Complete Aviation Laser Program

Technician and Laser Safety Officer. The owner-operator package.

Every module in the programme: the safety foundation, the full aviation technician track, and Laser Safety Officer certification. Two credentials, one enrolment.

Who it’s for

Owner-operators and shop principals. If you own the laser and run the work, you are the technician AND — because ANSI Z136.1 requires every Class 4 operation to designate one — you are legally the Laser Safety Officer. This is the package for you, and it is the one most independent operators need.

On completion you will be able to

✓Everything in Aviation Laser Technician
✓Everything in Laser Safety Officer Certification
✓Qualify to run laser coating removal on aircraft and to hold the safety appointment for your own operation
✓Receive a single verifiable credential naming both roles — technician and Laser Safety Officer

Syllabus

Module numbers are fixed across the whole programme, so Module 8 is the clad-integrity module whichever package you hold. A package containing Parts 1 and 3 therefore runs 1–6 then 17–19.

Part 1 — Laser Safety Foundation

Physics, hazard classification, eyewear, effluent and industrial hygiene, controlled areas, emergency response. Equipment-agnostic.

Module 1

Laser Physics and Light–Material Interaction

3h 15m

Why a pulsed fibre laser removes a coating without heating what is under it. The physics here is not academic — every parameter you will set for the rest of your career is an expression of it, and the operators who damage aircraft are almost always the ones who never understood this module.

1.1 What a Laser Actually Is · 40 min
1.2 Pulse Duration, Repetition Rate and Peak Power · 45 min
1.3 Selective Ablation: Why the Coating Leaves and the Metal Stays · 50 min
1.4 Heat Accumulation: Where the Margin Goes · 40 min
Module assessment · 20 question bank

Module 2100% required

Laser Classification and Hazard Analysis

3h 30m

Class 4 is the most hazardous classification that exists, and every laser cleaning system in aviation is one. This module covers the classification scheme, the ANSI Z136.1 framework your employer is obliged to operate under, and how to calculate the zone around your work in which unprotected eyes are at risk.

2.1 The Classification Scheme · 45 min
2.2 The ANSI Z136.1 Framework and the Laser Safety Officer · 50 min
2.3 Maximum Permissible Exposure and the Nominal Hazard Zone · 60 min
2.4 Specular and Diffuse Reflection in the Real World · 40 min
Module assessment · 18 question bank

Module 3100% required

Eye and Skin Protection

2h 45m

Selecting, verifying and maintaining the protection that stands between you and an injury you cannot recover from. Optical density is a calculation, not a preference, and most eyewear failures in the field are selection failures rather than product failures.

3.1 Optical Density: Getting the Number Right · 50 min
3.2 Eyewear in Service: Inspection, Damage and Failure · 35 min
3.3 Skin Hazards and Non-Beam Hazards · 40 min
Module assessment · 16 question bank

Module 4100% required

Effluent, Fume and Industrial Hygiene

3h 15m

Everything you remove from an aircraft goes somewhere. Legacy aviation coatings contain hexavalent chromium, cadmium and lead, and ablating them puts those metals into the air you are breathing as ultrafine particulate. This is enforceable federal law under substance-specific OSHA standards, and it is the most widely violated requirement in laser cleaning today.

4.1 What Is Actually in the Plume · 50 min
4.2 Extraction and Filtration · 45 min
4.3 Respiratory Protection and Exposure Assessment · 50 min
4.4 Waste, Filters and Disposal · 35 min
Module assessment · 20 question bank

Module 5

The Laser Controlled Area and Standard Operating Procedures

2h 30m

Turning a working hangar into a compliant laser controlled area, and writing the procedures that make the work repeatable. A hangar is a shared space full of people who did not come to work expecting a Class 4 laser, and the controlled area is what protects them.

5.1 Establishing a Controlled Area in a Working Hangar · 50 min
5.2 Standard Operating Procedures and Pre-Operation Checks · 45 min
Module assessment · 12 question bank

Module 6

Emergency Response and Incident Management

2h 0m

What to do in the minutes that matter, and what to do in the days afterward. Response quality is determined before the incident, by preparation — and incident reporting is what prevents the second occurrence.

6.1 Immediate Response · 45 min
6.2 Reporting, Investigation and Learning · 40 min
Module assessment · 12 question bank

Part 2 — Aviation Technician

Aerospace substrates, clad layer integrity, coating systems, corrosion, composites, the regulatory framework, records, process qualification, hangar operations and business practice.

Module 7

Aerospace Substrates and Alloy Metallurgy

3h 15m

What aircraft are made of, why each material was chosen, and what each one will not tolerate. You cannot set safe parameters for a material you cannot identify, and the aircraft will not tell you what it is made of.

7.1 Aluminium Alloys and Temper Designations · 60 min
7.2 Steel, Titanium, Magnesium and Dissimilar Metals · 50 min
7.3 Identifying Materials in the Field · 40 min
Module assessment · 13 question bank

Module 8100% required

Clad Layer Integrity

3h 30m

The most important module in this programme. Alclad sheet carries a sacrificial layer of commercially pure aluminium measured in thousandths of an inch. Removing it is a material-removal failure that happens at parameters nowhere near a concerning temperature, leaves no visible indication, and cannot be undone. Heat is the damage mechanism everybody names. This is the one that destroys airframes.

8.1 What Cladding Is and What It Does · 55 min
8.2 Avoiding Clad Penetration · 60 min
8.3 Detecting Penetration and Responding to It · 50 min
Module assessment · 15 question bank

Module 9

Aviation Coating Systems and Removal Strategy

2h 45m

The coating stack is an engineered system with a job to do. Knowing what each layer is, why it is there, and which layers you are meant to remove is the difference between a controlled process and guessing with a laser.

9.1 Anatomy of an Aviation Coating System · 55 min
9.2 Removal Strategy and Endpoint Determination · 50 min
Module assessment · 12 question bank

Module 10

Corrosion Assessment and Remediation

2h 30m

Corrosion is why most laser cleaning work exists. Recognising the forms, understanding what removal does and does not achieve, and knowing where the operator's job ends and the mechanic's begins.

10.1 Forms of Corrosion and What They Mean · 55 min
10.2 Working Corroded Areas · 45 min
Module assessment · 11 question bank

Module 11

Composites, Honeycomb and Special Materials

2h 30m

Composite structure does not behave like metal under a laser. There is no reflective backstop, no self-termination, and the damage threshold is a resin property rather than a metal one. Treat composite as a separate discipline, because it is.

11.1 Why Composites Are Different · 55 min
11.2 Working Composite Safely · 45 min
Module assessment · 10 question bank

Module 12100% required

The Regulatory Framework: Who May Do the Work

3h 15m

The question every laser cleaning operator asks before entering aviation, answered precisely. You do not need to be an A&P mechanic. You do need to understand Part 43, Part 145, approved data, and exactly where your authority begins and ends — because the people who get into trouble are the ones who guessed.

12.1 Who May Perform Maintenance · 65 min
12.2 Approved Data and §43.13 · 60 min
Module assessment · 13 question bank

Module 13

Documentation, Records and Traceability

2h 15m

The record is the product. Work you cannot evidence is work a repair station cannot use, an auditor cannot accept, and an insurer cannot defend. This module covers what to record, why, and what happens when you do not.

13.1 What to Record and Why · 50 min
13.2 Records in Practice · 40 min
Module assessment · 9 question bank

Module 14

Process Control, Parameter Development and Qualification

3h 0m

How a set of numbers becomes a qualified process that a repair station can accept and you can defend. Qualification is the difference between a technician and someone operating a laser near an aircraft.

14.1 Developing Parameters on Coupons · 60 min
14.2 In-Process Control and Verification · 55 min
Module assessment · 12 question bank

Module 15

Hangar Operations, FOD Control and Aircraft Protection

2h 30m

Working on somebody's aircraft in somebody's hangar. FOD discipline, masking and protection, working around systems, and the professional conduct that determines whether you are invited back.

15.1 FOD Control and Aircraft Protection · 55 min
15.2 Working as a Vendor in Someone Else's Facility · 45 min
Module assessment · 9 question bank

Module 16

Business Operations, Estimating and Customer Management

2h 15m

Running laser coating removal as a business that survives contact with aviation customers. Estimating honestly, pricing the real cost, carrying the right insurance, and building the evidence package that wins approved-vendor status.

16.1 Estimating and Pricing · 50 min
16.2 Becoming an Approved Vendor · 45 min
Module assessment · 10 question bank

Part 3 — Laser Safety Officer

The role and its authority, hazard evaluation mathematics (MPE, NHZ, optical density), control selection, programme administration, audits, training and medical surveillance.

Module 17

The Laser Safety Officer: Role, Authority and Programme Administration

3h 0m

What the LSO is actually accountable for, where the authority comes from, and how to build a laser safety programme that survives an audit. This module moves you from following the rules to owning them.

17.1 Appointment, Authority and Accountability · 50 min
17.2 Building the Written Programme · 55 min
17.3 Audit, Inspection and Programme Review · 45 min
Module assessment · 18 question bank

Module 18100% required

Hazard Evaluation: MPE, NHZ and Optical Density Calculation

4h 0m

The mathematics an LSO is expected to perform and defend. Determining maximum permissible exposure for a repetitively pulsed source, calculating nominal hazard zones for intrabeam and diffuse viewing, and deriving the optical density you will then specify in writing.

18.1 Determining MPE for a Repetitively Pulsed Source · 70 min
18.2 Calculating the Nominal Hazard Zone · 75 min
18.3 Deriving and Specifying Optical Density · 55 min
Module assessment · 20 question bank

Module 19

Control Selection, Training Administration and Medical Surveillance

3h 20m

Choosing and justifying control measures, running a training programme that produces competence rather than attendance records, and administering medical surveillance. The administrative half of the LSO role, where most programmes are found wanting.

19.1 Selecting and Justifying Control Measures · 55 min
19.2 Training Administration · 55 min
19.3 Medical Surveillance and Non-Beam Hazard Administration · 45 min
Module assessment · 19 question bank

Process limits taught as absolute

Maximum substrate temperature 120 °C
Base metal loss below 2% of thickness
Surface roughness Ra 0.8–1.6 µm

These are ceilings, not targets. Substrate temperature is verified with a non-contact IR sensor during the work, not inferred afterward.

Aviation Laser Academy is a private training provider. This credential is an industry operator qualification and is not issued, approved, recognised or endorsed by the Federal Aviation Administration. It confers no authority to approve an aircraft for return to service. Authority to perform maintenance derives from 14 CFR Part 43 and Part 65, and the acceptability of any process for a given aircraft derives from approved or acceptable data for that aircraft. Holders remain responsible for operating within their own authority, their employer's procedures, and applicable federal, state and local law.