Under UK CAA Part 145, a Certificate of Release to Service isn't valid because the aircraft flew safely afterward, it's valid because the organisation can prove, on demand, exactly which certifying staff signed it, what training they'd completed, and what task cards backed the work. 145.A.35(c) requires certifying and support staff to show at least six months, or 100 days, of actual maintenance experience within the preceding two years, and if that record can't be produced, the authorisation cannot be renewed. Start a free trial to see how Oxmaint keeps every Part 145 record audit-ready.
100 Days
Of demonstrable recent experience required within a rolling two-year period under 145.A.35(c)
2 Years
Maximum interval between recurrent training cycles for certifying staff and support staff
10%
Threshold of certifying staff headcount change that must be notified to the CAA under 145.A.85
7 Days
Window to report a one-off certification authorisation issued outside the normal process
Why Paper MOE Records Fail Under Audit Pressure
A Maintenance Organisation Exposition lists dozens of record types, from Certifying Staff Authorisation Records to AD control cards to Quality Audit Remedial Action Reports. On paper, cross-referencing a single certifying staff member's recency, training and task authorisation against a specific CRS can take hours. In a CAA audit, that retrieval time is itself a finding.
What Part 145 Actually Requires You to Prove
145.A.35
Certifying staff and support staff records
Licence category, aircraft type ratings, recency evidence and recurrent training history, all traceable to the individual and the specific certification authorisation issued.
145.A.48
Tooling and equipment capability
Evidence of calibration status and a demonstrable plan to restore any temporarily lost capability before maintenance on that type or variant resumes.
145.A.70
Maintenance Organisation Exposition currency
Every MOE chapter revision tracked by issue and revision number, with changes that could affect the approval submitted to the CAA before implementation.
145.A.85
Notification of organisational change
Facility, equipment, procedure, certifying staff and work scope changes reported to the CAA, with headcount movements over the 10% threshold flagged automatically.
145.A.140
Access to records on demand
Any facility, document, record or procedure made available to a CAA-authorised person immediately, whether the work was subcontracted or performed in-house.
Every Requirement, One Traceable Record
Oxmaint links certifying staff authorisations, recency evidence, task cards and CRS records into a single audit trail, so a CAA request that used to take hours takes minutes. Sign up for a free trial to see it against your own MOE, or book a demo and we'll walk through your compliance workflow.
From Task Card to Certificate of Release to Service
Work order and task card issued
Scheduled maintenance, additional defect, or lifed component task cards are generated and assigned against the aircraft's maintenance programme.
Task completed and recorded
The technician performing the work logs completion against the specific task card, with parts, tooling and any concession requests attached.
Certifying staff verify authorisation
Before sign-off, the system checks that the individual's category, aircraft type rating and recency evidence are current for this specific task.
CRS issued and retained
The Certificate of Release to Service is generated with a full linked record, retained for the required period and retrievable in seconds during any future audit.
Paper-Based Records vs. Digital Compliance Records
| Paper-Based Approach |
What It Costs Quality Teams |
Digital Fix |
| Recency evidence tracked in individual logbooks |
Manual cross-checking against the 100-day, two-year rule before every authorisation renewal |
Automatic recency tracking with renewal alerts before expiry |
| Task cards and CRS filed separately by check |
Hours spent reconstructing the full trail for a single audit sample |
Task card, technician and CRS linked in one retrievable record |
| MOE revision history tracked on a document control sheet |
Risk of working to an outdated procedure version on the shop floor |
Current MOE revision surfaced automatically at the point of task sign-off |
| Notifiable change tracked informally by management |
Missed or late notifications to the CAA under 145.A.85 |
Staff headcount and scope changes flagged against notification thresholds |
How Oxmaint Supports Part 145 Quality Teams
Oxmaint gives Part 145 approved organisations a single digital record for certifying staff authorisations, recency evidence, task cards and Certificates of Release to Service, all timestamped and linked to the individual and the aircraft. Quality teams can pull a complete audit trail for any check in minutes instead of hours. Book a demo to see it mapped against your own Maintenance Organisation Exposition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q
What happens if a certifying staff member can't prove recent experience?
Under 145.A.35(c), their authorisation cannot be granted or renewed until the missing duration or nature of experience is completed and properly recorded, which can take that individual out of the certification pool at short notice.
Q
Does a change of certifying staff numbers always need CAA notification?
Only once the change crosses the notifiable threshold. Changes to certifying staff, component certifying staff, or base maintenance support staff numbers under 10 percent of the total declared in the MOE do not require notification, but tracking that percentage manually is where organisations slip.
Q
How quickly must records be produced during a CAA audit?
145.A.140 requires access to be granted to any CAA-authorised person on request, whether the record relates to in-house or subcontracted work. There's no built-in grace period, so retrieval speed itself becomes part of the assessment.
Q
Can digital records replace the Maintenance Organisation Exposition entirely?
No. The MOE remains the CAA-approved document describing your procedures, but a digital system should enforce those procedures at the point of task sign-off and keep the resulting records traceable, rather than replacing the exposition itself.
Make Every Part 145 Record Audit-Ready by Default
Oxmaint links certifying staff authorisations, recency evidence, task cards and Certificates of Release to Service into one traceable digital record. Sign up for a free trial to explore it yourself, or book a demo and we'll walk through it against your own compliance workflow.
