Time to start studying

I have set upon a new endeavor at work: I am applying to become a DER. A brief explanation is in order, since probably none of my readers are familiar with the avionics industry and how equipment is approved to go on airplanes.

In the USA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has to approve every piece of equipment that goes on an airplane. The idea is that they can ensure that all aircraft are, by design, safe and airworthy. For software that runs on equipment in the aircraft, that software must be developed with rigorous standards and procedures, and then verified with equal rigor. (The relative rigor of the standards depends also on how critical the equipment is - less critical equipment needs less rigorous procedure and test.) Just for my company (one of the top two or three avionics suppliers in the world), and just in my department (flight displays), we probably request certification for half a dozen software releases every year.

The FAA realizes that they don’t have enough people to review every package in detail, nor do they have the time to stay current on all the new technologies and designs and processes. So, they choose to appoint engineers within the avionics companies as “designated engineering representatives” (DERs), and they give those engineers the authority to review and sign off on software releases on behalf of the FAA.

So, I’m applying to become a software DER. There are only about a dozen of them in our company (out of 10,000+ employees), and half of those dozen reach retirement age in the next 5 years. So, the need is great. I’m kind of at the bottom end of the experience required; counting my college training, I have 10 years of software experience - a minimum of 8 are required. I submitted my application packet yesterday. I will be going to a national DER conference in Norfolk, VA at the end of July, which should provide me with some valuable training. Then I will be studying the federal regulations like mad in preparation for a 30 minute panel examination by the FAA, likely to be scheduled for the end of September.

It will be a good move to become a DER; first of all, it’ll provide some variety in my work since I’ll be doing the DER stuff about 20% of the time, and my usual job the other 80%. It’ll give me visibility to other projects and other types of equipment that I might not learn about otherwise. It’ll make me just a little bit more indispensable, I suppose… and indispensable is a good thing to be.

I imagine I will post about my learning experiences here from time to time, so stay tuned.