How to Get Your FAA Airframe and Powerplant License

To get an FAA Airframe and Powerplant license, you need to be at least 18, qualify through either an FAA-approved maintenance school or documented hands-on experience, and then pass three written knowledge exams plus an oral and practical exam administered by a Designated Mechanic Examiner. Everything after your first passing score has to be finished inside a 24-month window. Once issued, the certificate never expires.¹

Who Can Apply

You must be at least 18 years old and able to read, write, speak, and understand English.² One narrow exception exists: applicants working outside the United States for a U.S. air carrier can receive a certificate endorsed “Valid only outside the United States” without meeting the English requirement. Everything else in the process is about proving knowledge and skill.

Two Ways to Qualify

Before the FAA lets you test, you have to satisfy the experience requirement. There are two accepted routes.

An FAA-Approved Part 147 School

Aviation Maintenance Technician Schools certificated under 14 CFR Part 147 combine classroom instruction with shop work covering airframe and powerplant subjects. When you graduate, the school issues authenticated documents that satisfy the experience requirements, so you don’t have to assemble years of employment records yourself.³ Most combined A&P programs run 18 to 24 months. Students can even begin the oral and practical exams during the final portion of training, as long as the school certifies they’re prepared.⁴

The FAA keeps a searchable directory of approved schools so you can filter by location and compare programs.⁵ Community colleges with Part 147 programs generally cost far less than private aviation academies.

Documented Work Experience

If you already work on aircraft, you can qualify without school by documenting your hours. For a single rating, you need at least 18 months of practical experience appropriate to that rating. For both ratings together, you need at least 30 months covering duties appropriate to both airframe and powerplant maintenance.⁴ The work must involve the procedures, tools, and materials actually used in constructing, maintaining, or altering airframes and powerplants.

The paperwork burden is entirely on you. Plan on compiling employment letters on company letterhead specifying dates and duties, maintenance logbook entries, supervisor statements describing the work you performed, and the makes and models of aircraft you worked on. A letter that only confirms your job title isn’t enough. FAA inspectors want evidence that your months were spent doing real aircraft maintenance rather than parts running or floor sweeping.

Credit for Military Maintenance Work

Military aviation maintenance counts toward the 18- or 30-month requirement, but the FAA does not grant blanket credit for holding a relevant occupational specialty. Training time toward that specialty doesn’t count, and neither does time in supervisory or inspection-only roles.⁶

The cleanest route is the Joint Service Aviation Maintenance Technician Certification Council (JSAMTCC) program. Completing JSAMTCC training and receiving a Certificate of Eligibility means you’re treated as having met the experience requirements for the ratings listed on the COE. Without a COE, you’ll sit down with an FAA Airworthiness Inspector who will review your DD Form 214, letters from commanding or maintenance officers, and records showing aircraft types and hands-on maintenance hours.⁶

Active-duty, guard, and reserve members, their dependents, DoD and DHS civilians, and veterans with base access can also take the FAA knowledge tests at no charge through JSAMTCC-operated testing centers on military installations.⁷

Getting Authorized to Test

You can’t walk into a testing center without FAA authorization. The process starts with FAA Form 8610-2, the Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application. Most applicants complete it electronically through the Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application (IACRA) system at iacra.faa.gov, which handles validation and electronic signatures.⁸

Then you bring the form and all supporting documentation, either school transcripts or your experience records, to an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector or a Designated Airworthiness Representative. If they’re satisfied that you meet the regulatory requirements, they sign the form. That signature is your authorization to begin the knowledge tests. Part 147 graduates with transcripts in hand are typically authorized quickly; experience-pathway applicants sometimes face a more involved review.

The Three Knowledge Tests

The written phase covers three exams: General, Airframe, and Powerplant. The General has 60 questions and the Airframe and Powerplant each have 100. You get two hours per exam, and you need at least 70% on each one to pass.⁹ The questions span regulations, physics, electricity, materials, hydraulics, and systems specific to each rating.

PSI administers the exams at approved testing centers around the country. You’ll create a PSI account and purchase test vouchers. Each test costs $175.¹⁰

One timing rule shapes the whole process: all prescribed tests, meaning the knowledge tests plus the oral and practical, must be completed within 24 months. Pass the General in January, and you have 24 months from that month to finish everything else. Let the window close and your passing scores expire.²

The Oral and Practical Exams

Once the three written tests are behind you, you schedule the oral and practical with a Designated Mechanic Examiner. The FAA’s Designee Locator tool at designee.faa.gov lists DMEs by area.¹¹ DMEs set their own fees. Expect roughly $1,000 to $1,600 total for the General, Airframe, and Powerplant sections combined, though it varies by examiner and location.

The oral exam is a face-to-face session covering regulations, aircraft systems, maintenance procedures, and safety practices. You’ll be asked to explain concepts, walk through troubleshooting, and show that you understand the regulatory framework you’re about to work under. The practical follows: inspecting components, identifying defects, performing repairs, using maintenance manuals, and handling tools and test equipment. The DME is deciding whether you can do the work safely and correctly, not just recite theory.

When you pass, the DME processes your application through IACRA and a temporary certificate is printed so you can start working right away. Your permanent certificate arrives from the FAA’s Airmen Certification Branch, typically within six to eight weeks.¹²

If You Fail a Test

A failed knowledge, oral, or practical test doesn’t end anything, but it does cost time. You must wait at least 30 days before retaking the failed test. There’s one shortcut: if a certificated mechanic who already holds the rating you’re seeking gives you additional instruction on each subject you failed and signs a written statement that you’re ready, you can retest sooner.¹³ Keep the 24-month overall window in mind, because repeated attempts eat into it.

What It Costs

Total cost depends heavily on which qualifying route you take.

Part 147 school tuition ranges from under $10,000 at some community colleges to $50,000 or more at private aviation academies. In-state community college programs offer the best value, though they may have waitlists.
Knowledge test fees are $175 per exam at PSI testing centers, totaling $525 for all three. Military-affiliated applicants can take these tests free through JSAMTCC centers.¹⁰⁷
DME oral and practical fees run roughly $1,000 to $1,600 total, paid directly to the examiner. These aren’t regulated, so it pays to compare.
Tools and supplies, if your school or employer doesn’t provide them, can add $2,000 to $5,000 for a basic aviation tool kit.
Study materials, from test prep books to online question banks, range from free to a few hundred dollars.

The work-experience path has no tuition, but you’re investing 30 months of employment instead. Testing and DME fees are the same either way.

What the Certificate Lets You Do

With both Airframe and Powerplant ratings, you can perform or supervise maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations on any aircraft or appliance you’re rated for, and you can approve an aircraft for return to service after that work. There’s one important limit: you can’t supervise or approve return to service for a specific task you haven’t satisfactorily performed before, unless you first do it under the direct supervision of a mechanic or repairman who has. You’re also expected to understand the current manufacturer instructions and maintenance manuals for the specific work.¹⁴

An Airframe-rated mechanic can perform the 100-hour inspection required under Part 91 on an airframe and its related parts, and a Powerplant-rated mechanic can do the same on a powerplant or propeller.⁴ What a standard A&P does not authorize is performing annual inspections or approving major repairs and major alterations for return to service. That work requires an Inspection Authorization, which is a separate credential with its own eligibility and renewal rules.

Staying Current After You’re Certified

The certificate itself never expires, but you can only exercise its privileges if you stay current. Within the preceding 24 months, you must have spent at least six months working as a mechanic under your certificate, technically supervising other mechanics, or supervising maintenance operations in an executive capacity. If those 24 months lapse without qualifying activity, the FAA Administrator has to re-evaluate your ability before you can work again.¹⁵

You also have to notify the FAA’s Airmen Certification Branch in writing within 30 days of any change to your permanent mailing address.¹⁶ It’s easy to forget, and it’s a regulatory requirement.

1
Federal Aviation Administration. Become a Mechanic Frequently Asked Questions
2
eCFR. 14 CFR 65.71 – Eligibility Requirements: General
3
eCFR. 14 CFR 65.77 – Experience Requirements
4
eCFR. 14 CFR Part 65 Subpart D – Mechanics
5
Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Maintenance Technician Schools (AMTS)
6
Federal Aviation Administration. Overview of the Aviation Maintenance Profession
7
Federal Aviation Administration. JSAMTCC FAA AKT Program FAQs
8
Federal Aviation Administration. FAA Form 8610-2
9
Federal Aviation Administration. Companion Guide to the Aviation Mechanic General, Airframe, and Powerplant Airman Certification Standards
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PSI Services. FAA Testing Programs
11
Federal Aviation Administration. Designee Locator Search
12
Federal Aviation Administration. How Long Does It Take the FAA to Send Out a Permanent License Certificate
13
eCFR. 14 CFR 65.19 – Retesting After Failure
14
eCFR. 14 CFR 65.81 – General Privileges and Limitations
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eCFR. 14 CFR 65.83 – Recent Experience Requirements
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eCFR. 14 CFR Part 65 Subpart A – General