AFS-14-470-E

Exemption No. 13539

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-2014-0670

MAINTENANCE 

for an exemption from § 65.75(a) 

of Title 14, Code of 

Federal Regulations 

 

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 Chesapeake, VA, operating under Air Agency 

Certificate LQPT037K, 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.)
2

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 Richmond 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 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’s reevaluation of § 65.75(a) exemptions, stemmed from our discovery of a loophole 

that could potentially have allowed students to totally circumvent our 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 

 

1

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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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 

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. There is, therefore, no risk that a student who completes the AMG exam prior 

to satisfying the § 65.77 experience requirements will circumvent our 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 of those procedures from its Certificate Holding District 

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

regulatory standards. The other condition of this exemption requires that, before AIM may 

retest 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 entire instructional unit 

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. 
4

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 or 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 

not allow 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 

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, AIM is granted 

an exemption from § 65.75(a) to the extent necessary to allow AIM Chesapeake, VA, 

operating under Air Agency Certificate LQPT037K, 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 

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This exemption terminates on November 30, 2017, unless sooner superseded or rescinded.

Issued in Washington, D.C., on November 3, 2015.

/s/

John Barbagallo

Deputy Director, Flight Standards service

.