Explainer
What Is a Standard Practices Manual (SPM)?
The Short Answer
The Methods Every Task Shares
A standard practices manual (SPM) holds the general procedures that apply across an aircraft rather than to one system: how to torque standard hardware, install fasteners, work with wiring, clean, treat corrosion, and apply common processes. A task in the aircraft maintenance manual then says, in effect, tighten to the standard value, and the value lives in one place.
Whether it is a book of its own or a chapter depends on the manufacturer. In the ATA numbering, standard practices have their own chapters, listed below, and a standard practices chapter inside the maintenance manual is a common arrangement.
Where It Sits
The ATA Standard Practices Chapters
The ATA chapter numbering used across the ATA iSpec 2200 manual set reserves these chapters for standard practices:
- 20
- Standard Practices, Airframe
- 51
- Standard Practices and Structures, General
- 60
- Standard Practices, Propeller / Rotor
- 70
- Standard Practices, Engine
Which manual a manufacturer puts them in is its choice, and arrangements differ, so check how your type is arranged before assuming.
Contents
What Standard Practices Typically Cover
Scope varies by manufacturer, so this is the common shape, not a specification.
- Fasteners and torque
- Tightening values and installation methods for the standard hardware on the aircraft, so a task can say follow the standard torque instead of listing numbers.
- Wiring practices
- How to splice, terminate, route, and mark wiring. Because this is large and safety critical, it is often organized as a document of its own.
- Materials and processes
- Cleaning, corrosion treatment, sealing, painting, and other processes that appear in many different tasks.
- Shared methods
- Common practices such as safetying, bonding, and handling of components, referenced wherever a task needs them.
The Rules
What the Regulations Say
No regulation names an SPM, but one requires the practices in it. Under 14 CFR 43.13(a), a person performing maintenance uses the methods, techniques, and practices prescribed in the current manufacturer's maintenance manual or Instructions for Continued Airworthiness, or other methods acceptable to the Administrator. The FAA's general-purpose repair advisory circular, AC 43.13-1B, is for cases where the manufacturer has no instructions of its own.
Wiring is the one area with dedicated guidance. Appendix H to Part 25 requires the wiring ICA to include acceptable EWIS maintenance practices in a standard format, and FAA AC 25-26 (14 November 2007) describes a way to meet that: a standard wiring practices manual (SWPM), whose title the AC leaves to the organization. The AC recognizes two arrangements: a stand-alone manual, or the SWPM as chapter 20 of a wiring diagram manual. Our guide to the wiring diagram manual covers the EWIS rules.
The Library
How It Relates to the Other Manuals
It is a shared dependency. The maintenance manual's tasks lean on it for torque and process references; the structural repair manual leans on it for fasteners and surface treatment; and the component maintenance manual covers the work on a component once it is off the aircraft. The fault isolation manual ends at a repair task that, in turn, points here. The full manual family shows the rest.
That dependency is why upkeep matters. The manufacturer maintains the standard practices and revises them when a process, material, or value changes. One correction reaches every referring task at once, which is the benefit, and also the risk: every task is only as current as the revision of the shared content it cites. Our guide to the instructions for continued airworthiness covers what the manufacturer owes the operator.
FAQ
Questions We Hear
What is a standard practices manual?
The manual, or manual section, that holds the general maintenance practices many tasks share, such as torque values, fastener installation, wiring practices, cleaning, and corrosion treatment. Specific tasks in the maintenance manual refer to it instead of repeating the method each time.
Is the standard practices manual part of the AMM?
Often, as ATA chapter 20, Standard Practices, Airframe. Some manufacturers or operators publish standard practices as a separate document, and the FAA's guidance on standard wiring practices explicitly allows either a stand-alone manual or a chapter 20 of a wiring diagram manual. Which one you have depends on the manufacturer.
What is an SWPM?
A standard wiring practices manual: the standard practices for electrical wiring. FAA Advisory Circular 25-26 (14 November 2007) gives a format and minimum content for it as a means of meeting the Part 25 Appendix H requirement for EWIS maintenance practices in a standard format. The AC leaves the document's title to the organization.
Does the FAA require a standard practices manual?
No regulation names one. 14 CFR 43.13(a) requires maintenance to use the methods, techniques, and practices in the current manufacturer's maintenance manual or Instructions for Continued Airworthiness, or other methods acceptable to the Administrator. The standard practices are part of what the manufacturer supplies.
Why not just put the torque values in each task?
Because a value stated in a hundred places must be corrected in a hundred places. Keeping general practices in one place and referencing them means a correction is made once. The cost is that every referring task depends on the current revision of the shared content.
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Shared Content That Stays Shared
Standard practices only work if every task points at the right revision. Tell us how your content is structured and where the references break.