Australian Aerospace Receives Part 147 Maintenance Training Approval

Australian Aerospace Limited has become the first civil helicopter maintenance training organisation in the Asia-Pacific region to successfully transition from the previous maintenance regulations and be granted approval to operate under Australia’s new and tougher maintenance safety regulations.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has issued Australian Aerospace Civil Helicopters with a Civil Aviation Safety Regulations Part 147 Certificate of Approval, which more closely aligns local airworthiness standards with those of other leading aviation nations.

In presenting the Part 147 Certificate to Australian Aerospace, John McCormick, Director of Aviation Safety CASA congratulated Australian Aerospace for their efforts.

“The new regulations, which came into force in June this year, will enhance safety because they introduce requirements for safety management systems and human factors training into the maintenance sector for the first time. While maintenance training organisations have two years to complete the transition to the new Part 147 Regulations, Australian Aerospace achieved this in less than six months”, said Mr McCormick.

Commenting on the award of the Part 147 Certificate, Robert Holtsbaum, Vice President Civil Helicopters Australian Aerospace, said the Part 147 Certificate acknowledged Australian Aerospace’s contribution to promoting aviation safety in the region.

“Australian Aerospace has been providing maintenance training in the Asia-Pacific region since 1986 when the first Eurocopter AS350 Squirrel arrived on the scene”, he said. “Since then we have trained almost one thousand students on various types of Eurocopter helicopters”.

Mr. Holtsbaum said that being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eurocopter, which has an extensive network of 19 training centres around the world, Australian Aerospace had unlimited access to its parent’s technical and functional expertise, enabling the Australian company to offer the latest in world-class helicopter maintenance training.

“All of our helicopter-type training courses are developed in collaboration with Eurocopter”, he said, “and this relationship ensures the industry and regulatory authorities the highest standards of maintenance training. Simultaneously, compliance with the new regulations will also ensure Australia’s ongoing international competitiveness”.

In addition to helicopter type-training, Australian Aerospace Civil Helicopters also provides other maintenance-related training, such as Human Factors and Suspected Unapproved Parts. The Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance course, developed by the company’s Registered Training Organisation, is recognised by the Australian Qualifications Framework.

Said Mr Holtsbaum: “Maintenance training is as essential component to ensuring high safety standards, which is a top priority at Australian Aerospace and Eurocopter. We consider this Part 147 Approval just the first step in a series of future training initiatives in collaboration with our nationally recognised Registered Training Organisation to promote and develop additional training services to both local and international aviation industries.”

 
About Australian Aerospace:
With more than 1100 staff in Australia and New Zealand, Australian Aerospace has access to the financial strength and expertise of Eurocopter and the EADS Group.

The company supports more than 300 Eurocopter helicopters in the Australia-Pacific region and is well positioned to deliver and support helicopters through a network of local facilities.

At its production facility on Brisbane Airport, Australian Aerospace currently is supporting 22 Tiger ARH armed reconnaissance helicopters to the Australian Army and assembling and delivering 46 MRH90 Multi-Role Helicopters to the Army and Navy.

In addition to its helicopter capabilities, Australian Aerospace supports the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) AP-3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft and C-130J Hercules transports. The company is also involved in supporting the RAAF’s new Airbus A330-based Multi-Role Tanker-Transport (MRTT) aircraft and F/A18 (Classic) Hornet fighters.

Further Information:
Nathan Pick – Australian Aerospace (07) 3637 3906 / 0439 676 909
Ted Porter – Australian Aerospace (02) 9436 0200 / 0418 468 269