ALABAMA AVIATION COLLEGE PHOTO
The PARTT 147 Act
would make it easier for industry
companies and groups to donate
equipment for AMT education, better
preparing students for the modern
aviation workplace. (Editor’s note: This photo was taken before COVID guidelines were
established regarding mask wearing and social distancing.)
to change. Schools that were already looking at ways to offer more flexible learning opportunities as a cost-saving measure are in a strong position today, as are those pivoting quickly to take advantage of moving online. For one school in particular, the FAA waiver was just the
break it needed to become one of the few full-hybrid model AMT schools. Wichita State University Tech (WSU Tech) in Kansas
had already started the process of providing online learning prior to COVID. Te curriculum had already been loaded into the school’s online learning tool, and the faculty had already created most of the program’s Level 1 labs. Additionally, WSU Tech students are required to have laptops, making a sudden transition to online learning, such as happened this past spring, easier. “We got our COVID operations manual approved by the
FAA three days after the school announced an all-online environment,” says Jim Hall, WSU Tech dean of aviation and manufacturing, National Center for Aviation Training. “We did synchronous online learning throughout the spring, then came back to complete Level 3 labs in June.” During the transition, the faculty was able to complete
a hybrid operations manual, which was approved in June. Now the program can offer three hours of online material every day, requiring students to be in class only four hours a day. Previously, the school offered two cohorts, one during the day and one in the evening. Te new hybrid system frees enough classroom space to add a third four-hour shift of students. In the short term, the third shift allows WSU Tech to
offer more socially distanced options while still significantly increasing enrollment. Already, enrollment is up 50 students, or 30% per trimester, and the school has hired three new instructors.
46 ROTOR 2020 Q4 “Upward to 60% of schools want to move to this model,”
Hall says. “I’d been working with our PMI [primary main- tenance inspector] at the FAA for quite some time trying to go to a hybrid model and had encountered a great deal of resistance up until COVID. Part 147 is such a mess. “If COVID hadn’t happened, I fully believe I’d still be
battling to get this off the ground,” Hall says. “Now, thanks to the COVID-induced deviation, we’re in a better position to implement new changes once a new 147 is released.”
The Future of Part 147 As the industry awaits the movement of the PARTT 147 Act through Congress and potential further action from the FAA, members of the rotorcraft community can still add their voices to the conversation. ATEC’s website hosts a page dedicated to the subject of
Part 147 reform, supplying information and advice on how to support the PARTT 147 Act’s movement through Congress. You’ll find additional information on both the FAA’s proposed rule and the PARTT 147 Act, along with ways to urge your representative and senators to support the bill. Another way to drive desired changes in AMT education,
suggests ATEC’s Maguire, is through revisions to the ACS, the FAA’s standards that drive AMT education. An FAA– industry working group is currently working to update a number of different airman certifications, including those for A&Ps. Changes to the ACS will directly drive more helicopter-specific
curriculum in the FAA knowledge tests and therefore in the technical training needed to meet those standards, says Maguire. While the FAA doesn’t publish a rolling draft of the ACS, the public can review it on theATEC website and submit comments to
AFS630comments@faa.gov.
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