maintenance,
Maintenance engineering, Preventive maintenance, Corrective
maintenance and
Predictive maintenance, please provide descriptive definition for each of
those five terms?

Maintenance:
All actions appropriate for retaining an item/part/equipment in, or
restoring it to, a given condition.

Maintenance engineering:
Discipline of applying engineering concepts to the optimisation of
equipment, procedure, and departmental budgets to achieve
better maintainability, reliability and availability of equipment

Preventive maintenance:
All actions carried out on a planned, periodic, and specific
schedule to keep an item/equipment in stated working condition
through the process of checking and reconditioning to lower the
probability of failures in later service.

Corrective maintenance:
The unscheduled maintenance or repair to return
items/equipment to a defined state and carried out after being
detected by maintenance staff.

Predictive maintenance:
It is defined as the use of modern measurement and signal
processing methods to accurately diagnose item/equipment
condition during operation.

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2) Maintainability Management In System Life Cycle is carefully controlled by
four phases, you need to state these phases and provide a description on
each phase concept?

PHASE I: CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

In Phase I, high risk areas are identified and system operation
needs are translated into a set of operational requirements. The
primary maintainability concern during this phase is the
determination of system effectiveness needs and criteria, in

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addition to establishment of the maintenance and logistic

support policies and boundaries required to satisfy mission
objectives by using operational and mission profiles.

PHASEII: VALIDATION
During Phase II, operational requirements developed and
formulated in the previous phase are refined further with respect
to system design requirements. The prime objective of validation
is to ensure that full-scale development does not begin until
factors such as costs, performance and support objectives, and
schedules have been effectively prepared and evaluated.
PHASEIII: PRODUCTION
In Phase III, the system is manufactured, tested, and delivered,
and, in some cases, installed per the technical data package
resulting from Phases I and II. The maintainability engineering
design efforts will largely be completed by this time.
PHASEIV: OPERATION
In Phase IV, the system is used, logistically supported, and
modified as appropriate. During the operation phase
maintenance, overhaul, training, supply, and material readiness
requirements and characteristics of the system become clear.
Although there are no particular maintainability requirements at
this time, the phase is probably the most crucial because the
actual cost-effectiveness and logistic support of the system are
demonstrated.

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3) Accessibility is considered the main element of Maintainability; this may be
described as the relative ease with which an item can be reached for
replacement, service, or repair. Inaccessibility is a frequent cause of
ineffective maintenance, thus an important maintainability problem. There
many factors that can affect accessibility, please state eight of those
factors?

Location of item and its associated environment

Frequency of entering access opening
Distance to be reached to access the part of component
Type of maintenance tasks to be performed through the access
opening
Visual needs of personnel performing the tasks
Types of tools and accessories required to conduct the specified tasks
Work clearances appropriate for carrying out the specified tasks
Degree of danger involved in using access opening

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 Required times for performing the specified tasks

Type of clothes worn by the involved personnel

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4) Run to Failure type of maintenance is the exact opposite of
preventive and predictive maintenance concepts, you need to explain
in detail each of the above concepts with focus on costs and exposure for the
airline?

A operation using run-to-failure management does not spend any

money on maintenance until a machine or system fails to operate.
However, in this type of management, machines and other operation
equipment are not rebuilt nor are any major repairs made until the
equipment fails to operate.
(1) high spare parts inventory cost, (2) high overtime labor costs, (3)
high machine downtime, and (4) low production availability. This
reactive method of management forces the maintenance department
to maintain extensive spare parts inventories that include spare
machines or at least all major components for all critical equipment in
the operation.
To minimize the impact on production created by unexpected machine
failures, maintenance personnel must also be able to react
immediately to all machine failures.
All preventive maintenance management programs are time driven. In
other words, maintenance tasks are based on elapsed time or hours of
operation. The mean time to failure (MTTF) indicates that a new
machine has a high probability of failure, because of installation
problems, during the first few weeks of operation. After this initial
period, the probability of failure is relatively low for an extended period
of time. Following this normal machine life period, the probability of
failure increases sharply with elapsed time. In preventive maintenance
management, machine repairs or rebuilds are scheduled on the basis
of the MTTF statistic.
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5) There are many types of preventive maintenance categorised as follows:
maintenance improvement, corrective maintenance, reactive
maintenance and scheduled maintenance, define & explain each type
with brief description
a) Maintenance Improvement
Improvement maintenance efforts to reduce or eliminate the need for
maintenance by eliminating the source of failure through planning and action

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through the use of reliability engineering efforts. This is an opportunity to preact instead of react.

b) Corrective Maintenance
(Emergency, repair, remedial, unscheduled). At present, most maintenance
is corrective. Better improvement maintenance and preventive maintenance
can reduce the need for emergency corrections. Troubleshooting and
diagnostic fault detection and isolation are major time consumers in
maintenance.
c) Reactive Maintenance
Reactive maintenance is done when equipment needs it. Inspection with
human senses or instrumentation is necessary, with thresholds established to
indicate when potential problems start. Human decisions are required to
establish those standards in advance so that inspection or automatic
detection can determine when the threshold limit has been exceeded.

d) Scheduled Maintenance
Scheduled, fixed-interval preventive maintenance tasks should generally be
used only if there is opportunity for reducing failures that cannot be detected
in advance, or if dictated by production requirements. The distinction should
be drawn between fixed-interval maintenance and fixed-interval inspection
that may detect a threshold condition and initiate condition monitor tasks,
examples: Transits, A & C checks.
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6) Calibration is a special form of preventive maintenance whose objective is
to keep measurement and control instruments within specified limits. Every
Airline, should prepare a written description of its calibration system. List
eight points of this calibration system points?

1. Establishment of realistic calibration intervals

2. List of all measurement standards
3. Established environmental conditions for calibration
4. Ensuring the use of calibration procedures for all equipment and
standards
5. Coordinating the calibration system with all users
6. Ensuring that equipment is frequently checked by periodic system.
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7. Provide for timely and positive correction action

8. Establish decals, reject tags, and records for calibration labelling
9. Maintain formal records to ensure proper controls.
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7) The friction of two materials moving relative to each other causes heat and
wear. Technology intended to improve wear resistance of metal, plastics, and
other surfaces in motion has greatly improved over recent years, but
planning, scheduling, and control of the lubricating program is often
indicative of a operation. In view of this, state main functions of a
lubricant and the primary steps involved in developing a lubrication
program?

The functions of a lubricant are to:

1. Separate moving materials from each other to prevent wear,
scoring, and seizure,
2. Reduce heat,
3. Keep out contaminants,
4. Protect against corrosion,
5. Wash away worn materials.
Steps involved in developing the program are to:
1. Identify every piece of equipment that requires lubrication
2. Ensure that every major piece of equipment is uniquely identified.
3. Ensure that equipment records are complete for manufacturer and
physical location
4. Determine locations on each piece of equipment that need to be
lubricated
5. Identify lubricant to be used and method of application
7. Establish the frequency or interval of lubrication
8. Determine if the equipment can be safely lubricated while operating
or if it must be shut down
10. Standardize lubrication methods
11. Package the above elements into a lubrication program
12. Establish storage and handling procedures
14. Analyse any failures involving lubrication and initiate necessary
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8) The airlines inventory holding value is normally huge; hence any small
percentage in costs reduction will be large in terms of financial savings across
the whole inventory stock. Indicate briefly of what the Airline can do to
reduce the holding costs and optimize the Aircraft parts inventory?

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1. Work out a plan with OEMs to envisage many available plans to reduce
inventory holding such as advance exchange schemes or local
distribution centers
2. Implement effective warranty and reliability processes to ensure that
all contractual remedies are recovered including availability of the
required spares.
3. Airlines must work hard on their materials provisioning math models
and where practicable reduce the safety level from 98% to 96% per the
industry Norms in order to optimize the materials stock and keep at
bare sufficient minimum provided a due diligence is given to the No Go
items to avoid operational issues.
4. Compare PMA to OEM policy in terms of Purchase and/or Repairs.
With the current development in the manufacturing and maintenance
organizations, Airline is required to evaluate PMA parts and MRO
repairs services due to significant savings in those fields.
5. Review Supply Chain Management (SCM) to introduce a SCM strategy
and approach as well as SCM performance measurement framework
that aims at optimizing the supply chain performance and inventory.
6. Automation and deployment of sophisticated systems such as
inventory optimization tool should be evaluated by Airlines as it can
bring about the following potential benefits:
6.1. Highlight the slow or non-moving parts whether rotables or
expendables in order to either return back to OEMs or sell in the
surplus market.
6.2 Provide a list of parts to the
respective Depts of the fast moving parts in order to take necessary
steps to avoid any operational disruptions due to material requirement.

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9) The PEAR Model establishes an easy way for aviation maintenance
personnel to remember human factors. Where it would always maintain the
basic "know how" to consider the human factors in any work environment.
Please write full briefing on the PEAR Model and what are the main drivers of
each of the four pillars of this model in dealing with effect of human factors in
work environment?
The PEAR model was developed as an easy way for aviation
maintenance personnel to remember human factors. The PEAR: P is
for People who perform the job; E is for the Environment in which the
work mainly Organizational and physical environment; A is for the
Actions they perform as a part of the job and R is for the Resources
necessary to perform the work.
People:
Physical

The five senses

Size
Psychological

Gender

Experience

Age

Knowledge

Strength

Training

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Attitude

Emotional state
Psychosocial

Interpersonal
relations

Ability to
communicate

Empathy

Leadership
Physiological

Health

Nutrition

Lifestyle

Alertness/fatigue:

Environment:
Physical

Weather extremes

Location (in/out)

Workspace

Lighting

Sound levels:
Exposure to noise is
cumulative
People cannot adapt
to high noise levels
Noise interferes with
communication

Housekeeping

Safety issues
Organizational

Personnel

Supervision

Labor - management

Size of company

Profitability

Job security

Morale

Fatigue is a
human
condition
When you are
very tired you
will not admit it
(like a tired
child)
Acknowledge
fatigue and tell
co-workers
Try to remain
active
Talk to others
Chemical
dependency

Corporate culture
Safety culture

Actions:
What do you need to know?

What skills are necessary?

Steps to perform a task

Sequence of actions

Communication
requirements

Information requirements

Inspection requirements

Certification requirements
How do you communicate
error events?
Are there enough people to
do the job?
Do personnel understand the
cost of aircraft damage?
How can you motivate one
another to care more?
Are you responsible for the
things that others do?

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Resources:
Technical documentation systems

Test equipment

Enough time

Enough people

Lifts, ladders, stands, seats

Materials

Portable lighting, heating, cooling

Training
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10) Technical Documentation is considered an essential part of Aircraft
maintenance, having this in mind, answer following points:
a)
Which document is issued by Aircraft manufacturer used to produce
routine maintenance cards, explain briefly description and contents of this
document?
b)
For a detailed maintenance of a component, which documentation
normally mechanics refer to, explain briefly description and contents of this
document?
c)
Which document is normally used for Aircraft defects clearance,
explain briefly description and contents of this document?
d)
Which documents are issued by Aircraft manufacturer to describe
a required modification or a fleet wide issue, explain briefly description
and contents of this document?
a) The document issued is the airplane maintenance manual, which is a
formal document containing all the basic information on the operating
and maintenance of the aircraft and its on-board equipment. It starts
with an explanation of how each system and sub-system works, and
describes such basic maintenance and serving actions as removal and
installation of LRUs and various tests performed on the system and
equipment, such as functional test, operational check, and
adjustments.
b) Component and Vendor Manual: any component built by the airframe
manufacturer will be accompanied by a CMM, written by the
manufacturer. Normally the aircraft manufacturers make the aircraft,
while other systems, such as engines, such as landing gears, flight
crew seats, and passenger seats are purchased from outside vendors,
but when the aircraft manufacturer sells the aircraft, the other vendors
CMMs accompany these items, in case parts need to be repaired or
replaced.
c) Fault Isolation Manual: the FIM contains a set of fault isolation trees
provided by the aircraft manufacturer to help troubleshoot, isolate the
section where the fault occurred and identify and pinpoint problems

related to various systems and components on the aircraft. The aircraft

faults system normally shows the fault occurrence at the flight deck on
the engine indicating and crew alerting system message screen. It
shows faults in a yellow/amber color, which alerts the flight crew that a
fault has occurred.
d) Service Bulletin: Whenever the airframe manufacturer or the engine
manufacturer have modifications or suggestions for improving
maintenance or servicing, they issue appropriate paperwork to the
affected airlines. A service bulletin is usually a modification of a system
that will provide improved safety or operation of a system and includes
a detailed description of the work and parts required.
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11) Corrosion fatigue and fretting fatigue form the major part of
environmentally assisted cracking that leads to serious degradation of
structural capability, particularly in single-load path and highly loaded
components. Please define those two types of material fatigues and
describe their effect on the structure?

Corrosion fatigue, defined as the process in which a metal fractures

prematurely under conditions of simultaneous corrosion and repeated
cyclic loading at lower stress levels or fewer cycles than would be
required in the absence of the corrosive environment.
Corrosion fatigue can occur when metals are subjected to dynamic
loading. It is thus assumed that metal construction parts always have
defects, such as inclusions, hair cracks due to welding and corrosion
pits, where fatigue cracks will initiate. Service life is then determined
by measuring the progress of crack propagation under practical
conditions.
Fretting fatigue is a failure mode often overlooked in aircraft structural
integrity, particularly as a cause of accidents. Fretting is both a
corrosion and a wear mechanism in which mating surfaces nominally at
rest undergo small-amplitude oscillatory motion. Oxide debris
generated by this process can severely damage a surface by gouging
and pitting.
From a structural standpoint, fretting can have much in common with
pitting; however, the effects of fretting on fatigue are often much
harder to analyse than other types of corrosion owing to the existence
of a contact stress state.

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12) Airlines normally follow very effective maintenance processes in order to

detect parts corrosion and conduct necessary correction. There are many
types of corrosion that are normally spotted within Aircraft environment, you
need to state and describe five types of corrosions with a clear
description and impact of such corrosion on the aircraft.

Corrosion-nucleated fatigue the process in which physical

corrosion damage (e.g., exfoliation, pitting) and/or chemical damage
(e.g., embrittlement) accelerates the formation of fatigue cracks in a
component or structure.
Prior-corrosion fatigue occurs when a propagating fatigue crack is
influenced by a prior corroded region. This can result in acceleration of
growth due to the increased stresses associated with mechanical
thinning.
A propagating fatigue crack in a prior-corroded region may also be
synergistically altered by chemical means if an aggressive chemical
environment is still present.
Corrosion induced fatigue via load transfer occurs when corrosion
damage or environmental degradation in a structure causes load to be
transferred to nearby structure or to alter the load transfer path within
an affected structural detail. The increased stresses or strains
associated with the transfer may promote fatigue cracking.
Stress corrosion cracking: Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) leads to
some of the most common cracking problems faced by aircraft
designers, maintainers, and operators. Three things are necessary for
production of stress corrosion cracks; the absence of any of these
ingredients means SCC will not occur.
These ingredients are: a susceptible material, a corrosive environment,
and a sustained tensile stress.
Galvanic corrosion
Galvanic corrosion when two metals are in contact with each other
there will be a potential difference between them. In the case of zinc in
contact with copper, the copper is the less reactive metal. This
phenomenon is caused by holes in the layer that protects the metal
against corrosion
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13) An Aircraft efficient maintenance process focuses on achieving optimum
operation, availability and overall Asset reliability and hence it is essential to
conduct frequent maintenance steps. Bearing this in mind, list and briefly
describe the types of effective maintenance along with essential
fundamentals adopted to achieve efficient maintenance.

These essential fundamentals include the following.

Inspections

Careful inspection, which can be done without tearing down the

machine, saves both technician time and exposure of the equipment to
possible damage.
Human Senses
We humans have a great capability for sensing unusual sights, sounds,
smells, tastes, vibrations, and touches. Every maintenance manager
should make a concerted effort to increase the sensitivity of his own
and that of his personnels human senses. A few hours of training in
what to look for could have high payoff.
Sensors
Since humans are not continually alert or sensitive to small changes
and cannot get inside small spaces, especially when machines are
operating, it is necessary to use sensors that will measure conditions
and transmit information to external indicators.
Thresholds
Now that instrumentation is becoming available to measure equipment
performance, it is still necessary to determine when that performance
is go and when it is no go. A human must establish the threshold
point, which can then be controlled by manual, semi-automatic, or
automatic means.
To set the threshold, one must gather information on what
measurements can exist while equipment is running safely and what
the measurements are just about to or at the time of failure.
Lubrication
The friction of two materials moving relative to each other causes heat
and wear. Technology intended to improve wear resistance of metal,
plastics, and other surfaces in motion has greatly improved over recent
years, but planning, scheduling, and control of the lubricating program
is often indicative of an operation.
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14) Non-destructive testing (NDT) is defined as: The determination of the
physical condition of an object without affecting that objects ability to fulfil
its intended function. Non-destructive testing techniques typically use a
probing energy form to determine material properties or to indicate the
presence of material discontinuities (i.e. find a crack). In view of this, you
need to list and explain four main techniques of NDT?

aa) Visual non-destructive testing

By far, the most common NDT method is visual and optical testing. In
many instances, a trained inspector armed with simple tools, such as a
flashlight and magnifying glass, can perform a very effective
inspection.
To enable a technician or engineer to inspect these difficult-to-see
areas, a device known as a Borescope is often used. Borescope are

essentially miniaturized cameras that can be placed on the end of a

fibre optic cable. The camera can then be inserted into regions that are
obstructed from direct visual inspection, and the resulting images are
viewed in real-time on a video screen by the inspector.
cc) Ultrasonic nondestructive testing
Ultrasonic testing (UT) employs an extremely diverse set of methods
based upon the generation and detection of mechanical vibrations or
waves within test objects. The test objects are not restricted to metals,
or even to solids.
The term ultrasonic refers to sound waves of frequency (1 to 10 MHz)
above the limit of human hearing. The velocity of ultrasonic waves
traveling through a material is a simple function of the materials
modulus and density, and thus ultrasonic methods are uniquely suited
to materials characterization studies.
dd) Eddy current non-destructive testing
Electromagnetic testing (ET), especially eddy current testing, is
commonly used to inspect objects throughout their life cycle. Eddy
current techniques employ alternating currents applied to a conducting
coil held close to the test object. Changes in the induced eddy currents
may be caused by changes to a materials electromagnetic properties
and/or changes in geometry, including the abrupt changes in current
flow caused by cracks.
ee) Thermographic nondestructive testing
Infrared and thermal testing methods are characterized by the use of
thermal measurements of a test object as it undergoes a response to a
stimulus. Thermal imaging cameras are the most common sensing
method. Imaging of test objects after the application of energy can be
used to monitor the flow of heat in the object, which is a function of
material properties as well as boundaries.
ff) Radiographic non-destructive testing
Historically, radiography is the next most common NDT method.
Radiographs are able to detect discontinuities in castings, forgings, and
welds as well as pores or inclusions in metals. Cracks may also be
detected using radiographic techniques, but attention must be paid to
orientation and residual stress issues. Recent advances in digital
radiography have helped reduce the cost of employing this method by
eliminating the use of film.
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15) Prior and during Aircraft production and considering our heavily
regularised industry, multiple certification procedures are followed by the
main players of the industry, state and briefly describe the required
certification at both Manufacturers and airline Operates?
Three types or aircraft certification:

 Type certificate:
Each aircraft designed and built for commercial as well as private operation
must have an approved type certificate. This certificate is applied for by the
designers of the vehicle once the basic design has been determined. The TC
defines the vehicle, engines and propellers, and the various instruments,
systems and equipment that make up the model.
Production certificate:
Once the TC is awarded, the manufacturer applies for the production
certificate by submitting application form to the FAAs MIDO. The production
certificate is awarded after the FAA is satisfied with the quality control system
that also consists of necessary manufacturing and production facilities.
Airworthiness certificate:
This certificate is awarded by the FAAs MIDO to each aircraft produced by a
manufacturer. This certificate confirms that the aircraft to which it is awarded
has been inspected and found to conform with its type certificate and to be in
airworthy condition.
Manufacturer certification:
Operator certification:
For a prospective operator to enter the business, he must meet the
requirements of both the Department of Commerce, with respect to the
business aspects of airline operation, and the Department of Transportation
(FAA), with respect to the technical aspects. The operator must provide the
necessary information to ensure that he understands the business of
commercial aviation, understands the operational and maintenance aspects
of commercial aviation operation
Certification of personnel:
The minimum requirements of airline operations under part 121 state that
the airline must have sufficient full-time qualified management and technical
personnel to ensure a high degree of safety in its operations. The basic
personnel requirements are a director of safety, a director of operations, a
director of maintenance, a chief pilot and a chief inspector.
Aviation maintenance certifications:
Training can begin in high school, as some have contracts with aviation
maintenance training schools that allow students to take classes and
graduate with Airframe and Power Plant licenses concurrent with their high
school graduation.
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