Aircraft owners & operators

Definitions and glossary

AD

Airworthiness Directive (issued by CASA).

AFM

The Aircraft Flight Manual is a book containing the limitations, procedures, performance and other information and instructions required to operate the aircraft safely, plus all required AFM supplements.

AFM supplements

An AFM supplement is a booklet or group of pages containing changes to the information and instructions in the basic AFM. The AFM supplement contains AFM changes that are necessary for continued safe operation of an aircraft that is modified, is in a non-standard configuration, has special role equipment fitted, or is to engage in some special purpose activity.

Approved

Approved by the relevant National Airworthiness Authority (NAA) or by CASA (for Australian local AFM changes, as appropriate).

Basic AFM

The approved AFM that the maker (Type Certificate holder) provides with the aircraft.

CAAP 54-1

CASA Civil Aviation Advisory Publication (CAAP) 54-1: 'Flight Manuals for Individual Aircraft'.

CAR

Civil Aviation Regulation (Australian).

CASA

Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Australia).

CoA

Certificate of Airworthiness (for an Australian aircraft).

CoR

Certificate of Registration (for an Australian aircraft).

GAMA

General Aviation Manufacturers Association (USA).

Maintainer

A Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, or a maintenance organisation, contracted by the registration holder to carry out maintenance on the registration holder's aircraft.

Maker

The manufacturer holding the Type Certificate (TC) or the company or person who currently holds the TC.

NAA

National Airworthiness Authority (e.g. the FAA in the USA; the CAA in the UK; the DGAC in France, JCAB in Japan).

POH

Pilot's Operating Handbook, in the 'GAMA Specification No. 1' format.

Registration holder

The person who is named on the CoR as the registration holder (also known as the 'CoR holder') for an aircraft, and who is legally responsible for the aircraft's airworthiness. This person must ensure that the aircraft's AFM information is correct and current.

Relevant

The NAA that issued the Type Certificate (TC) accepted as the basis of the Australian type NAA certification of a particular model of aircraft.

TC

The Type Certificate - a document issued by the relevant NAA to indicate approval of the type design of a particular model of aircraft. The TC is issued by the relevant NAA as part of the aircraft type certification to the relevant airworthiness standards specified by that NAA.

TCDS

The Type Certificate Data Sheet - a document which contains a formal description of the aircraft, including detailed specifications of the type design and the information required for type certification. The TCDS forms part of the TC.

TC holder

The TC holder is the organisation responsible for the type design. The TC holder makes available replacement manuals, manual amendments, service bulletins and spare parts. The latest revision of the TCDS identifies the current TC holder. For new aircraft, the TC holder is usually the manufacturer, but for older aircraft the TC may have changed hands (e.g. Raytheon now holds the TCs for aircraft originally made by Beech).

Type design

The collection of drawings, specifications and other information needed to define the aircraft which is shown to comply with the design requirements specified for type certification. The type design includes the AFM (see CAR 21.31 of CASR 1998 for the complete definition).