515
Federal Aviation Administration, DOT
§ 135.431
part of its manual containing mainte-
nance information and instructions, in
whole or in part, in printed form or
other form, acceptable to the Adminis-
trator, that is retrievable in the
English language.
[Doc. No. 16097, 43 FR 46783, Oct. 10, 1978, as
amended by Amdt. 135–66, 62 FR 13257, Mar.
19, 1997; 69 FR 18472, Apr. 8, 2004; Amdt. 135–
118, 74 FR 38522, Aug. 4, 2009; Docket FAA–
2011–1136, Amdt. 135–132, 80 FR 11547, Mar. 4,
2015]
§ 135.429 Required inspection per-
sonnel.
(a) No person may use any person to
perform required inspections unless the
person performing the inspection is ap-
propriately certificated, properly
trained, qualified, and authorized to do
so.
(b) No person may allow any person
to perform a required inspection un-
less, at the time, the person performing
that inspection is under the super-
vision and control of an inspection
unit.
(c) No person may perform a required
inspection if that person performed the
item of work required to be inspected.
(d) In the case of rotorcraft that op-
erate in remote areas or sites, the Ad-
ministrator may approve procedures
for the performance of required inspec-
tion items by a pilot when no other
qualified person is available, pro-
vided—
(1) The pilot is employed by the cer-
tificate holder;
(2) It can be shown to the satisfaction
of the Administrator that each pilot
authorized to perform required inspec-
tions is properly trained and qualified;
(3) The required inspection is a result
of a mechanical interruption and is not
a part of a certificate holder’s contin-
uous airworthiness maintenance pro-
gram;
(4) Each item is inspected after each
flight until the item has been inspected
by an appropriately certificated me-
chanic other than the one who origi-
nally performed the item of work; and
(5) Each item of work that is a re-
quired inspection item that is part of
the flight control system shall be flight
tested and reinspected before the air-
craft is approved for return to service.
(e) Each certificate holder shall
maintain, or shall determine that each
person with whom it arranges to per-
form its required inspections main-
tains, a current listing of persons who
have been trained, qualified, and au-
thorized to conduct required inspec-
tions. The persons must be identified
by name, occupational title and the in-
spections that they are authorized to
perform. The certificate holder (or per-
son with whom it arranges to perform
its required inspections) shall give
written information to each person so
authorized, describing the extent of
that person’s responsibilities, authori-
ties, and inspectional limitations. The
list shall be made available for inspec-
tion by the Administrator upon re-
quest.
[Doc. No. 16097, 43 FR 46783, Oct. 10, 1978, as
amended by Amdt. 135–20, 51 FR 40710, Nov. 7,
1986]
§ 135.431 Continuing analysis and sur-
veillance.
(a) Each certificate holder shall es-
tablish and maintain a system for the
continuing analysis and surveillance of
the performance and effectiveness of
its inspection program and the pro-
gram covering other maintenance, pre-
ventive maintenance, and alterations
and for the correction of any deficiency
in those programs, regardless of wheth-
er those programs are carried out by
the certificate holder or by another
person.
(b) Whenever the Administrator finds
that either or both of the programs de-
scribed in paragraph (a) of this section
does not contain adequate procedures
and standards to meet this part, the
certificate holder shall, after notifica-
tion by the Administrator, make
changes in those programs requested
by the Administrator.
(c) A certificate holder may petition
the Administrator to reconsider the
notice to make a change in a program.
The petition must be filed with the re-
sponsible Flight Standards office with-
in 30 days after the certificate holder
receives the notice. Except in the case
of an emergency requiring immediate
action in the interest of safety, the fil-
ing of the petition stays the notice
516
14 CFR Ch. I (1–1–24 Edition)
§ 135.433
pending a decision by the Adminis-
trator.
[Doc. No. 16097, 43 FR 46783, Oct. 10, 1978, as
amended by Amdt. 135–60, 61 FR 2617, Jan. 26,
1996; Docket FAA–2018–0119, Amdt. 135–139, 83
FR 9175, Mar. 5, 2018]
§ 135.433 Maintenance and preventive
maintenance training program.
Each certificate holder or a person
performing maintenance or preventive
maintenance functions for it shall have
a training program to ensure that each
person (including inspection personnel)
who determines the adequacy of work
done is fully informed about procedures
and techniques and new equipment in
use and is competent to perform that
person’s duties.
§ 135.435 Certificate requirements.
(a) Except for maintenance, preven-
tive maintenance, alterations, and re-
quired inspections performed by a cer-
tificated repair station that is located
outside the United States, each person
who is directly in charge of mainte-
nance, preventive maintenance, or al-
terations, and each person performing
required inspections must hold an ap-
propriate airman certificate.
(b) For the purpose of this section, a
person
directly in charge
is each person
assigned to a position in which that
person is responsible for the work of a
shop or station that performs mainte-
nance, preventive maintenance, alter-
ations, or other functions affecting air-
worthiness. A person who is
directly in
charge
need not physically observe and
direct each worker constantly but
must be available for consultation and
decision on matters requiring instruc-
tion or decision from higher authority
than that of the person performing the
work.
[Doc. No. 16097, 43 FR 46783, Oct. 10, 1978, as
amended by Amdt. 135–82, 66 FR 41117, Aug. 6,
2001]
§ 135.437 Authority to perform and ap-
prove maintenance, preventive
maintenance, and alterations.
(a) A certificate holder may perform
or make arrangements with other per-
sons to perform maintenance, preven-
tive maintenance, and alterations as
provided in its maintenance manual. In
addition, a certificate holder may per-
form these functions for another cer-
tificate holder as provided in the main-
tenance manual of the other certificate
holder.
(b) A certificate holder may approve
any airframe, aircraft engine, pro-
peller, rotor, or appliance for return to
service after maintenance, preventive
maintenance, or alterations that are
performed under paragraph (a) of this
section. However, in the case of a
major repair or alteration, the work
must have been done in accordance
with technical data approved by the
Administrator.
§ 135.439 Maintenance recording re-
quirements.
(a) Each certificate holder shall keep
(using the system specified in the man-
ual required in § 135.427) the following
records for the periods specified in
paragraph (b) of this section:
(1) All the records necessary to show
that all requirements for the issuance
of an airworthiness release under
§ 135.443 have been met.
(2) Records containing the following
information:
(i) The total time in service of the
airframe, engine, propeller, and rotor.
(ii) The current status of life-limited
parts of each airframe, engine, pro-
peller, rotor, and appliance.
(iii) The time since last overhaul of
each item installed on the aircraft
which are required to be overhauled on
a specified time basis.
(iv) The identification of the current
inspection status of the aircraft, in-
cluding the time since the last inspec-
tions required by the inspection pro-
gram under which the aircraft and its
appliances are maintained.
(v) The current status of applicable
airworthiness directives, including the
date and methods of compliance, and,
if the airworthiness directive involves
recurring action, the time and date
when the next action is required.
(vi) A list of current major alter-
ations and repairs to each airframe, en-
gine, propeller, rotor, and appliance.
(b) Each certificate holder shall re-
tain the records required to be kept by
this section for the following periods:
(1) Except for the records of the last
complete overhaul of each airframe,
engine, propeller, rotor, and appliance