Capability List (Repair Station)

A capability list is the mechanism that lets a limited-rated Part 145 repair station grow its authorized scope article by article, rather than by adding broad ratings. Under 14 CFR 145.215, a repair station with a limited rating may perform maintenance, preventive maintenance, or alterations on an article only if that article appears either in the station's operations specifications or on a current capability list acceptable to the FAA. The capability list is the flexible half of that pair: it is maintained by the station itself, revised as needs change, and provided to the FAA rather than individually approved article by article.

The integrity of the capability list rests entirely on the self-evaluation that must precede each addition. Before a station lists an article, 14 CFR 145.215 requires it to perform a self-evaluation, following the procedures in its manual and consistent with 14 CFR 145.209(d)(2), to determine that it has all of the housing, facilities, equipment, material, technical data, processes, and trained personnel needed to work on that article. Crucially, the station must retain documentation of that self-evaluation. The list is not a wish list of what the station would like to do — it is a certified statement that the station has already confirmed, and can prove, that it is equipped and staffed for each entry.

The list must identify each article precisely, by the make and model or other nomenclature the article's manufacturer designates, and it must be kept in a format acceptable to the FAA. When the station revises the list — most commonly by adding an article after a fresh self-evaluation — it must provide its responsible Flight Standards office with a copy of the revised list, following the manual procedures required under 14 CFR 145.209(d)(1). This notify-on-revision model is what makes the capability list efficient: the station does not wait for case-by-case approval, but the FAA always has the current list and can inspect the underlying self-evaluations at any time.

The practical value of a capability list is that it decouples routine scope growth from the slower process of amending ratings or operations specifications. A station that holds a limited rating and encounters a new but closely related article can, after doing and documenting the work of confirming its capability, add that article and begin servicing it. This keeps a specialized shop nimble while preserving accountability, because the self-evaluation record is the audit trail that justifies every entry.

Capability lists sit alongside the rating system rather than replacing it. A station with full class ratings generally does not need a capability list for articles within those classes, because the class rating already covers them. The capability list is the tool of the limited-rated station — the shop that works on specific makes, models, or parts rather than entire classes. Understood correctly, the capability list is less a permission slip than a discipline: it forces a station to prove, in writing and before the fact, that it can do a job properly before it ever accepts that job.

For flight schools and clubs that outsource maintenance, a contractor's capability list is a useful due-diligence document. When a specialized shop holds a limited rating, the operator can ask to see the current capability list to confirm the exact accessory, avionics unit, or component model is actually within the shop's qualified scope before sending an article out. It is a more precise answer than a broad rating alone to the question of whether a given part can legally be worked and returned to service by that shop.

For a maintenance manager or MRO, the capability list is a living compliance artifact that auditors scrutinize closely. Every entry has to be backed by a retained self-evaluation showing the housing, tooling, data, and trained personnel were in place, and the responsible Flight Standards office must hold the current revision. A list that has drifted ahead of the station's actual capability — articles added without a documented self-evaluation, or entries the station can no longer support — is a direct finding. Managing the list well means treating each addition as a small internal audit with a durable record, not a quick edit to a spreadsheet.

Aviatize's Compliance & Auditing and Digital Data & Records modules give a repair station a controlled place to store the self-evaluation documentation behind each capability-list entry, so the evidence of housing, tooling, technical data, and trained personnel stays linked to the articles it justifies. When an auditor asks why a particular article is on the list, the supporting record is one search away rather than buried in a shared drive.

Through Maintenance Control, an MRO can align the work it actually accepts with its listed capability, and for flight schools that contract work out, the platform records which shop serviced each article — a helpful check that outsourced jobs stayed within the contractor's qualified scope.