Personnel Licensing: AMEL Eligibility, Privileges and Designated AMEL Examiners
What this domain tests
Personnel Licensing tests the rules for issuing and exercising the KCAA Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Licence (AMEL) and the role of Designated AMEL Examiners. Expect questions on eligibility, experience, examination, ratings, privileges, recency, records, and the examiner's limits. The KCAA issues the licence; an examiner assesses competence and reports results but does not issue the licence.
Core rules
- An applicant must meet the KCAA personnel licensing requirements for age, training, supervised experience, knowledge examination and, where required, type training before an AMEL is issued.
- The licence is issued with categories and type ratings. Privileges are limited to the categories, types and tasks for which the holder is rated and current.
- Experience must be relevant, documented and gained under acceptable supervision; unrelated or unapproved work should not be counted.
- A Designated AMEL Examiner is appointed by the KCAA, holds a current AMEL with relevant type experience, and is assessed for instructional and examining competence.
- Examiners must avoid conflicts of interest, examine only within their authorization, maintain confidentiality, and submit accurate results and records to the KCAA.
- Recency and records requirements must be met; a lapsed or unrated privilege cannot be exercised until restored.
Worked example
An examiner is asked to conduct a practical assessment of a candidate who has completed the required modules and has five years of maintenance experience, but whose logbook does not show supervised work on the type for which the rating is sought. Reasoning: the experience is relevant, but type-specific supervised experience is missing. The examiner should not sign off the type assessment as complete; the candidate must obtain the required type experience before a recommendation can be made. The examiner reports the gap rather than issuing or promising a licence, because licensing decisions belong to the KCAA.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming a Designated Examiner can issue, renew or vary an AMEL.
- Counting all hangar time as qualifying experience without supervision or documentation.
- Ignoring category and type-rating limits when assessing privileges.
- Overlooking recency or lapsed ratings.
- Examining a relative, subordinate or own employer's candidate without disclosing the conflict.