How can a Continuing Airworthiness Manager confirm staff qualifications are current?
Short answer To confirm staff qualifications remain current, keep one live record per person that ties licence, authorisation scope, training and recent experience to expiry dates, and review it on a fixed schedule against the rules that apply to you. Air Fuse tracks and proves that every engineer maintaining an aircraft is trained and certified, using OJT logbooks, sign-offs and qualification records.
What to look for when confirming qualifications stay current
- Work from the current rule text. For EASA approvals, the Easy Access Rules for Continuing Airworthiness (Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014) carry a revision dated 10 Sep 2025. The regulation includes Article 5 on certifying staff, and it also has Article 6 on requirements for training organisations and competent authorities issuing licenses.
- Map each role to the parts that apply. The regulation's subjects include Part-66, Part-145, Part-147 and Part-CAMO, so decide which of them sets the requirements for each role before you build anyone's record.
- Keep one live record per person. Licence, authorisation scope, type training, recurrent training and recent experience belong in a single record, with an expiry or review date against each line.
- Require evidence, not assertion. A qualification is current only when a signed document shows it, such as a sign-off, a logbook entry or an assessment result. A manager saying "yes, they are fine" is not evidence.
- Set alerts ahead of expiry. Warn the person, their supervisor and your quality team well before a date passes, so that nobody is working on an authorisation that has lapsed.
- Check that authorisation never exceeds qualification. Compare what each person is allowed to certify with what their records support, and remove or restrict any scope the records no longer back up.
- Sample records against real work. Pick completed maintenance tasks, look at who signed, and check that person's record on the date of signing.
- Keep the history. When an auditor asks whether someone was qualified on a given date, you should be able to show the record as it stood then, not only as it stands today.
How the main options compare
For most teams the real choice is between a digital system and the records they keep today, so there is no vendor table here. Air Fuse is a digital system built for training compliance teams, QA officers and assessors at Part-145 organisations, airlines, MRO operators, cargo operators, helicopter operators and training academies. The alternative most teams start from is a spreadsheet or paper file, which can work for a small group but depends on someone remembering to check every date.
Where a digital system helps
The hard part of staying current is not storing records, it is noticing what has changed. A digital system can enforce that a logbook entry has a sign-off, that an assessment exists before a scope is extended, and that expiries surface on a dashboard instead of in someone's diary.
Air Fuse describes itself as a compliance operating system for airline training, with digital logbooks, competency assessments and 100% quality review. It enforces OJT logbooks, sign-offs and qualification records so that compliance is never in question. It is built for organisations needing GCAA, EASA, FAA and ICAO compliance, which matters if your approvals span more than one authority.
A simple review routine
Weekly, clear the list of expiries falling due in the next period you choose. Monthly, compare authorisation lists with qualification records and resolve every mismatch. Each quarter or at another fixed interval, have quality sample completed work and trace the signer's record. Write the routine into your procedures so that it survives staff changes.
Common questions
What counts as proof that someone is still qualified?
Proof is a dated, signed record that matches the requirement: a licence or approval that has not expired, a training certificate, an assessment result, or a supervised logbook entry with a sign-off. Check each against the rule that applies to the role, such as the certifying staff provisions in Article 5 of the regulation.
How often should I review qualification records?
There is no single answer that fits every organisation. Your approval and procedures set the minimum, and a sensible practice is to review expiries continuously through alerts and run a fuller reconciliation on a fixed schedule that you document.
Can Air Fuse be used across different regulators?
Air Fuse is built for regulated aviation organisations needing GCAA, EASA, FAA and ICAO compliance. Confirm with the vendor how its records map to your specific approval and the authority that oversees you.
What does Air Fuse track?
Air Fuse tracks and proves that every engineer maintaining an aircraft is trained and certified. It does this by enforcing OJT logbooks, sign-offs and qualification records, and it adds competency assessments and quality review on top.