As the title of this section states, this regulation is applicable to short distance commercial aircraft operations or “commuters” and nonscheduled carriers that operate “on-demand.” These aircraft are frequently referred to as air taxi or air charter aircraft.

Aircraft operated under 14 CFR part 135 must be operated and maintained in accordance with the certificate holder’s operations manual. This manual, when accepted by the FAA, specifies how the flight crew, ground personnel, and maintenance technicians conduct their operations.

A pivotal portion of this regulation is the first section in subpart J, 14 CFR part 135, section 135.411, Application. This section specifies that having a type certificated passenger seating configuration of nine or less may be maintained in accordance with the maintenance manual provided by the aircraft manufacturer. Those aircraft having a type certificated passenger seating configuration of 10 or more seats must be maintained in accordance with a maintenance manual written by the air carrier and must then be submitted to the FAA for approval. The requirements for the maintenance manual are specified in 14 CFR part 135, section 135.427. 14 CFR part 135, sections 135.415 through 135.417 and 135.423 through 135.443 specify additional maintenance requirements. 14 CFR part 135, sections 135.415 and 135.417 are applicable regardless of the number of seats in the aircraft.

A major change in the “nine or less” aircraft maintenance requirements occurred in February of 2005 when section 135.422, Aging Aircraft, was incorporated into 14 CFR part

This section only applies to multi-engine aircraft in scheduled operation with nine or fewer passenger seats. It does not apply to aircraft operating in Alaska. The required record review start date varies depending on the age of the aircraft.

However, once initiated, the repetitive inspection intervals are not to exceed 7 years.

The certificate holder must make both the aircraft and the records available to the FAA for inspection and review. The certificate holder must notify the Administrator at least 60 days in advance of the availability of the aircraft and the records for review.

The records must include the following information:

This regulation underwent a major rewrite released in 2004 and was the most comprehensive change in nearly 20 years. It may be of interest to note an airframe and powerplant (A&P) certificate is not necessary to be employed at a repair station. The repair station may also employ both repairmen (under 14 CFR part 65, subpart E) and non FAA-certificated personnel. All work that is signed off is done so using the repair station certificate number and must be done only by persons authorized by 14 CFR part 65 to approve an article for return to service (RTS). Just as other certificate holders must have an operations manual, the repair station must have a repair station manual that contains the following:

All records from repair station maintenance activity must be kept a minimum of 2 years. Domestic repair station certificates are effective until they are surrendered, suspended, or revoked. The certificates of foreign repair stations expire, usually after 1 or 2 years and must be renewed.

Title 14 CFR part 147 defines the requirements for obtaining a maintenance training certificate. This certificate may be for either airframe, powerplant, or a combination of the two. The minimum number of curriculum hours for conducting either airframe or powerplant training independently is 1,150.

If both A&P ratings are offered, the combined total curriculum hours are 1,900. This is because of the 1,150 hours specified to obtain either the airframe or the powerplant rating, 400 hours are devoted to general studies. Only one set of general studies hours is applicable to the combined total. Therefore, 400 hours can be subtracted from the implied total of 2,300 hours (1,150 × 2) to obtain the reduced figure of 1,900 hours. Requirements are detailed as follows: