FAA DER and ODA Engineering UM Training Courses
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides several training courses for Designated Engineering Representatives (DER) and Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) Engineering Unit Members (UM) in the field of flight test (and other fields as well). The DER and ODA Engineering Unit Member Training Requirements are outlined in this FAA document. You can take these online courses ahead of time, even if you are not immediately about to become a DER or UM yet, for the general knowledge and to give yourself a head start.
The courses fall under the following three general categories:
- Initial Training for DERs and ODA Engineering UMs (whereby the latter selection of courses is a subset of the former). These courses are often prerequisites for other courses, so start with these.
- Recurrent Training for DERs and ODA Engineering UMs. Is also often a prerequisite.
- Specialized Courses belonging to several different specialized fields, one of them being Flight Test, which is what we will focus on below.
Your primary source of information on all these courses and how to take them should be the corresponding DER/ODA Engineering UM subsection of the Designee and Delegated Organization Training section of online FAA Designee Registration System and linked pages therein. However, the FAA website provides a lot of information, somewhat out of order, and many courses shown are for DERs and ODA Engineering UMs outside of flight test, so on our page here, we list the courses of most interest for flight test engineers and test pilots and provide basic guidance, what to look for on the FAA website and in which order, if you are interested in taking any of these online courses.
List of FAA DER and ODA Engineering UM Courses
The list of all FAA DER and ODA Engineering UM training courses can be found at this link on the FAA website. The courses of particular interest to test pilots and flight test engineers include:
General
- Initial Training for Designated Engineering Representatives: Consists of the following three courses and is purchased as a bundle for $115 at the time of writing:
— (27200135) Aircraft Certification for Engineering Designees (6.5 Hours)
— (27200025) Becoming A Designated Engineering Representative (2.5 Hours)
— (27200026) Roles and Responsibilities for AIR Engineering Designees (1.5 Hours) - Initial Training for ODA Engineering Designees: Consists of only two courses of the three above and can be purchased as a bundle for $60 at the time of writing:
— (27200135) Aircraft Certification for Engineering Designees (6.5 Hours)
— (27200026) Roles and Responsibilities for AIR Engineering Designees (1.5 Hours) - (27200027) Repairs and Alterations for AIR Engineering Designees (DERs and UMs) (one-time online training, $50)
- Recurrent Training for all Flight Test Engineering Designees (DERs and ODA Engineering UMs) for 2024
Flight Test Specialty Track Courses
The following additional courses are available for FAA DER and ODA Engineering UMs specializing in flight test. Completion of the recurrent training above is usually a prerequisite to be able to take these courses.
- (27200069) Flight Test: Risk Management Update
- (27200070) Flight Test: Considerations for EMC Certification
- (27200108) Flight Test: Takeoff and Landing Performance Assessment (TALPA) Advisory Circulars
- (27200142) Flight Test: Certification Test Plan Development
- (27200150) Flight Test: Vibration/Buffeting Compliance Criteria
- (27200163) Flight Test: Flight Manual Development Overview
- (27200164) Flight Test: Human Factors in Aircraft Certification
The DER/ODA Engineering UM training subsection of the FAA website contains many additional specialized courses in the fields of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Powerplant, and Structures, which have not been listed here.