Day 29 - It is that time of year to take my annual refresher training for my Inspection Authorization. That technically involves eight hours of education. I have to do it every year. That is the law. It is a small price to pay to keep my rating.

There are several ways this can be accomplished. My favorite way is the IA Refresher course the FAA puts on. That is what I did last year. There was a terrific NTSB presentation of the accident investigation of the Galloping Ghost tragedy at the Reno Air races. You don't know if the FAA is going to put the seminar on every year and you don't want to take a chance on not getting your training completed on time. The alternative is an online course. That is what I got started with today. I use an outfit named Gleim. They have been doing it for years. I think their materials are very good. The way it works is you download a study outline on a given topic and study it. There are 40 choices and you have to complete eight of them. After you finish your studying you take a 10 question test to demonstrate you have learned the material. When you have completed your eight chapters they send you a certificate electronically.

This is one of the topics. It is about FOD. Many of you have never heard of FOD. It is Foreign Object Damage or Foreign Object Debris. It is the stuff on the ground at an airport that can cause damage to aircraft. The Concorde crash in Paris was caused by FOD. It can be very dangerous. Little bits of stuff can get airborne and collide with airplanes or people causing damage. A shop rag can get ingested easily into a turbojet engine and destroy the engine. You have to stay aware.