Airworthiness: Continuing Airworthiness and Maintenance Certification for AMEL Holders
What this domain tests
The Airworthiness section of the KCAA AMEL examination checks whether you can apply continuing-airworthiness rules to real maintenance decisions: is the aircraft airworthy now, what approved data applies, who may certify the work, and what record proves it. It is not a memory test on aircraft systems; it tests regulatory judgement under the Civil Aviation Act and the Kenya Civil Aviation Regulations, which follow ICAO Annex 8 principles.
Core rules
- A Certificate of Airworthiness remains valid only while the aircraft complies with its type design, applicable airworthiness directives (ADs), and the approved maintenance programme.
- ADs are mandatory. Service bulletins and manufacturer recommendations are not mandatory unless an AD, the operator's approved programme, or the KCAA requires them.
- Maintenance, preventive maintenance, repairs and modifications must be performed using approved data and approved parts, with traceability to an authorized release document.
- A maintenance release certifies that the work was completed and inspected in accordance with approved data, within the certifying person's licence category and type rating.
- The Minimum Equipment List permits operation with specified defects only under its conditions; it cannot defer an AD or a defect that makes the aircraft unairworthy.
- Defects, deferred items and corrective actions must be recorded and controlled until closed.
Worked example
An AMO completes an AD-mandated inspection on a Kenyan-registered aircraft. The AD requires repetitive inspection every 500 flight hours and replacement of a component at 2,000 hours. The aircraft has 1,950 hours since new. The AMO inspects, records compliance, and issues a maintenance release. Reasoning: the inspection was due and is certified; the replacement is not yet due, but the next due limit must be recorded and tracked. The release is valid because the mandatory inspection was accomplished using approved data. If the inspection had been missed, the aircraft would not be airworthy and no release should be issued until compliance is restored.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating a service bulletin as automatically mandatory.
- Signing a release for work outside your category or type rating.
- Using the MEL to defer an AD or a known unairworthy condition.
- Accepting a part without an authorized release document or traceability.
- Confusing a maintenance release with a Certificate of Airworthiness.