Canadian AME Licensing Guides
Free, factual explanations of Canadian Aircraft Maintenance Engineer licensing — written independently by PassCARs and referenced against official Transport Canada publications throughout.
Licensing
How to Become an AME in Canada: The Full Path
Training, experience, and examinations are three separate requirements that all have to come together — here is how the path actually works, end to end.
Canadian AME Licence: A Complete Overview
What the licence actually authorizes, the five rating categories, and how Transport Canada structures the credential.
M1 vs M2: Understanding the Two Canadian AME Mechanical Ratings
The two mechanical AME ratings are defined by aircraft type, not by seniority — here is exactly how Transport Canada draws the line.
AME E Licence Guide: Electronic Systems Rating
The E rating covers aircraft electronic systems specifically — separate from, and independent of, the mechanical M1/M2 ratings.
AME S Licence Guide: Structures Rating
The S rating covers aircraft structural maintenance and repair specifically — with its own, shorter experience path than the other ratings.
AME Apprenticeship in Canada: How the On-the-Job Path Works
Not everyone goes through a full-time college program first — here is how building your licence through on-the-job apprenticeship actually works.
Who Can Sign a Maintenance Release in Canada?
Holding an AME licence is necessary but often not sufficient — the CARs attach several separate conditions to the authority to sign.
CAR 571.11 Type-Training Requirements for Canadian AMEs
An appropriate AME rating alone does not establish authority to sign every maintenance release — for transport category aeroplanes and turbine-powered helicopters, CAR 571.11(4) adds a separate, additional condition.
What Is Elementary Work Under the Canadian Aviation Regulations?
A narrow, exhaustively itemized category of maintenance that needs no maintenance release — but only for the exact tasks listed, performed by one of a limited set of authorized persons, and recorded in the technical record.
Elementary Work vs. Servicing Under the CARs: Key Differences
The CARs classify aircraft work into three distinct legal tiers — servicing, elementary work, and maintenance. Each carries different rules for licensing, owner authorization, logbook recording, and maintenance releases.
Aircraft Technical Records and Journey Log Requirements in Canada
The CARs require every aircraft owner to keep a defined set of technical records, and require every person who performs maintenance or elementary work to make a dated, signed entry — an obligation separate from signing a maintenance release.
Aircraft Weight and Balance: How the Calculation Works
The arithmetic is the same for every aircraft: multiply each weight by its arm, add up the weights and the moments, and divide. What changes from aircraft to aircraft is the approved data you check the answer against.
Aircraft %MAC: How to Calculate Percent Mean Aerodynamic Chord
Percent MAC is just the CG position rewritten as a fraction of the wing's mean aerodynamic chord. The formula is one line; the inputs come from the aircraft's approved data.
Exams
The AME Regulatory Exam: What It Tests and How It's Scored
The regulatory exam tests the CARs framework itself — the "what and why" of aircraft maintenance regulation, separate from rating-specific technical knowledge.
AME Technical Exams: What They Cover by Rating
Technical exams test the "how" — the rating-specific systems knowledge — and Transport Canada publishes an official study guide for exactly what they may cover.
AME Practice Questions: How to Use Them Effectively
Practice questions are one tool in AME exam prep, not a substitute for understanding the material — here is how to use them well.
AME Exam Preparation in Canada: How to Study for the Transport Canada Exams
What the Transport Canada AME exams actually test, how they're scored, and a practical approach to studying for them.
Experience & Logbook
AME Experience Requirements: What Counts and How Much You Need
Experience requirements aren't one number — they're several categories tracked separately, and not all maintenance work counts equally toward each one.
CARs Standard 566 Explained: The Rulebook Behind Your AME Licence
The standard that sets out exactly what Transport Canada requires before you can hold an AME licence — in plain language.
CARs Standard 566, Appendix A: The Table of Requirements
Appendix A is where the specific numbers for your rating actually live — here is how to read the table correctly.
CARs Standard 566, Appendix B: The Maintenance Task List
Appendix B is the specific list of maintenance tasks your logged experience needs to demonstrate — organized by ATA chapter, with a 70% completion threshold.
The AME Logbook: Documenting Maintenance Experience for Transport Canada
Your maintenance experience only counts toward licensing if it is documented the way Transport Canada requires — here is what that actually means.
Who Can Sign an AME Apprentice's Logbook?
It depends on which legal function is being performed. Standard 566 and the CARs distinguish general experience verification, task-skill certification, aircraft maintenance releases, and application document certification.
Reference
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