EASA Module 8 study guide
EASA Module 8 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
EASA Module 8 - Human Factors is one of the basic knowledge modules in the EASA Part-66 aircraft maintenance licence syllabus. It is aimed at anyone working toward a Part-66 licence - typically trainee and practising aircraft maintenance engineers - and at certifying staff who need to understand how human performance shapes maintenance safety. The EASA Module 8 study guide has 9 sections and about 2,916 words.
01General: Human Factors in Maintenance
Human factors studies the relationship between people and the technical and organisational systems they work in. In maintenance it exists because the great majority of occurrences - industry data commonly put it around three-quarters - involve human performance rather than purely technical failure.
319 words, about 2 min02Human Performance and Limitations
The retina has cones (colour and detail, need good light, concentrated in the fovea) and rods (sensitive in low light, poor acuity, no colour, best in peripheral vision). Dark adaptation takes around 30 minutes and is destroyed by a flash of white light; red light preserves night vision.
337 words, about 2 min03Social Psychology
Maintenance is teamwork, and groups change individual behaviour. Responsibility means each person is accountable for their own work and for speaking up; it cannot be delegated to the team or absorbed by the supervisor.
298 words, about 1 min04Factors Affecting Performance
Fitness and health : general health, eyesight, hearing and freedom from incapacitating conditions underpin safe work; undeclared illness and self-medication are frequent contributory factors. Stress follows the inverted-U (Yerkes-Dodson) curve: moderate arousal aids performance; too little (boredom, complacency) or too much (anxiety, fear) degrades it.
326 words, about 2 min05Physical Environment
Noise is measured in decibels (A-weighted for hearing risk). Prolonged exposure above about 85 dB(A) risks hearing damage and requires action such as hearing protection and exposure limits; even below that, noise disrupts communication, masks warning signals and raises fatigue.
329 words, about 2 min06Tasks
Physical work consumes energy and produces fatigue: lifting, carrying, reaching and holding awkward postures. Manual handling should use the legs, keep the load close, avoid twisting and get help for heavy or bulky items.
316 words, about 2 min07Communication
Communication in maintenance is both vertical (management to shop floor and back) and lateral (between technicians, shifts, trades, and with flight crew or operators). Failures here are among the most frequent error precursors.
327 words, about 2 min08Human Error
Reason's Swiss cheese model : hazards are blocked by successive defensive layers (design, procedures, training, supervision, inspection); each layer has holes, and an accident needs the holes to line up. Holes are active failures (unsafe acts by front-line people) and latent failures (decisions by designers, managers and planners that lie dormant).
334 words, about 2 min09Hazards in the Workplace
A hazard is a potential source of harm; a risk is the likelihood and severity that harm will occur. Risk assessment identifies hazards, evaluates exposure and puts controls in place.
330 words, about 2 min