Incumbent serves as an Aviation Safety Technician (AST) in a Flight Standards Office providing technical support to Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASIs) and the public. Performs or assists with a wide range of certification, surveillance, and investigation duties requiring research and evaluation in accordance with current FAA safety directives/orders.
Duties
Tasks are performed following prescribed or established procedures to assist inspectors, investigators, and Flight Standards program officials in their fact-finding or program administration responsibilities and requires basic evaluative judgment. The work performed falls primarily in one of the following categories:
(1) Inspections where determinations are based on visual or other specific inspection techniques and are made based on relatively clear-cut considerations such as the presence or absence of required documents or the obvious physical condition of an item or premises. These inspections are governed by specific procedures and serve as bases for action by compliance program officials. Typically, such work includes both initial and follow-up inspections including obtaining samples and performing well-established field tests, if appropriate.
(2) Technical support to inspections or investigations such as searching for, gathering, screening, and providing factual information or explanations related to the subject of an inspection or investigation or to the compliance program itself. These tasks are performed following prescribed or established procedures to assist compliance inspectors, investigators, and program officials in their fact finding or program administration responsibilities. The work includes activities such as obtaining background information on subjects of inspections or investigations by means of record searches, structured interviews, automated information retrieval, telephone inquiries, or correspondence; providing information to authorized persons concerning the status of particular
investigations; explaining licensing or other requirements, including exceptions or exemptions, to persons or organizations subject to regulations; compiling final investigative reports with necessary exhibits; and maintaining required administrative reports on topics such as manpower, case load, and case status.
Technical Administration
Provides technical knowledge and support to aviation safety inspectors, the general public, stakeholders, and airmen regarding a wide variety of aviation-related topics. Extracts safety data and information from FAA records to identify trends for items that affect aviation safety and enters technical findings in agency approved databases.
This individual will provide technical assistance and/or support with certification, surveillance,
investigation, and/or enforcement, examples include, but are not limited to:
Certification Support
• Provides technical support to ASls during certification of operators and air agencies.
• Reviews airmen certification files, submitted by designees for accuracy.
• Reviews inspection authorization files for renewal eligibility.
• Conducts Operational Color Vision Tests.
• Reviews designee management system to determine renewal eligibility.
• Compiles data for technical reports.
Surveillance Support
• Assists AS Is with surveillance of aviation events.
• Assists in drafting and issuing waivers and authorizations.
Investigation Support
• Drafts Enforcement Investigative Reports (ETR) for review and final approval by an ASI.
• Acts as the Point of Contact (POC) for safety assets (PPE) related to accident
investigations.
Enforcement Support
Incumbent will be responsible for enforcement functions including: conducting violations, voluntary disclosure, suspect illegal charters, incidents, navigation and altitude deviation investigations.
Other
• Provides technical support for special inspections, including a variety of the functions
described in the previous paragraphs.
• May conduct meetings or portions of meetings in support of technical work functions.
• Prepares technical correspondence in support of assigned work functions.
• Provides administrative support and project tracking utilizing required computer software.