AFS-14-473-E

Exemption No. 13538

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON, DC 20591

 

In the matter of the petition of 

 

AVIATION INSTITUTE OF Regulatory Docket No. FAA-2014-0672

MAINTENANCE 

for an exemption from § 65.75(a) 

of Title 14, Code of 

Federal Regulations 

 

CORRECTED COPY

The FAA is reissuing the Partial Grant of Exemption No. 13538 to correct errors contained in 

the original document.

In Condition and Limitation No. 3. The FAA is replacing the words “instructional unit” with 

“instructional item.” Condition and Limitation No. 3 will now read: 

Before retesting any student who has failed the AMG examination and also does not 

meet the experience requirements of § 65.77, AIM must retrain the student on the 

instructional item associated with the failed test and authorize the student to retake the 

test. AIM must have procedures for documenting and tracking compliance with all 

retesting procedures.

On page 4, in the third paragraph, the clause now reads: 

“obtain approval of those procedures.”

On page 4, in the fourth paragraph, the clause now reads:
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“before AIM retests.” 

In line 7, of the first paragraph of “The FAA”s Decision” on page 4 it now reads: 

“allow an AMTS.”

PARTIAL GRANT OF EXEMPTION

By letter dated August 26, 2014, Mr. Gerald Yagen, President, Aviation Institute of 

Maintenance President (AIM, or Petitioner), 4455 South Boulevard, Virginia Beach, VA 

23452, petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on behalf of AIM for an 

exemption from § 65.75(a) of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR). The 

proposed exemption, if granted, would allow students enrolled in AIM’s part 147 aviation 

maintenance technician school (AMTS) in Philadelphia, PA, operating under Air Agency 

Certificate AR9TO18R, to take the Aviation Mechanic General (AMG), Aviation Mechanic 

Airframe (AMA), and Aviation Mechanic Powerplant (AMP) written tests after completing 

the corresponding portion of the curriculum, but prior to meeting the experience requirements 

of 14 CFR § 65.77. We grant in part and deny in part. Specifically, we grant AIM an 

exemption with respect to the AMG written test but deny the exemption with respect to the 

AMA and AMP written tests.

The petitioner requests relief from the following regulation:

Section 65.75(a) requires, in pertinent part, that “[e]ach applicant for a mechanic certificate or 

rating must, after meeting the applicable experience requirements of § 65.77, pass a written 

test covering the construction and maintenance of aircraft appropriate to the rating he seeks, 

the regulations in [subpart D (Mechanics)] and the applicable provisions of parts 43 and 91.” 

(Emphasis added).

The petitioner supports its request with the following information:

The petitioner stated that the public interest would be served by allowing an aviation 

maintenance technician student to take each FAA written test immediately following his or 

her completion of the related course material. The petitioner stated that student learning 

would be enhanced and reinforced by the immediate feedback provided by the testing 

experience and that this immediate feedback, coupled with a sense of accomplishment, would 

encourage students to continue their studies and reduce dropout rates. 

The petitioner stated that it currently has an established procedure for identifying and 

reporting any graduate eligible to take FAA-mandated written, oral, and practical tests to 

petitioner’s own on-site written test center and the Philadelphia Flight Standards District 

Office. The petitioner proposed to use the same procedure to identify and report students who 

would qualify to take the written AMA or AMP tests. The petitioner also proposed to 

withhold each student’s individual graduation certificate or certificate of completion until 
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after the student successfully completed the entirety of the program in which the student 

enrolled (i.e., AMA or AMP). 

The petitioner stated that its petition did not differ materially from others on record, and noted 

that the FAA had found those similar requests in the public interest.

Although AIM is correct that its initial petition for exemption does not differ materially from 

others on record, and that the FAA has previously granted exemptions to § 65.75, the FAA 

recently learned that these exemptions could inadvertently enable an individual to obtain his 

or her AMA or AMP certificate without satisfying the mechanic certificate eligibility 

requirements of § 65.77.1 In light of this reevaluation, the FAA has undertaken to revise and 

make consistent its exemptions to § 65.75(a). 

The FAA has determined that good cause exists for waiving the requirement for Federal 

Register publication because the exemption, if granted, would not set a precedent, and any 

delay in acting on this petition would be detrimental to AIM.

The FAA's analysis is as follows:

The FAA has discovered through reevaluation of § 65.75(a) exemptions a loophole that could 

potentially allow students to totally circumvent the experience requirements. Students must, 

among other things, take written, oral, and practical tests to obtain a mechanic certificate. 

Section 65.80 allows an AMTS, under some circumstances, to administer a student’s required 

oral and practical tests before the student satisfies the experience requirements of § 65.77. 

Under § 65.75(a), however, all students must satisfy § 65.77 before taking any written tests. 

By granting AIM’s request to allow students to take the AMA and AMP written tests before 

completing the experience requirements in § 65.77, we could inadvertently enable those 

students to totally circumvent our experience requirements, because a student could obtain a 

copy of his or her academic record indicating that the student has passed the AMA or AMP 

examinations, and provide that record to another school, without disclosing that the student 

never satisfied the appropriate experience requirements. 

Perhaps to mitigate this very concern, AIM also proposed to withhold a graduation certificate 

or certificate of completion until after the successful completion of the entire program in 

which the student was enrolled. Unfortunately, the proposed mitigation would not work 

because it would violate § 147.35(a), which requires each AMTS to “provide a transcript of 

the student’s grades to each student who is graduated from that school or who leaves it before 

being graduated. . . . The transcript must state the curriculum in which the student was 

enrolled, whether the student satisfactorily completed the curriculum, and the final grades the 

student received.” (Emphasis added.) This regulation prohibits AIM from withholding a 

student’s certificate until graduation if the student left without graduating. Moreover, the 

 

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Section 65.77 requires each applicant for a mechanic certificate or rating to present evidence of at least 18 

months, and in some cases at least 30 months, of practical experience.
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presence of grades on a transcript could erroneously suggest that a student both completed the 

AMA or AMP examinations and satisfied the § 65.77 experience requirements. The FAA has, 

therefore, taken action to amend all such exemptions by issuing a Partial Grant of Exemption 

to all affected AMTSs.

The FAA does not have the same concerns regarding students who take the AMG examination

before satisfying § 65.77. A student who successfully completes the AMG exam is not 

eligible to receive a mechanic certificate until after the student also completes the AMP or 

AMA exams. Therefore, there is no risk that a student who completes the AMG exam prior to 

satisfying the § 65.77 experience requirements will circumvent the regulations.

In addition, certain conditions and limitations included in this partial grant are necessary to 

ensure an equivalent level of safety with § 65.75(a). The conditions—requiring AIM to 

develop written testing procedures, include those procedures in its approved operating 

document or manual, and obtain approval of those procedures from its Certificate Holding 

District Office—ensure that AIM’s educational program and curricula continue to meet FAA 

regulatory standards. 

Another condition and limitation of this exemption requires that, before AIM retests any 

student who has failed the AMG test and who also does not meet the experience requirements 

of § 65.77, AIM must retrain the student on the instructional item associated with the failed 

test and authorize the student to retake the test. To be clear, any student who is eligible to 

take the AMG test on the basis of his or her own experience, who does not need to rely on this 

exemption, may retrain according to § 65.19—including with any appropriately certificated 

airman. However, this exemption also creates a population of students who do not satisfy the 

§ 65.77 experience requirements, and who are eligible to retake the AMG test only because of 

AIM’s exemption. To maintain an equivalent level of safety, this exemption requires AIM to 

retrain these students itself, using FAA-approved curricula and in accordance with the FAA’s 

AMTS standards, including the quality of instruction standards codified in § 147.38a. 

The FAA’s Decision

For the reasons described above, the FAA continues to withdraw or amend all previously 

granted exemptions to § 65.75(a) which enabled an AMTS to administer the AMG, AMA, 

and AMP written tests immediately following a student’s successful completion of the 

corresponding curricula. The FAA’s new and revised exemptions to § 65.75(a) will allow an 

AMTS to administer the AMG examination immediately after students complete the 

corresponding curriculum and prior to satisfying the experience requirements of § 65.77, but 

will not allow an AMTS to administer the AMA or AMP examinations before students satisfy 

§ 65.77. 

In consideration of the foregoing, we find in the present case that a partial grant of exemption 

is in the public interest. We therefore issue this partial grant of exemption, which allows AIM 

students to take the AMG examination immediately after completing the corresponding 
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curriculum, but does not allow students to take the AMA or AMP examinations before 

completing the corresponding curricula. 

Pursuant to the authority contained in 49 U.S.C. §§ 106(f), 40113, and 44701, which the 

Administrator has delegated to me, I hereby grant Aviation Institute of Maintenance an 

exemption from § 65.75(a) to the extent necessary to allow AIM Philadelphia, PA, operating 

under Air Agency Certificate AR9TO18R, to administer the AMG written test to any student 

immediately following his or her successful completion of the general curriculum, and before 

meeting the experience requirements of 14 CFR § 65.77, subject to the conditions and 

limitations listed below.

Conditions and Limitations

1. AIM must develop written procedures for administering the AMG written test to AIM 

students immediately following successful completion of the general curriculum. 

2. AIM must ensure these procedures are available for use in AIM’s approved operating 

or curriculum procedures document or manual.

3. Before retesting any student who has failed the AMG examination and also does not 

meet the experience requirements of § 65.77, AIM must retrain the student on the 

instructional item associated with the failed test and authorize the student to retake the 

test. AIM must have procedures for documenting and tracking compliance with all 

retesting procedures.

4. Before exercising the privileges of this exemption, AIM must provide the revised 

procedures to its Certificate Holding District Office for review and approval.

AIM’s request for an exemption from § 65.75(a) to enable AIM to administer the AMA and 

the AMP written tests to a student after that student has completed the corresponding 

portion(s) of the curriculum, but prior to meeting the experience requirements of 14 CFR 

§ 65.77, is denied.

This exemption terminates on November 30, 2017, unless sooner superseded or rescinded.

Issued in Washington, D.C., on January 8, 2016.

/s/

John Barbagallo

Deputy Director, Flight Standards Service
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