delegated certification authority to three major airlines who set up company-based certification authority. This meant avionics technicians could sign off their work, but they would still need another AME to release the aircraft. This produced lots of overlap and duplication which was frustrating to the technicians and costly to the companies. Obviously, this system also has major problems from safety and regulatory perspective. Outside of the three major airlines, the AME licence was the basis for all certification. This led to avionics work being certified by non avionics trained individuals. It only worked because of good airmanship by all involved. This meant that work associated with the overall
authority of the basic “A “or “R” licence was being infringed on for very good reasons. This was most apparent in larger airlines who could afford to become more specialized in their trade structure. The military, which had always had sub-trades, was not as quickly affected since they could staff large crews. When I joined the RCAF, we had 14 aircraft trades on the flight line. In addition, military requirements had to account for wartime losses among maintenance crews and rapid deployments to operational areas. The growth of the on-aircraft avionics specialization was not that apparent in business or general aviation. They were supported by many small independent avionic maintenance facilities employing avionics technicians. More on the transition later in this article.
MY FIRST WORK WITH THE AEA I joined Transport Canada after some time with t the RCAF and two airlines. In the RCAF we had radio and radar, instrument and electrical shops and of course maintenance hangers. I never thought much of the third level repair work in those days. Once I left and joined Wardair, I soon found that our avionics shop was very limited in scope, and nearly all the electrical, instrument and electronic work was sent to outside shops. Some of these were in Canada, most were in the United States. Some equipment went to Ducey Avionics in Edmonton, where a friend from Medicine Hat was working. We did not know each other back then. Earl Morris of Medicine Hat, Alberta, had a fascinating
career in electronics in aviation and other fields. The word avionics, according to Earl, came into vogue in the early nineteen seventies. I was working for Wardair in Edmonton, Alberta, at that
time. Earl was working in Edmonton at Ducey Radio (Now Ducey Avionics and still in business!). In 1967 Earl had set up some of the electronics courses at the then new Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. He taught RADAR, microwave and radio transmitters and receivers.
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