This is the list of supplies needed for the first ten courses for the Spokane Community College (SCC) Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT). Apparently, we no longer use the term Airframe & Powerplant (A&P).

What’s needed should you take on a current Aircraft Maintenance Technology course program nowadays?

Supplies

These are specific to the programs at Felts Field hosted by Spokane Community College:

• One 3-Ring notebook: you won’t need anything spectacular. I use a super-inexpensive binder with D-Rings like this one.
• 200-ish sheets of notebook paper per quarter. I also like to have a 1/4″ spiral-bound graphing notebook.
• 3 pens & pencils per quarter and 1 highlighter. I’ve been using pens long enough that I have a particular opinion and preference for pens. But, use pens that you like.
• 1 handheld scientific calculator (TI-30 or equivalent). I already have a Canon F-766S that is (mostly) equivalent to a TI-30 that I used for ballistics, geometry, and trigonometry some years ago. They didn’t specify what variant of the TI-30 would be acceptable, but I would envision that any subsequent TI-30 version has the same capabilities. Also, the TI-30 goes back a few years… to about 1976.
• 16 GB flash drive. Minimum size required: 16GB. Maximum size? Not important. Speed? Not important — but for 16GB, they’ll definitely be within the appropriate USB-2-class for speed. This is suitable.
• 1 Ultra-fine Sharpie. Fortunately, I use them all the time, so I buy them in quantities of 5 – 10. These are fine.
• Color pencils, box of 12. Yep, just a box of 12.
• Scissors. They didn’t specify what they’d be used for. So, general purpose with a grip large enough for me to get a reasonable purchase with dexterity issues, these will probably be fine.

Not included in the list is a critically-important tool: a modern laptop or a modern tablet that can render the PDFs and the FAA FAR AMT website. You’ll have it in the hangar, but you cannot use your phone as a PDF reference in the hangar because it poses an absolute safety risk.

Books

These apply to everyone who learns A&P in the USA. The good news is that most of these are freely available from the FAA. The links are directly to the source.

Freely (free, as in ‘beer’) available PDFs 📗 and the complete CFR 📒 content.

• 📗Aircraft Inspection Repair and Alterations AC 43.13-1B & 2A.
• 📒Federal Aviation Regulations for Aviation Maintenance Technicians. Yes, it, too, is freely available, but it’s subject to change periodically. How often depends entirely upon the courts and the FAA.
• 📗Aviation Maintenance Technician Handbook – General, FAA-H-8083-30A.
• 📗FAA A&P Mechanics Airframe Handbook Vol. I & II: FAA-H-8083-31. Volume I, Volume II.
• 📗A&P Mechanics Powerplant Handbook FAA-H-8083-82. Volume I, Volume II.
• Standard Aviation Maintenance Handbook, Jeppesen OR ASA Aviation Mechanic Handbook. I bought the latter. It was about US$15. Bonus points because it’s available spiral-bound. I don’t recall how much the Jeppesen Standard Av. Maint. Handbook is. Let me Google that for you…
• SCC AMTP General, Airframe, Powerplant Projects Handbook. This is not a nationwide requirement and, given the topic and intent of the book, it’s only available from the instructor. Yes, we’ll be actually building some of the tools that we’ll need in subsequent courses, which I’m rather looking forward to.

Optional

These are, as its heading implies, optional. I, however, would rather have something and not need it than to need something and not have it. So, looking for the least expensive options — used in some cases of course — here’s what I’ve found:

• Aircraft Technical Dictionary: Jeppesen Version. Direct from Jeppesen for an acceptable US$21. There is an E-book edition for a few dollars less, but because I don’t yet transition my notes fluidly from print to E-books, Dead-Tree Edition it is.
• Aircraft Electricity & Electronics: 6th Edition: This one seems rather difficult to pin down. It’s available presently, but it’s seems about $50. I think I ordered a used one for about $15 a few weeks ago.
• Jeppesen Airframe Technician Textbook: Pilot’s HQ has the A&P Technician Airframe Textbook at a lower price than Jeppesen. It can be found cheaper, but like all things the cheaper it gets, the less value it will have. Still, as long as the pages are all there with minimal writing, it’ll be fine.
• Jeppesen Powerplant Technician Textbook: it’s about $70 from Jeppesen. It’s readily available used from about $20 to about $40 and a few dollars for shipping. You’ll also find $5 — but it’s not the textbook. It’s a workbook.

I also keep a copy of UGLY’s Electrical References in a pocket with my calculator on my tool bag as well. It’s not specific to aviation, but it is an electrical reference should I not be able to recall the precise value, arrangement, style, or meaning of a circuit or symbol.

“You mentioned tools,” you say. So naturally, the next question is, “What tools are needed?”

That’s another post.