CAM Aircraft Maintenance 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Your director of maintenance proposes bridging the aircraft to a manufacturer's recommended inspection program mid-life. What is the primary risk the aviation manager must evaluate?
- Loss of the aircraft's registration number
- Mandatory re-painting of the aircraft
- Gaps or overlaps in inspection coverage during the transition (Correct answer)
- Automatic voiding of the airworthiness certificate
Correct answer: Gaps or overlaps in inspection coverage during the transition
Bridging programs must be carefully mapped so no inspection tasks are missed or duplicated during transition.
Question 2: Which record must be transferred with the aircraft at sale and directly affects resale value the most?
- Complete and continuous maintenance logbooks (Correct answer)
- Fuel purchase receipts
- Crew training certificates
- Hangar lease agreements
Correct answer: Complete and continuous maintenance logbooks
Missing or incomplete maintenance records can reduce an aircraft's resale value substantially because airworthiness history cannot be proven.
Question 3: A maintenance technician performs a repair that does not appear in the manufacturer's manuals. What approval basis is typically required for this major repair?
- A verbal OK from the parts supplier
- The chief pilot's signature
- FAA-approved data, such as a Designated Engineering Representative (DER) approval or FAA Form 337 field approval (Correct answer)
- The technician's personal judgment
Correct answer: FAA-approved data, such as a Designated Engineering Representative (DER) approval or FAA Form 337 field approval
Major repairs require FAA-approved data, documented on Form 337, often supported by DER-approved engineering data.
Question 4: When outsourcing maintenance to a repair station, which certificate should the aviation manager verify?
- A Part 133 external load certificate
- The facility's Part 141 pilot school certificate
- A Part 137 agricultural certificate
- The facility's FAR Part 145 repair station certificate and ratings (Correct answer)
Correct answer: The facility's FAR Part 145 repair station certificate and ratings
Part 145 certification with appropriate ratings confirms the repair station is authorized for the specific work.
Question 5: Which metric best helps a CAM measure maintenance department effectiveness in supporting the flight schedule?
- Crew duty time utilization
- Passenger load factor
- Average fuel price per gallon
- Dispatch reliability rate (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Dispatch reliability rate
Dispatch reliability measures how often the aircraft is available and departs without maintenance-caused delays or cancellations.
Question 6: An engine trend-monitoring program flags a gradual rise in ITT at cruise. The best managerial response is to:
- Reset the trend software baseline to hide the drift
- Ignore it until the next scheduled overhaul
- Investigate with borescope or performance analysis before the condition becomes a failure (Correct answer)
- Immediately ground the fleet indefinitely
Correct answer: Investigate with borescope or performance analysis before the condition becomes a failure
Trend monitoring exists to catch deterioration early so targeted inspection can prevent unscheduled failures.
Question 7: Suspected Unapproved Parts (SUPs) should be handled by the flight department by:
- Returning it quietly for a refund with no report
- Selling it to another operator
- Installing it if it looks identical to the original
- Quarantining the part and reporting it to the FAA (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Quarantining the part and reporting it to the FAA
Suspected unapproved parts must be segregated from stock and reported to the FAA per its SUP program guidance.
CAM Aircraft Maintenance 3
Your director of maintenance proposes bridging the aircraft to a manufacturer's recommended inspection program mid-life.
What is the primary risk the aviation manager must evaluate?