CAA Personnel Licensing (PEL) : South African Civil Aviation Authority

Organisation : South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
Facility Name : Personnel Licensing (PEL)
Country : South Africa
Website : https://www.caa.co.za/

What is Personnel Licensing (PEL)?

​​​Personnel Licensing (PEL) is a department within the Aviation Safety Operations Division (ASO). The Senior Manager Personnel Licensing (SM PEL) reports to the Executive: Aviation Safety Operations and is responsible for the oversight of ICAO Annex 1 requirements. PEL has three line managers reporting to the SM PEL.

Related / Similar Facility : CBRTA Cross-Easy Permit Portal

To discharge its responsibilities, the PEL Department has to carry out many funcions/tasks which are normally organised around five major functional areas: examinations (flight crew, aircraft maintenance personnel, air traffic controller, etc.), licensing, training, regulatory and administration.

Functional Areas of Personnel Licensing (PEL)

Five major functional areas of Personnel Licensing (PEL) are,

1. Examination Tasks:
Examination tasks are complex and require a high level of experience and expertise in the various areas of licensing (typically flight crew, aircraft maintenance personnel and air traffic controller). Executing the function also requires the highest degree of technical and ethical integrity as well as good judgement.

The examination tasks include:
** designing written examinations for flight crew members, aircraft maintenance personnel, air traffic controllers and ground operations personnel who intend to apply for the issue or renewal of licences or to add new aircraft types, ratings or authorizations to their licence;
** reviewing, evaluating and marking written tests;
** administering oral examinations of different specialities, as required;
** administering flight and simulator tests followed by generating the required test reports;
** administering practical tests as required for the different specialities and generating the necessary test reports;
** coordinating with the AVMED those aspects related to medical examinations and the issuance of medical assessments, in compliance with Annex 1 provisions and supporting guidance in Doc 8984;
** administering language proficiency examinations, as required; and
** participating in committees or advisory groups to review and recommend improvements to examination syllabi, questions, practical tests and licensing matters.

2. Licensing Tasks:
Licensing tasks cover the routine tasks associated with the physical issuance and maintenance of personnel licences and include:
** drafting detailed procedures for licensing staff;
** evaluating foreign licences and certificates, and military pilot qualifications, and taking appropriate action, including consultation with the State of licence issue as necessary;
** reviewing the limitations and recent experience of flight crew members, maintenance personnel, air traffic controllers and ground operators and taking the necessary action;
** issuing and renewing licences, adding ratings and issuing temporary approvals or special authorizations.

3. Training Tasks:
Training tasks cover the activities related to the certification, approval and surveillance of training organiszations (or schools) and training programmes.

These tasks include:
** studying the PEL training standards and making the necessary recommendations for improvement of domestic and foreign training programmes and oversight;
** developing and executing plans for the surveillance of different aviation training activities;
** reviewing training curricula and programmes submitted for approval;
** approving training organisations and training sections at operational and maintenance organisations, air traffic control units;
** qualifying flight simulation training devices, conducting their recurrent evaluations and authorizing their use for defined training tasks;
** exercising continued surveillance of approved training organisations, in cooperation with other Contracting States as necessary;

4. Regulatory Tasks:
Regulatory tasks cover the development and maintenance of the regulatory support of personnel licensing and include:
** drafting and amending regulations and rules (or specific operating regulations) related to the training and licensing of aviation personnel;
** enforcing licensing laws and regulations; and
** developing procedures, taking into account best practices and applicable quality standards.

5. Administrative Tasks:
Administrative tasks include:
** maintaining an up-to-date, efficient and secure record system for licensing, certification, designation, approval and authorization actions;
** maintaining lists of CAA and designated examiners;
** maintaining currency of all regulatory material and PEL documents in use by staff;
** drafting and promulgating examination schedules;
** printing and collating examination papers and distributing them in order to meet the published scheduled times;
** handling routine correspondence in respect of requests for matters such as study guidance material, dates of examinations, application forms and examination fees;
** dealing with the public when necessary on matters related to:
** scheduled examinations;
** licence, rating, approval or examination applications; and
** requests for regulatory interpretation;
** handling routine correspondence with respect to applications for licences or ratings, flight tests or other routine clerical matters;
** processing all licence applications and preparing the material for review and action by technical licensing officers;
** completing licence forms and preparing licences for official signature; and
** managing the PEL Department computer database.

Contact

Tel: 011 – 545 1000
Fax: 011 – 545 1455
E-mail: mail AT caa.co.za