Civil Aircraft

Inspection
Procedures
(CAIPs)
A Brief History of CAIPs

The Civil Aircraft Inspection Procedures (CAIPs) were first produced by the
Air Registration Board (the predecessor to the CAA) in the mid 1950’s. They
were developed and amended right up to their withdrawal by the CAA in 1985.
During that time, leaflets were added, some were removed, and all were
amended in some part.

CAIPS was published in two volumes as follows:

PART I – BASIC
PART II – AIRCRAFT

The content material of CAIPs made up a large part of the answers to the
CAA’s Licence Without Type Rating (LWTR) exams under BCAR Section L –
and still do today, even though the authoritive document is now EASA Part 66
(and previously JAR 66).

Although the CAA described them as “not a quotable authority”, CAIPs

became the standard guide for aircraft maintenance throughout the World, not
just the UK.

When they were removed from print in 1985, in its place, the CAA brought out
another publication called Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information and
Procedures (CAAIPs). These were also in two volumes, and contained much
new information, especially on more modern (at the time) aircraft systems.
Some leaflets were almost identical to those in the old CAIPs. But
unfortunately, the CAA removed much valuable information from CAIPs in
their formation of the new CAAIPs.

A situation developed whereby the CAA’s basic licence exam could only be
attempted after reading BOTH the old CAIPs and the new CAAIPs. The
former not published but copies we re available in technical libraries that had
the foresight not to throw them out, and the latter too expensive for the
average training mechanic to purchase.

Thankfully, those “bad old days”, where studying aircraft mechanics had to
scrape around for wha tever reading material they were lucky enough to get
hold of, are over. The new CAAIPs are now free to download in a single
volume file from the CAA website, and the old CAIPs are now available to
everyone from a variety of sources on the internet (although some are not
complete and/or are not the latest version that the CAA were publishing at the
time of their withdrawal).
About this CD

This copy of CAIPs is a scan of a copy which was updated up to December

1985. It is Issue 32. Some of the leaflets however, are dated many years
prior to that. This means that those particular leaflets had not been re-issued
since that date.

There is evidence that the writers of CAIPs had much longer term plans for
them, even at the time of their removal from print. There are many gaps in
the leaflet number system (listed as “Reserved” in the original List of Leaflets)
and even cross-references within the text of CAIPs, to leaflets which had not
yet been written.

Where there are gaps in he leaflet number system listed in the Contents of
this PDF document, it is because the CAA did not produce a leaflet, or the
CAA had withdrawn it prior to December 1985. The exception to this is the
majority of the first section – Airworthiness Procedures, Leaflets BL/1-1 to
BL/1-5, BL/1-9 to BL/1 -10, BL/1 -12 to BL/1-16. These leaflets have not been
scanned, even though they were present in the 1985 version of CAIPs. This is
because these leaflets refer to legislative procedures which are no longer
practiced and have been superseded. The modified versions of these leaflets
can be found in the new CAAIPs, which is freely available from the CAA
website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.
This leaflet is not included on this CD because it is obsolete. The updated
version of this leaflet is available in the Civil Aircraft Airworthiness Information
and Procedures (CAAIPs) which is free to download from the CAA website.