Direct Answer
To get a Part 145 repair station certificate, you make initial contact with your FAA Flight Standards office and submit the application package that 14 CFR §145.51 requires: a repair station manual (RSM) and a quality control manual (QCM) both acceptable to the FAA, a list of the articles you propose to maintain, an organizational chart naming your managing and supervisory personnel, a description of your housing and facilities with the physical address, a list of any maintenance functions you will contract out, and a training program submitted for FAA approval.
Under §145.51(b), your equipment, personnel, technical data, and facilities must be in place and available for FAA inspection at certification. The FAA evaluates whether you meet subparts A through E of Part 145, inspects your operation, and — under §145.53 — issues the certificate with the appropriate ratings (defined in §145.59) once you qualify. There is no published FAA fee for a domestic certificate, and no single online form issues one: it is a months-long, document-heavy evaluation.
The FAA also manages certification as a phased workflow described in Order 8900.1 guidance — that phase structure is FAA policy, not numbered subsections of the CFR. The single biggest controllable variable is the quality and organization of your RSM, QCM, and supporting documents, which is exactly where the FAA’s review concentrates. Confirm the current process with your Flight Standards office.
You Don’t Apply for a Certificate — You Earn One
The most useful reframe for anyone starting down this road: a Part 145 certificate is not a license you fill out a form to get. It is the FAA’s formal finding that you have built a maintenance organization capable of working on aircraft and components safely — and that you have the manuals, people, facility, equipment, technical data, and quality system to prove it. The process exists to test that finding, document by document and inspection by inspection, before you sign your first maintenance release.
The regulatory anchor is 14 CFR §145.51, which lists exactly what your application must contain, and §145.53, which says a person who meets the requirements of subparts A through E is entitled to a certificate with appropriate ratings. Unlike Part 135, Part 145 has no statutory 90-day formal-application clock — the timeline is driven by your scope, your Flight Standards office’s workload, and above all the completeness of your document set.
What that means in practice: the work is front-loaded into preparation, and the FAA’s job is to verify it. The applicants who move through certification fastest are the ones who arrive with a complete, conforming, well-organized RSM and QCM and a clean supporting record set — because the heart of the process is the FAA reviewing documents and watching you demonstrate that the operation matches them. The applicants who stall are the ones cycling through manual rejections. That single dynamic — document quality and organization — is the thread that runs through this entire guide.
First, get clear on what Part 145 actually requires
Before you start drafting an application, understand the underlying requirements your organization must satisfy — facilities, personnel, equipment, technical data, and the quality system. See our pillar overview of Part 145 repair station requirements before you commit time and capital, and the companion piece on Part 145 certification cost and timeline.
This guide is the how-to pillar for the questions that orbit it. For the requirements themselves, see Part 145 repair station requirements; for the money and timing, see Part 145 certification cost and timeline; and for the two manuals at the center of the package, see how to write a repair station manual and QCM.
Before You Apply: What You Need in Place
The FAA process formally begins when you make contact and submit, but successful applicants arrive having already made several foundational decisions and built the underlying organization. Getting these wrong — or skipping them — is the most common reason a certification stalls. None of this is the certificate itself; it is the organization you must build so the FAA has something to certificate under §145.51(b).
Decide your ratings and scope of work
Which ratings will you hold under §145.59 — airframe, powerplant, propeller, radio, instrument, accessory — or a limited or specialized service rating? And which specific articles, by type, make, or model, will you work on? This scope drives everything downstream: your capability list, your RSM and QCM, your equipment and tooling, your technical data, and your personnel. Requesting only what you actually need at first is one of the cleanest ways to keep certification manageable.
Secure housing, facilities, and equipment
You need a permanent location with housing and facilities appropriate to your ratings and protected from the elements, plus the equipment and tooling the work requires. Under §145.51(b), equipment, personnel, technical data, and facilities must be in place for FAA inspection at certification — though equipment can be met through an acceptable contract. Facilities and tooling are typically the largest cost driver of opening a station.
Hire and document qualified personnel
You must have an accountable manager and qualified supervisory and inspection personnel whose qualifications you can document, plus enough trained employees to perform and inspect the work. Your organizational chart — required by §145.51(a)(4) — names your managing and supervisory personnel and their reporting lines. These people must be real and qualified before you get far, and you carry their cost through the whole process.
Assemble current technical data
A repair station must have the technical data — manufacturer maintenance manuals, instructions for continued airworthiness, applicable airworthiness directives, and service information — needed to perform the work in its scope, and a system to keep that data current. Missing or out-of-date technical data is both a certification obstacle and, later, a recurring source of findings.
Personnel and training are documentation problems too
Your organizational chart, your personnel roster, and your training program are not one-time application artifacts — they become living records you maintain for the life of the certificate. Build them to be auditable from day one. See Part 145 personnel roster & training records and, for the capability side, Part 145 ratings & capability list records.
The FAA Certification Process, Step by Step
The FAA manages certification as a phased workflow described in its inspector guidance, Order 8900.1. Those phases are how the agency organizes its work — they are guidance, not numbered subsections of the CFR, and the FAA can revise them. The regulatory backbone underneath is §145.51 (what you submit) and §145.53 (when the certificate issues). Here is what the process looks like in practice.
Step 1 — Pre-application & initial contact
You contact your local Flight Standards office and signal your intent to certificate a repair station. You discuss your proposed ratings and articles, get oriented to the process and the office's expectations, and — depending on current FAA procedures — may complete a pre-application step before a formal package is accepted. The scope decisions you lock in here shape every later step, so this is where to be deliberate rather than fast.
Outcome: the FAA understands your intent and you know what your package must contain.
Step 2 — Submit the §145.51 application package
You submit the application contents §145.51(a) requires: the RSM and QCM acceptable to the FAA, the list of articles by type/make/model, the organizational chart with managing and supervisory personnel, the housing-and-facilities description with physical address, the list of any contracted maintenance functions, and the training program for FAA approval. This is where the quality of your manual set first becomes visible — and where incomplete submissions get returned.
Outcome: the FAA accepts the package as complete enough to evaluate in depth.
Step 3 — Document & manual review
The FAA reviews your RSM and QCM against §145.207 through §145.211, and your training program against §145.163, checking that they comply with the regulations and describe how your station will actually control its work, its records, and its quality. This is where manual work concentrates: the more revision cycles your RSM and QCM require, the longer this step runs. A clean, internally consistent, version-controlled manual set is the single biggest lever you control.
Outcome: your manuals and training program are found acceptable to the FAA.
Step 4 — Facility, equipment & demonstration
Under §145.51(b), your equipment, personnel, technical data, and facilities must be in place and available for FAA inspection. The agency inspects your housing and facilities, verifies your equipment and technical data, confirms your personnel and their qualifications, and validates that your operation works the way your manuals say it does. This carries the cost of the facility, tooling, and staff you are holding while it happens.
Outcome: the FAA is satisfied the station can perform its rated work safely.
Step 5 — Issue of certificate & operations specifications
Under §145.53, once you meet the requirements of subparts A through E, the FAA issues your repair station certificate with appropriate ratings and your operations specifications — which define exactly what your station is authorized to do. For U.S. stations, §145.53(c) also requires written certification that your hazmat employees are trained per 49 CFR part 172 subpart H before the certificate issues. The certificate carries no FAA fee for a domestic station, but you arrive here having spent across every earlier step.
You are now a certificated repair station — and the recordkeeping never stops.
Where the regulation ends and the guidance begins
Be precise about what is binding. The contents of your application are regulatory — §145.51(a) lists them. The entitlement to a certificate is regulatory — §145.53 grants it once you meet subparts A through E. The phased workflow the FAA uses to get from your submission to issuance is Order 8900.1 guidance, which the FAA can and does revise. Always confirm the current process and terminology with your Flight Standards office rather than treating any phase model as fixed law.
For the inspection side specifically — what an FAA auditor actually asks to see at the facility and in surveillance afterward — see the Part 145 repair station audit checklist and what inspectors ask for in your audit binder.
Is your application document set ready for the FAA’s review — or scattered across drafts and inboxes?
FileFlo does not get you certified, write your RSM or QCM, or run your quality system — those are your team’s job. What FileFlo does is give your draft manuals, capability list, organizational chart, personnel and training records, and technical-data references one version-controlled, classified home, so the FAA’s document review moves faster and the rework that drags out certification is easier to avoid. After certification, it keeps your operating records audit-ready. Starter at $89/mo, Professional at $299/mo. 5-day free trial, no credit card required.
The §145.51 Application Package, Item by Item
Unlike most regulations that describe requirements abstractly, 14 CFR §145.51(a) lists your application contents as a numbered set — which makes the package unusually concrete. The process is fundamentally a document evaluation: the application is documents, the review is the FAA reading those documents, and the facility inspection checks that your operation matches them. Below is each item the regulation requires, paraphrased plainly, with the controlling section. Confirm the exact form and detail with your Flight Standards office.
Repair station manual (RSM)
14 CFR §145.51(a)(1) / §145.207, §145.209A manual acceptable to the FAA that you prepare, follow, and keep current. Under §145.209 it must describe your organization and management, personnel-roster procedures, your operations and facilities, how you update your capability list, how you revise your training program, how work at other locations is handled, your maintenance procedures, contract-maintenance procedures, your recordkeeping system, and how the manual itself is revised and controlled. This is typically the largest documentation effort in the package.
Quality control manual (QCM)
14 CFR §145.51(a)(2) / §145.211A separate manual acceptable to the FAA describing your quality control system — inspection procedures, who is authorized to approve articles for return to service, calibration of measuring and test equipment, handling of in-process and final inspection, and how you control and correct deficiencies. The QCM is what convinces the FAA your station can reliably catch its own errors before an article goes back on an aircraft.
List of articles (maintenance functions by type/make/model)
14 CFR §145.51(a)(3)A list identifying the maintenance functions you intend to perform, specified by the type, make, or model of the articles you propose to work on. This is the precise statement of your scope and the basis for your ratings and capability list — vague or overbroad lists invite questions and rework.
Organizational chart
14 CFR §145.51(a)(4)A chart showing the names and titles of your managing and supervisory personnel, and how authority and responsibility flow through the organization. The FAA uses it to confirm you have the right roles filled by qualified people with clear lines of accountability.
Housing & facilities description
14 CFR §145.51(a)(5)A description of your housing and facilities, including the physical address, sufficient for the FAA to evaluate whether they suit the work in your scope and to plan its facility inspection.
List of contracted maintenance functions
14 CFR §145.51(a)(6) / §145.217A list of the maintenance functions, if any, you will perform under contract by another person. Contracting work out is permitted within limits, but it must be disclosed, controlled in your manuals, and consistent with §145.217 — undisclosed contracting is a serious finding.
Training program
14 CFR §145.51(a)(7) / §145.163A training program submitted for FAA approval. Under §145.163 it must consist of initial and recurrent training and ensure each employee assigned to maintenance, preventive maintenance, alterations, and inspection functions is capable of the assigned task; employee training is documented and retained for at least two years.
What makes an application package move fast vs. stall
Rework is the silent cost and delay driver
A manual set that bounces back from the FAA for corrections does not just delay the certificate — it extends every carrying cost on your facility and staff and adds consultant or in-house labor to fix and resubmit. The two manuals are where most of that rework lives, which is why getting the RSM and QCM right the first time is as much a cost-control exercise as a compliance one. See how to write a repair station manual and QCM and the practical repair station manual template.
For the two manuals in depth — the single largest piece of the package — see the repair station & quality control manual (RSM/QCM) records guide. If you also hold or pursue EASA approval to work on EU-registered articles, your application set extends into the supplement the bilateral requires — see EASA Part 145 approval for a US repair station and the records angle in the FAA-EASA MAG bilateral repair-station records guide.
After the Certificate: The Records Obligation Never Ends
Issuance is not a finish line — it is the start of a continuous recordkeeping obligation that runs for the life of the station. The RSM and QCM you built must be kept current and provided to your Flight Standards office on revision. The personnel roster, training records, capability list, and work records the regulations require must be maintained, retrievable, and audit-ready every day you operate, not reconstructed before a surveillance visit. The gap between “passed certification” and “runs a disciplined records program” is exactly where findings show up — and the obligation most startup plans underestimate.
Repair station & quality control manuals — kept current
14 CFR §145.207, §145.211Why it is a continuing obligation
The RSM and QCM must be kept current, made accessible to required personnel, provided to the Flight Standards office in an acceptable format, and the office notified of each revision. Every regulatory or capability change creates a revision obligation — a stale manual is a finding.
How FileFlo keeps it audit-ready
FileFlo version-controls each manual revision with effective dates and a retained history, so the current version is always identifiable and superseded versions never get mistaken for live ones.
Personnel roster & supervisory/inspection records
14 CFR §145.51(a)(4), §145.161Why it is a continuing obligation
Records establishing who your supervisory, inspection, and return-to-service personnel are, and that they remain qualified, must be maintained and kept current as people join, leave, and change roles. A roster that no longer matches reality is a common surveillance finding.
How FileFlo keeps it audit-ready
FileFlo classifies and tracks personnel and authorization records against your roster, surfacing gaps before an auditor does.
Training records
14 CFR §145.163Why it is a continuing obligation
Records proving each employee completed initial and recurrent training as your approved program requires must be documented and retained for at least two years — the evidence behind the program the FAA approved.
How FileFlo keeps it audit-ready
FileFlo tracks training completion and recurrence, flagging the next due date before currency lapses, and retains the history the two-year rule expects.
Capability list
14 CFR §145.215Why it is a continuing obligation
A repair station with a limited rating may maintain a capability list of the articles it is capable of working on, kept current through a self-evaluation process described in its manual — and the FAA must be able to verify it. A capability list that drifts from your actual qualifications or technical data is an exposure.
How FileFlo keeps it audit-ready
FileFlo indexes capability-list entries against the technical data and self-evaluation records that support them, keeping scope and proof aligned.
Records of maintenance work (work orders)
14 CFR §145.219Why it is a continuing obligation
The station must keep records of the maintenance, preventive maintenance, or alterations it performs, and the approvals for return to service, and make them available to the FAA and the customer. These work records prove what was done, by whom, and that it was approved — incomplete records are both a compliance and a liability exposure.
How FileFlo keeps it audit-ready
FileFlo indexes work records and return-to-service approvals so the trail behind every article is complete and retrievable.
A repair station is not in the 2027 SMS mandate — but its customers are
The FAA’s 2024 SMS rule (14 CFR Part 5, single compliance date May 28, 2027) applies to Part 121 air carriers, Part 135 operators, §91.147 air tours, and certain Part 21 holders — §5.1 does not list Part 145 repair stations. So a repair station is generally not required to stand up a Part-5 SMS by that date. But your Part 135 customers are racing toward it, and may push SMS-style expectations onto their vendors contractually. If you want to understand the rule your customers face, see the FAA Part 135 SMS 2027 deadline, Part 135 SMS requirements, and the broader frameworks in safety assurance under SMS Part 5 and safety risk management under Part 135.
Related reading: Part 145 repair station recordkeeping requirements · Part 145 repair station audit checklist · Part 145 repair station drug & alcohol testing · Part 135 drug & alcohol program records · Part 135 SMS gap analysis
FileFlo is the proof layer, not the certification consultant
To be unambiguous about what FileFlo does and does not do: FileFlo is a compliance document intelligence platform that classifies, indexes, version-controls, and tracks expirations on your compliance documents. It does not obtain your certificate, write your RSM or QCM, build or run your quality control system or training program, conform your facility, interact with the FAA, or provide legal advice. Your accountable manager, your quality and technical staff, and your aviation counsel or certification consultant own that work. What FileFlo does is make the documentation cleaner to produce during certification — one organized, version-controlled home for your draft manuals, capability list, roster, and training and work records — and far easier to keep audit-ready for the life of the certificate. The certificate is the FAA’s to issue; keeping the record that proves your compliance complete and current is the document problem FileFlo solves. (FileFlo does not claim SOC 2 certification.)
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get a Part 145 repair station certificate?
You get a Part 145 repair station certificate by completing the FAA's repair-station certification process: you make initial contact with your local Flight Standards office, then submit an application package that 14 CFR §145.51 spells out in detail. Under §145.51(a) the application must include a repair station manual (RSM) acceptable to the FAA, a quality control manual (QCM) acceptable to the FAA, a list of the articles (by type, make, or model) you propose to maintain, an organizational chart naming your managing and supervisory personnel, a description of your housing and facilities with the physical address, a list of any maintenance functions you will contract out, and a training program submitted for FAA approval. The FAA then evaluates whether you meet subparts A through E of Part 145, inspects your facility, equipment, personnel, and data, and — under §145.53 — issues the certificate with appropriate ratings once you qualify. The FAA also describes its certification work as a phased process in Order 8900.1; that phase structure is guidance, not regulatory text. Sources: 14 CFR §145.51; 14 CFR §145.53; FAA Order 8900.1 (guidance).
How do you start a Part 145 repair station?
Starting a Part 145 repair station means building a maintenance organization the FAA can certificate, then running it through certification. In practice that means deciding your scope — which ratings you want under §145.59 (airframe, powerplant, propeller, radio, instrument, accessory) or a limited or specialized rating, and which articles you will work on; securing housing, facilities, equipment, and the technical data (manufacturer manuals, ADs, service bulletins) appropriate to that work; hiring and documenting qualified management, supervisory, and inspection personnel; writing the repair station manual and quality control manual that §145.207 and §145.211 require; and building an initial-and-recurrent training program per §145.163. Only then do you make contact with your Flight Standards office and submit the §145.51 application package. It is a documentation-heavy build, not a registration — the certificate is the FAA's formal finding that your organization is capable, and the process exists to test that finding.
What does a Part 145 application have to include?
14 CFR §145.51(a) lists the application contents directly. The application for a repair station certificate must include: (1) a repair station manual acceptable to the FAA (the RSM); (2) a quality control manual acceptable to the FAA (the QCM); (3) a list of the maintenance functions to be performed, identified by the type, make, or model of the articles you propose to maintain; (4) an organizational chart with the names and titles of your managing and supervisory personnel; (5) a description of the housing and facilities, including the physical address; (6) a list of the maintenance functions, if any, to be performed under contract by another person; and (7) a training program submitted for FAA approval as required by §145.163. Under §145.51(b), your equipment, personnel, technical data, and facilities must be in place and available for FAA inspection at the time of certification (equipment may be met by an acceptable contract). Foreign-located stations carry additional requirements and fees under §145.51(c). Source: 14 CFR §145.51.
How long does it take to get a Part 145 certificate?
There is no single regulatory deadline that fixes how long Part 145 certification takes — unlike Part 135's 90-day formal-application rule, Part 145 has no equivalent statutory clock in §145.51. In practice the timeline depends almost entirely on your Flight Standards office's workload, the breadth of ratings you request, the complexity of your facility and articles, and — the variable you actually control — how complete and conforming your RSM, QCM, training program, and supporting documentation are when you submit them. Industry experience commonly puts a straightforward single-rating station somewhere in the range of several months to roughly a year from first contact to certificate, with broader scopes and foreign locations running longer. The single biggest delay driver is rework: an incomplete or internally inconsistent manual set gets returned for correction, and every revision cycle adds time. Treat any specific duration as a planning estimate as of 2026, not a guarantee. Sources: 14 CFR §145.51; FAA Order 8900.1 (guidance); industry experience, 2026.
How much does it cost to open a Part 145 repair station?
There is no published FAA fee for a domestic Part 145 certificate and no fixed price, so any figure you see is an industry planning estimate, not a quote. (Foreign-located repair stations do pay FAA fees under §145.51(c).) The real cost is everything you must build and carry to prove capability: appropriate housing and facilities, the equipment and tooling for your ratings, current technical data, qualified personnel salaries carried through a months-long process, manual development (in-house or consultant-written RSM and QCM), a training program, and the working capital to hold it all before your first billable work order. As a hedged 2026 planning range, operators commonly budget anywhere from the low tens of thousands for a narrow, single-rating shop to several hundred thousand dollars or more for a broad-scope facility — driven mostly by facilities, tooling, and headcount, not by FAA fees. Your real number depends on your ratings, your articles, and your location. For a fuller breakdown, see our dedicated Part 145 cost-and-timeline article. Sources: 14 CFR §145.51; industry cost estimates, 2026.
What ratings can a Part 145 repair station hold?
Under 14 CFR §145.59, the FAA issues repair stations ratings in defined classes. The rated categories are: airframe (Class 1 composite small aircraft, Class 2 composite large aircraft, Class 3 all-metal small aircraft, Class 4 all-metal large aircraft); powerplant (Class 1 reciprocating engines of 400 horsepower or less, Class 2 reciprocating engines over 400 horsepower, Class 3 turbine engines); propeller (Class 1 fixed-pitch and ground-adjustable propellers, Class 2 other propellers by make); radio (Class 1 communication, Class 2 navigational, Class 3 radar equipment); instrument (Class 1 mechanical, Class 2 electrical, Class 3 gyroscopic, Class 4 electronic); and accessory (Class 1 mechanical, Class 2 electrical, Class 3 electronic accessories). The FAA also issues limited ratings and specialized service ratings for narrower or specific work. The ratings you request define your scope, drive your capability list, and shape your RSM, QCM, equipment, and personnel — so choosing them deliberately is one of the most consequential early decisions. Source: 14 CFR §145.59.
Does a Part 145 repair station need an SMS by the 2027 deadline?
No. The FAA's 2024 Safety Management System final rule (revised 14 CFR Part 5, effective May 28, 2024, single compliance date May 28, 2027) requires an SMS of Part 121 air carriers, Part 135 operators, §91.147 air-tour LOA holders, and certain Part 21 type- and production-certificate holders. 14 CFR §5.1 lists who Part 5 applies to, and Part 145 repair stations are not on that list — repair stations are not swept into the general SMS mandate by that rule. A repair station may still be contractually required to support a customer airline's SMS, may adopt a voluntary SMS, or may be affected by a separate bilateral or future rulemaking, but as of 2026 there is no Part-5 SMS obligation on Part 145 stations from the 2024 rule. Do not assume the May 28, 2027 date applies to your shop because you heard it tied to aviation broadly — confirm your own status with your Flight Standards office. Sources: 14 CFR §5.1; FAA SMS final rule (effective May 28, 2024; compliance May 28, 2027).
Does FileFlo get you a Part 145 certificate?
No. FileFlo does not get you certified, write your repair station manual or quality control manual, build your training program, run your quality system, conform your facility, interact with the FAA, or provide legal advice — those are functions of your accountable manager, your quality and technical staff, and your aviation counsel or certification consultant. FileFlo is a compliance document intelligence platform: it classifies, indexes, version-controls, and tracks expirations on the documents the §145.51 application demands and the operating records you must keep afterward. During certification, that means one organized, version-controlled home for your draft RSM and QCM, capability list, organizational chart, personnel and training records, and technical-data references — so the FAA's document review moves faster and the rework that drags out certification is easier to avoid. After certification, it keeps your §145.219 work records, personnel roster, training records, and capability list audit-ready. FileFlo is the proof layer, not the certification consultant, and it does not claim SOC 2 certification.
Get the document half of certification under control
FileFlo organizes and version-controls your Part 145 application document set — draft RSM and QCM, capability list, organizational chart, personnel and training records — during certification, reducing the rework that drags out the process, then keeps your work records, roster, training, and capability list audit-ready for the life of the certificate. AI document classification. 600+ document types. One-click FAA surveillance binder. Starter at $89/mo, Professional at $299/mo. No credit card required for the 5-day free trial. FileFlo does not get you certified or write your manuals — it organizes and proves your repair-station records.
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Continue your Part 145 certification reading
Reviewed by Chad Griffith, Founder, FileFlo — compliance document intelligence. Last reviewed June 15, 2026. Application contents are verified against the Cornell Legal Information Institute eCFR (14 CFR §145.51); the issue-of-certificate rule (§145.53), the ratings classes (§145.59), the repair station manual (§145.207, §145.209), the quality control system (§145.211), and the training requirement (§145.163) likewise. The phased certification workflow is FAA Order 8900.1 guidance, not regulatory text, and the FAA may revise it — confirm the current process with your Flight Standards office. The 2024 SMS rule (14 CFR Part 5; compliance date May 28, 2027) applies to Part 121, Part 135, §91.147, and certain Part 21 holders per §5.1, and does not list Part 145 repair stations. Any cost or timeline figures are hedged industry planning ranges as of 2026; there is no FAA fee for a domestic certificate. Not legal advice.