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Correction: The retail price of STICK IT was listed incorrectly in the Tool Crib section in the December 2005 issue of Aviation Maintenance. STICK IT retails for $10.99.

Mandatory Training?

The premises of the January 2006 Editor's Notebook were defective and should be addressed entirely different than the editor recommended.

The idea of the 24-month I.A. Renewal is really nothing new at all. Three years ago, at our local FSDO's I.A. renewal seminar, Bill O'Brien spoke clearly to this issue. He frankly expressed his own disappointment with all of us in the aviation maintenance industry for failing to communicate with the FAA. He told us plainly (among other things) that a couple of years prior, he had proposed this very idea officially to the FAA. It went out for comments and only one person wrote in to support it. Since no one seemed to care, the FAA figured why bother, and we still have the 12-month renewal. Frankly, if about 500 of us wrote in to request this be changed to the 24-month period, we would very likely see it happen with 2 years. There is NO need to tie that good idea to stinky fish called (MRT) Mandatory Recurrent Training!

The entire concept of the MRT has only two supporter groups:

1. People who have everything paid for them. Paid time to go there, paid travel to get there, paid course expenses, paid room and food; while the rest of us have to pay our own way, pay our own expenses, get no pay for the time lost, and generally suffer in the whole process!

2. The second group are the people who could, if this got shoved down our throats, benefit personally by being able to start a whole new "recurrent training" industry, and that is exactly what will happen. The results are forced attendance at classes that cost a lot of money, do you no real good, contain nothing of real tangible value, sound great, do nothing, but you pay and pay. Then the FAA will have to govern it, certify it, and track it for licensing and renewal. Do you think that they will do all of that out of the goodness of their hearts? Hardly! Now we can pay more to have them service our certificates. So we enlarge government and government control over us.

This fish stunk bad 7 years ago when some tried to get it pushed through. It does not smell any better now, except for a privileged few. Increased government work and fees, a whole new industry to "retrain" us, and costs, costs, costs. Does that sound good to anyone who really thinks this through? This dead fish should never be placed around the neck of aviation. We have enough difficulties in this industry just surviving as it is.

Gary L. Iverson, Sr. A & P, IA
President,Precision FlightTraining,Inc.
Nampa, Idaho

Wrong About Expiration

I agree with the need for education, and agree that perhaps the IA needs to be on a two-year renewal, but the IA is not the only FAA certificate that expires on the same date each year. The Designated Mechanic Examiner certificate expires on October 31 of each year. There may be others, but I am not sure. I would hesitate to make any blanket statements.

David Jones--DME

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