Mechanic Certification: Inspection Rating and Recent Experience Requirements

What it does

FAA proposes to amend the regulations for certificated mechanics by replacing the inspection authorization with an inspection rating on a mechanic's certificate, similar to the existing airframe and powerplant ratings. The inspection rating would carry the same privileges and limitations as the inspection authorization but would not require renewal or have an expiration date, consistent with the other mechanic ratings. As a result, FAA proposes to require certificated mechanics with inspection ratings to complete rolling recent experience activities, maintained independently, to exercise the privileges of their rating, rather than the current requirements of presenting evidence of renewal activities each March of every odd- numbered year. These proposed changes are intended to align mechanic privileges, which would streamline and simplify the process for maintaining inspection privileges, increase FAA efficiency by reducing on-demand work tasks, and save critical hours for safety-focused missions. These proposed changes would be deregulatory since they would reduce the paperwork and resource burdens linked to complying with the existing regulations for both industry and FAA.

The Federal Aviation Administration's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What it would change

5 parts of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

14 CFR 43, 14 CFR 61, 14 CFR 65, 14 CFR 91, 14 CFR 147

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 2120-AM04 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

Send comments on or before August 31, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket FAA-2026-6671 on Regulations.gov
• Title 14 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register