The aircraft maintenance professional's source for technological advancements, maintenance alerts, news, articles, events, and careers
Issue link: http://amt.epubxp.com/i/297627
G E N E R A L A V I A T I O N AviationPros.com/company/10136580 VIDEO BORESCOPES The NEW Hawkeye ® Video Borescope! Bright, High-Res Video & Photos Large Range-of-Focus Quality Construction 4-Way Articulation 4 & 6 mm Diameters Starting at only $8,995 We've improved the image quality in the new Hawkeye ® V2 with a higher resolution, more light sensitive camera, delivering bright, crisp, clear images! The new 5" LCD Monitor provides comfortable viewing, and intuitive, easy-to-use controls, allow photo and video capture at the touch of a button! We've increased the 4-way articulation range, and improved the feel. It's still small, lightweight, portable, delivers great image quality, and is priced starting at only $8995. Available in 4 and 6 mm diameters. Optional 90° Prism and Close-Focus adapter tips available. 90° Prism & Close-Focus tips available! gradientlens.com/V2 800.536.0790 Made in USA 8 April 2014 AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY MI. That's why Duncan decided to go ahead and " build our own SMS." The company's Lincoln, NE, Part 135 charter operation already had an SMS, providing some "experience to draw on," says Burt. But Duncan didn't try to super- impose the Lincoln example up on Battle Creek. 145 ops are "a bit of a different animal," says Burt. "Our [repair shop] business has a very mature quality con- trol system … We've been fine-tuning it and tweaking it for many years now." Waiting on the FAA W hat Duncan Aviation doesn't want to do is throw out safety systems that work in pursuit of compliance of regs that haven't yet been issued. "It's a dan- ger," says Burt. "Some of my friends in the 121 business have gone through setting up SMS. And it seems some of them haven't been as effective as they would like." That's one reason folks like Dan Lane, chief of inspection and FA A account- able manager for Atlanta-based Epps Aviation's 145 repair station, are wait- ing to see the shape of FA A's guidance before acting. "I'm not doing a thing until the g uidance is issued," says Lane. "Until FA A issues guidance in the form of an Advisory Circular as to exactly what they want [in] a 145 SMS, anything you do you might be heading in the right direction; or you might be wasting your time." Lane says when time comes to move he will "absolutely" borrow from Epps' 135 experience in formulating a "full- bore" SMS program. "They've already done the groundwork." "W hat's not realized is that most facil- ities already do what the SMS requires, and have most of the elements required," says Deborah Ann Cavalcante, a partner with Fernandina Beach, FL, Aviation Training Academy. "They just do not have them documented or formatted in a total safety system." That is where con- sultants such as Cavalcante can come in handy. "Many times," she says, "the most significant role I can play is to ori- ent them with the required elements for the SMS and review the processes and procedures they already have." Whether you wait till the ink's dried on that much-anticipated AC, or you've sur- veyed the lay of the emerging landscape and decided to go ahead on your own, Komarniski says the resultant SMS must mean something more than a book mired on a musty shelf somewhere. It's got to be grounded in bone-deep, bonafide corpo- rate culture — a culture that incessantly asks, "Hey, we're good around here. But can we be better?" AMT_6-9_Intl imperatives.indd 8 4/7/14 1:09 PM