The AME Logbook: Meeting Transport Canada's Experience Requirements

An AME licence application isn't just a claim that you've worked in aircraft maintenance for a certain number of years — it requires documented, certifiable proof of the specific work performed, on specific aircraft, over specific dates. Transport Canada requires applicants to submit a personal logbook or an equivalent document (such as employment letters signed by the person responsible for the maintenance release) that records this experience in enough detail to be verified.

This exists because the AME licence ultimately authorizes someone to independently certify airworthiness — the experience requirement is the practical, hands-on foundation for that trust, and it has to be demonstrable, not just asserted.

Per Transport Canada's published guidance, logged experience needs exact dates, the type of work performed, and the type(s) of aircraft worked on. Beyond the general experience log, applicants must also show that they have completed a representative selection of maintenance tasks from Appendix B's task list — not less than 70 percent of the applicable items — with each task certified by an AME (or equivalent) confirming it was actually performed.

In practice, this means the logbook is doing two related but distinct jobs at once: demonstrating the required total months of general experience across the categories described in Appendix A, and demonstrating specific, certified task-level competence across Appendix B's list.

Log entries as close to the work itself as possible, rather than reconstructing months of work from memory later — dates, aircraft type/registration, and a specific description of the task performed are much easier to get right in the moment. Keep entries specific enough that someone reviewing the log later (an employer, a training coordinator, or Transport Canada) can tell exactly what was done, not just a vague category like "engine work."

Make sure the person certifying each entry is actually authorized to do so under the applicable requirement, and keep the physical or digital logbook itself secure and backed up — it is a document you may need to produce years into your career, not just at initial licensing.

PassCARs is an exam-preparation platform, not a system Transport Canada recognizes as an official experience record — logging your actual maintenance work still needs to go through your employer's or training organization's recognized process. Where PassCARs does help is on the knowledge side: understanding what the experience and task requirements actually are, and being ready for the regulatory and technical exams once your logged experience and training make you eligible to write them.