AIC C 008/2010 - Effective 17 Aug 2010
CONVERSION OF NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS UNDER PART-66 GENERAL AVIATION

1.1 Part 66.A.70 states that the holder of a certifying staff qualification valid in a Member State, prior to the date of entry into force of this Part shall be issued an aircraft maintenance license without further examination subject to the conditions specified in 66.B.300. Such qualifications could be National Qualifications or authorisations given by a Part-145 Approved Maintenance Organisation.

1.2 The Department of Civil Aviation may only perform the conversion specified in 66.A.70 in accordance with a conversion report. The conversion report shall be either developed or approved by DCA.

1.3 This AIC provides information regarding on:

1. who may apply for conversion,
2. necessary documents to be submitted for supporting the conversion, and
3. application form

2.1 As at this time there is no National License issuing system for aircraft in the General Aviation area ( non-commercial and less than 5700kg MTOM), the adopted system is to validate non EU issued licenses (e.g. FAA) for a maximum duration of 12 months at a time and based on the discretion of the DCA. The privileges of the validation are the ones conferred to the owner by the original license issuing authority.

2.2 This approach allows for the conversion of a National Certifying Staff qualification – which is not based on documented or attested knowledge/experience – into a Part 66 license, which however would, where necessary, contain limitations linked to the scope of the corresponding national qualification and any national limitations which were made in accordance with the national legal system.

Such converted Part 66 license would essentially allow the license holder to continue to carry out the same maintenance activities to which he/she was legally entitled under the national system

2.3 Once the converted Part 66 license is issued, it will be fully subject to Part 66 regulation. Consequently, if the holder wants to extend the scope of his/her converted Part 66 license to perform other maintenance activities, full compliance with Part 66 regulation will be required, which means that also all the differences between the previous national certifying qualification and Part-66 must be fulfilled.

2.4 The conversion and the kind of limitations to be imposed within the Part 66 license will be made following a case-by-case approach and on the basis of safety considerations. In order to achieve this, consideration will be given not only to the concrete tasks that the applicant was entitled to perform within the national system, but also to the ‘environment’ within which such tasks were performed, namely the management system and procedures of the organisation where the applicant developed its tasks.

2.5 The conversion report shall describe the scope of each type of qualification and show to which aircraft maintenance license it will be converted, which limitation will be added and the Part-66 module/subjects on which examination is needed to ensure conversion to the aircraft maintenance license without limitation, or to include an additional (sub-) category.

2.6 The report shall include a copy of the existing regulation defining the license categories and scopes.

3.1 Persons who may apply for conversion are those who are holders of Cyprus National Validation for the last three consecutive years from the date of issue of this AIC, and they still retain their validation current.

3.2 These persons must provide written evidences for their experience on the type of aircraft/ or engine they apply for. These evidences may be either aircraft/engine/propeller log books or additional rectification worksheets all originally signed and certified by the applicant using his National Validation Number.

3.3 Persons who are already Part-66 Aircraft Maintenance License holders issued by another Member State and are also National Validation holders are not eligible for conversion as it is forbidden to hold two Part-66 licenses issued by different EU Member States.

3.4 Application should be done using EASA Form 19 (NQC)attached to this AIC.

4.1 To convert to a non-restricted Part-66 basic B1 or B2 category license where protected rights do not directly convert to a full Part-66 Category/sub-category, the relevant conversion examinations need to be taken in addition to meeting any appropriate experience requirements.

4.2 The supporting information required, where applicable, in addition to EASA Form 19, are listed below:

1. Course Completion Certificates issued by EU National Authorities approved organisations or Part 147 Organisations in other member states.
2. Company Type Authorisations currently or previously held, depending on the method of conversion by which you are applying.

Further information can be obtained by:
SRU
Licensing Section
DCA
Tel.: 22404126 / 22404160
Email: ggeorghiou@dca.mcw.gov.cy