Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Different Functions Of An ODA Engineering Company

By Edward Perry


The Federal Aviation Administration is the agency responsible for making sure that the safety of passengers is paramount in all aviation activity designs. Because the department cannot possibly oversee all the aspects of aviation, the Organization Designation Authorization or ODA was created in 2005 to address that concern. The ODA helps extend the supervision of the FAA to other facets of aviation in other organizations. For example, an ODA engineering company is a delegate of the agency that may be tasked with certain functions such as overseeing new aviation designs.

Private organizations with an ODA often do a substantial amount of important work for the FAA. In November 2009, ODA was fully implemented after the department required all its delegates to transition to the new policy. The Risk Based Resource Targeting or the RBST is another system created in 2007 to help engineers assess which projects held the highest risks and needed more supervision and oversight.

The department can select which companies or manufacturers perform certain tasks. Hence, organizations may apply for different kinds of authorizations. The Type Certificate or TC authorization enables companies to distribute airworthiness certificates and approve engineering and manufacturing projects.

Holders can handle repair stations, operators, and manufacturers with the Supplemental Type Certification. Companies with Production Certification are able to perform assessments of production records, allow modifications in the quality control manual, as well as, identify conformity. The Parts Manufacturer Approval enables qualifiers to assess test or computation approvals, licensing agreements, and STCs to identify applicants fit for a PMA certification.

Technical Standard Order Authorization or TSOA holders may regulate conformity of articles, test articles, and test setups of aviation projects. Organizations with an MRA or Major Repair, Alteration, and Airworthiness ODA approve major repairs and alterations. They also perform aging aircraft inspections and record reviews.

The Airman Knowledge Testing certification allows organizations to supervise the management of testing centers, command the delivery of knowledge tests, and distribute test results to applicants. Qualifiers of Air Operator ODAs can conduct phases of the authorization process for the release of a Rotorcraft External Load Operator Certificate. Essentially, qualified applicants of an ODA act as representatives of the FAA and issue different airworthiness certificates guaranteeing the safety of flight operations equipped with new aircraft designs.

There are concerns, however, that the ODA enables companies to choose other individuals to perform work on behalf of the FAA with little to no oversight from the agency itself. Even the RBRT system inhibits engineers from reviewing projects deemed to have low or medium risk because higher risk projects are prioritized. There is also a risk that an ODA company may allow units with poor qualifications to conduct approvals of certification projects.

With less involvement from the main agency, compliance reviews from authorized delegates may be neglected. Consequently, agency engineers may not be able to detect all instances of regulatory noncompliance. Because the RBRT also presented some risks due to its heavy reliance on subjective inputs from engineers, the FAA pulled it out from active use in 2009 in order to make revisions to address the technical difficulties encountered.

Presently, the working systems have been subjected to lots of revisions. Still, all manufacturers have the same goal of maintaining accountability and ensuring that each company delivers their assigned tasks. Hopefully, their combined efforts will turn flying into an even safer means of transportation in the future.




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