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Upskill / Aircraft Maintenance / Error-proofing a shift

Error-proofing a shift

Planning, handover, task cards, interruptions, independent inspection, tools, fatigue, event review and the shift lead's toolkit. Part 2 of the Human factors in maintenance series.

By Aerospace Garage Desk · Practitioner · 45 minutes · 24 narrated pages

What you will be able to do

  • ✓ Plan a maintenance shift in productive hours, reassess it when staff are short and place critical tasks outside the fatigue low.
  • ✓ Run a three-layer handover and keep a written record that lets a stranger continue unfinished work safely.
  • ✓ Work from the task card, manage interruptions with protected steps and place-keeping, and respond correctly to wrong maintenance data.
  • ✓ Plan and perform independent inspections of flight controls to the European and US rules, including re-inspection limits and identical tasks.
  • ✓ Control tools, debris and removal-before-flight items, using the findings of ATSB investigation AO-2018-053 on pitot covers left fitted.
  • ✓ Review shift events with MEDA categories and just-culture questions, and lead with briefings, challenge-and-response and stop-the-line.

Course content

Session 1 · The shift as a system

1.1

  1. The shift as a system · free preview
  2. Planning the shift
  3. Fatigue on the floor
  4. Worked example: building tonight's shift plan
Session 2 · Handover that works

1.2

  1. What a handover must carry
  2. The written record: stage sheets, tags and the technical log
  3. The verbal handover at the aircraft
  4. Worked example: finding the weak entries on a handover board
Session 3 · Task cards, interruptions and keeping your place

1.3

  1. Working from the task card
  2. Interruptions and place-keeping
  3. When the card and the aircraft disagree
  4. Worked example: an interrupted wheel change at 03:40
Session 4 · Independent inspection of flight controls

1.4

  1. Why a second pair of eyes
  2. What the independent inspector actually checks
  3. Re-inspection, identical tasks and fatigue
  4. Worked example: inspecting tonight's elevator cable change
Session 5 · Tools, debris and removal-before-flight items

1.5

  1. Tool control that works on a night shift
  2. Foreign object debris on the shift
  3. Covers, pins, blanks and flags
  4. From the investigation file: pitot covers left on at Brisbane
Session 6 · Learning from events and leading the shift

1.6

  1. A MEDA-style review at shift level
  2. Just culture in practice
  3. The shift lead's toolkit
  4. Worked example: reviewing a gear pin event, and where this series goes next

Who this course is for

Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms

Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.