14 CFR § 65.77 · TWO ROUTES
Part 147 school, or document your own experience for an FAA A&P?
They are alternatives, not stages, and the A&P at the end is identical. Nothing on it records which one you took. A school gives you a curriculum, a shop, an instructor and an authorization to test with no FSDO appointment attached, in exchange for tuition nobody caps. The experience route costs nothing if somebody is already paying you to turn wrenches. It asks for 30 calendar months you cannot shorten, plus an inspector who has to be convinced.
Checked against the current regulations on 19 August 2026.
What actually differs on the way to an A&P
We are not a Part 147 school and cannot become one, which is worth saying before a comparison rather than after it. If anything, our business interest runs the other way, because the experience route is where our readers come from. Keep that in mind, and note that the first row below is the one that decides it for most people.
How long before you can test
PART 147 SCHOOLHowever long the program runs. Schools set their own length now, because the FAA's fixed hour counts are gone.
EXPERIENCE ROUTE18 months for one rating, 30 for both, in calendar months the FAA will not let you shorten.
What it costs
PART 147 SCHOOLTuition. The school sets it, and no regulator publishes or limits it.
EXPERIENCE ROUTENothing, if somebody is already paying you to do the work. Everything, if nobody will hire you without the A&P.
Authorization to test
PART 147 SCHOOLThe graduation document itself. No FSDO visit, no inspector, no appointment.
EXPERIENCE ROUTEA FSDO appointment, two copies of Form 8610-2, and an inspector who has to be satisfied by your evidence.
What you are taught
PART 147 SCHOOLA curriculum the school must keep aligned to the 40 ACS subject areas, with an instructor and a shop.
EXPERIENCE ROUTEWhatever your job happens to cover. You have to find the gaps and fill them yourself.
The risk
PART 147 SCHOOLPaying for a program and then finding out the trade is not for you.
EXPERIENCE ROUTEGetting to month 30 and finding an inspector who is not convinced by your paperwork.
Early testing
PART 147 SCHOOLA school may issue a document after the General portion, letting you take that written before you graduate (§ 147.31).
EXPERIENCE ROUTEThere is no early testing. You are either eligible or you are not.
Part 147 is not the rule you have read about
A lot of what is written online about A&P schools describes a rule that no longer exists. Part 147 was replaced wholesale by an interim final rule published 24 May 2022 and effective 21 September 2022, and the changes are not small:
The 1,900 curriculum hours are gone. The preamble says the new § 147.17 “omits certain requirements in current § 147.21, including prescriptive requirements for curriculum hours”. It also says the FAA will no longer approve school curricula at all. Schools that still run programs of roughly 1,900 hours do so by their own choice or an accreditor’s, and that is a fine reason. It is just not the FAR.
The appendices are gone. Part 147 used to carry Appendices A to D listing every curriculum subject and grading each one Level 1, 2 or 3. Current Part 147 runs § 147.1 to § 147.31 and has no appendices at all. Anything quoting a “Level 2” requirement is quoting a repealed rule.
The standard replaced them. § 147.17(b) incorporates FAA-S-ACS-1 by reference, so a school now teaches to the same 40 subject areas you will be tested against. That is a real improvement for a student: the syllabus and the test are the same document.
There is also a floor on results. § 147.25 requires that, of students who test within 60 days of graduating, at least 70% pass, measured across the most recent three years. It is a fair question to ask a school before you enroll.
What each route costs, and what nobody publishes
The FAA charges nothing for the A&P certificate itself. Beyond that, exactly one figure in this whole process is published by anybody: PSI Services, LLC lists $175 per knowledge test, which is $525 for all three if you pass each one the first time. Every retest is the full fee again.
The examiner’s fee for the oral and practical is set by each Designated Mechanic Examiner, not by the FAA. Published schedules we read on 19 August 2026 ran from about $500 to $700 a section, but that is four data points, not a rate card. Ask before you book.
Part 147 tuition is set by the school, has no cap, and is not published by any regulator. No authority publishes a total cost for either route, which is why nothing on this site quotes one. If you see a headline “cost to get your A&P” figure somewhere, somebody put it together the same way we could have, and chose to present an estimate as a fact. What IS published, line by line, is on what an FAA A&P costs.
Both routes end up at the three knowledge tests, which are the same whichever way you got there.
Questions people actually ask
Q.01Is a Part 147 school required to get an A&P?
No. 14 CFR § 65.77 gives two routes and they are alternatives, not stages: an authenticated graduation document from a certificated Aviation Maintenance Technician School, OR documentary evidence of practical experience. Neither one ranks above the other in the regulation, and the certificate at the end is identical. Nothing on it records which route you took.
Q.02Is the 1,900 hour Part 147 requirement still a thing?
No, and this is the most outdated claim still going around about A&P training. Part 147 was replaced wholesale effective 21 September 2022. The rule preamble says plainly that the new § 147.17 "omits certain requirements... including prescriptive requirements for curriculum hours", and that the FAA will no longer approve school curricula at all. Many schools still run programs of roughly that length, by choice or for state or accreditor reasons. But that is the school's number, not the regulation's.
Q.03What does a Part 147 school have to do now instead?
Teach to the standard. § 147.17(a)(1) requires a curriculum "designed to continually align with" the mechanic Airman Certification Standards, and § 147.17(b) incorporates FAA-S-ACS-1 by reference. There is also a floor on pass rates: § 147.25 requires that of students testing within 60 days of graduation, at least 70% pass, measured over the most recent three years. And § 147.19(c) caps shop classes at 25 students per instructor.
Q.04Can you work and take a course at the same time?
You can, but know what each one gets you. Time in a Part 147 program does not count toward the 18/30 months, because training time is not practical experience. So a part time program alongside a maintenance job means you are building up months AND a graduation document, and whichever finishes first is the one you use. What you cannot do is add the two together.
Q.05Which route to an A&P is faster?
Usually the school, and by more than the calendar suggests. A full time program is often shorter than 30 months. It ends in an authorization to test instead of a FSDO appointment that may go badly, and it covers the whole syllabus instead of whatever your employer happens to work on. The experience route wins on cost, and only if somebody is already paying you.
Q.06Does the A&P certificate say which route you took?
No. There is one mechanic certificate. It carries an Airframe rating, a Powerplant rating or both, and it says nothing about how you became eligible. An employer can ask you, but the card cannot tell them.
Read next in the FAA A&P guide
This page covers one part of the route to your FAA A&P. The other pages cover the rest.
- How to get your FAA A&P mechanic certificateThe whole route on one page
- Experience and eligibilityHow much experience do you need for an FAA A&P certificate, and how do you prove it?
- The three FAA A&P knowledge testsWhat is on the FAA A&P written tests, and what is the passing score?
Or look one thing up
The reference pages under the guide each answer one question, for when what you want is the number rather than the explanation.
- What the FAA A&P costsHow much do the A&P mechanic tests cost, and what does the FAA itself charge?
- FAA A&P pass ratesHow hard are the A&P mechanic written tests, in the FAA's own pass rate figures?
- FAA A&P facts and figuresEvery load-bearing FAA A&P number on one page, with the regulation that sets it.
- FAA A&P glossaryWhat the FAA A&P terms mean: AMG, AMA, AMP, ACS, AKTR, DME, IA, FTN and the rest.
Read the documents, not us
Every fact on this page was read from these on 19 August 2026. They are the authority and we are the summary. If we and one of them disagree, they are right.
FREE PLAN · NO CARD · ALL 44 SUBJECTS OPEN
Whichever route you take, the A&P tests are the same.
The free plan opens all 44 subjects, which cover every ACS subject area, with 25 new questions a day in each. Each question has 3 answer choices, like the FAA A&P tests, with a written explanation behind every answer and, for every answer written from the FAA handbooks, the chapter it came from. It is a plan, not a trial, and it needs no card.
Start freeOr answer a few first. The free FAA A&P practice test runs on the page, with no account.