HAI member Lord Corporation hosted a meeting of the association’s technical committee at Lord’s facility in Erie, PA, last week. During the meeting, the committee stood up a working group to consider the FAA’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to overhaul Part 147 of the federal aviation regulations, which govern aviation maintenance technician (AMT) training schools.

Harold Summers, HAI’s director of flight operations and technical services — and staff liaison to the Technical Committee, urged the working group to look first at the implications of NPRM for a brand-new AMT school. Do the proposed rules make the most sense for a school that has not yet opened its doors? Are there alternatives that might work better? Then, Summers suggested, the working group might want to consider what the proposed rules would mean for existing schools? What procedures and practices might have to be adapted to meet the new rules?

While in Erie, committee members were given a tour of Lord Corporation’s new facility. Lord is perhaps best known for its vibration-damping products. But they also have aircraft lightning protection systems and and aircraft health monitoring components specifically for rotorcraft.