06 Jul 2012 – Copernicus Technology Ltd, Europe’s leading innovators in the field of No Fault Found and in solutions to defeat downtime, is proud to announce that it is expanding its range of training courses by the immediate addition of new courses in No Fault Found (NFF) and Advanced Diagnostics.  

CTL’s Aerospace industry survey of NFF in Q1 2012 confirmed our long-held belief that people issues were fundamentally at the heart of No Fault Found problems.  Intermittent faults are the root leading cause of the NFF chain of events, but intermittent fault symptoms ultimately result in NFFs due to the maintenance organisation’s ability to deal with them, ie whether they have the right test equipment and the right training to deal with the issue.  To address this shortfall, CTL can now provide 3 courses to give your staff cutting-edge and contemporary skills to defeat downtime and reduce NFFs quickly, cost-effectively and safely – and in all Aerospace, Defence and Technology industries.

The 3 new courses are:

NFF Masterclass is aimed at Executives and Senior Management from all Aerospace disciplines, and will provide them with targeted understanding of the main causes and impact of NFF, and of which strategies and approaches are genuinely effective at reducing NFF: and which are not.  They will then be able to set up and implement a strategic action plan to tangibly and decisively reduce NFF and its impact on performance, profitability and reputation.  To download full course details click here.

NFF Solutions is aimed at technical management to senior technician levels, and will provide attendees with a comprehensive overview of proven and highly effective NFF solutions, and the practical knowledge of how to implement them for sustained success.  To download full course details click here.

Advanced Diagnostics is also aimed at technical management to senior technician levels. Experienced technical staff will leave the course armed with the knowledge of a new and leading-edge perspective to approaching avionics and EWIS fault diagnosis and repair scenarios.  They will be able to apply this knowledge to reduce the time needed for successful diagnostics, and so reduce the time to find fault root causes: all of which reduces maintenance costs, increases aircraft availability and enhances reputation.  To download full course details click here.

If you would like to know more about these courses then please contact us straight away by calling us on +44 (0)1343 842406 or by emailing us: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

04 Jul 2012 – Copernicus Technology Ltd, Europe’s leading innovators in the field of No Fault Found and in solutions to defeat downtime, has previously publicised information on its website about the formation of a UK No Fault Found Working Group (NFF WG) and played an enthusiastic and proactive role in supporting the arrangement of the its first meeting, which was held successfully at Shrivenham on the 3rd of July.

The NFF WG has been established by the ADS MRO&L Network with a view to cutting across organisational boundaries in pursuit of a joined-up approach to solving NFF across the industry.  The decision follows a strategic review of the UK MRO sector in March by  members of ADS (the UK trade association for aerospace, defence and security industries) and the Aerospace, Aviation & Defence Knowledge Transfer Network.  It was recognised that there was an opportunity to strengthen the UK MRO sector's capabilities and competitive edge by making step-change improvements to solving NFF problems, which are estimated to affect the commercial aviation sector to the tune of approximately $200k per aircraft per year.

The first meeting was an outstanding success and is described in more detail in this article  on the ADS website.

If you want to play your part in making UK MRO a world-beater in tackling the long-standing problem of NFF then contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Secretary)

20 Jun 2012 - CTL were at the Technical University of Delft this week, to present at and to participate in ATOS2012 conference sessions on No Fault Found (NFF), and to support the future planning of industry-wide NFF initiatives.

The University was playing host to over 200 visitors to its annual Air Transport Operations Symposium, which also includes IMAPP®, the 2-yearly conference of the product support technical committees of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA).  There are 2 of these technical committees active at present, focused on special purpose aircraft and on No Fault Found.  The NFF sessions covered the presentation of academic papers, industry papers and industry presentations.  

Following an introductory presentation by Lori Fischer, chair of the AIAA Product Support Technical Committees, Giles Huby, CTL Managing Director, provided an extremely well received ‘scene-setting’ presentation on the scale of industry-wide NFF problems through presenting the findings of CTL’s recent Aerospace No Fault Found survey.  This work may in future be combined with that of the TU Delft’s aerospace engineering faculty to support follow-up survey work to elicit even more detail.  If you would like a copy of the CTL NFF survey findings report then contact us now – details below.

Other members of the AIAA’s NFF Steering Committee also gave NFF presentations at the conference.  Mitch Klink of FedEx, and deputy Chairman of the AMC, provided an extremely illuminating briefing on the ‘ship or shelf’ LRU quarantine programme that FedEx uses to generate NFF cost savings of over $2M per year.  The programme ensures that LRUs which may have been speculatively replaced during maintenance are only sent for repair if it is confirmed that their replacement actually rectified the fault.  Bernhard Meyer gave an in-depth presentation on how the ARINC672 document – Guidelines for the Reduction of NFF (2008) - was devised and how it can be implemented; a presentation which was neatly followed by Jim Saltigerald of Air Wisconsin, who explained the practicalities and benefits of actually implementing the processes stated in ARINC672.

The conference also provided excellent opportunities to see at first hand the wide range of Aerospace activity in the Netherlands, whether this was courtesy of a tour of the University’s Aerospace Faculty, or attending the conference’s other presentations on other air transport subject areas, or visiting KLM E&M’s aircraft MRO facilities at Schiphol Airport.  During the KLM E&M visit this gave many of us a chance to get up close and personal with 747 aircraft undergoing C checks, including a guided tour of the workshops responsible for structures, crew seats and inflatable door-slides.

KLM E&M also sponsored a superb dinner for all the attendees at De Lindenhof restaurant, where prizes were awarded for the best academic and industry presentations, and where the attendees were serenaded by the electric guitar and Irish brogue of Ricky Curran, a senior aerospace lecturer from the University.  Not something you see every day!

Overall the conference provided an outstanding opportunity for all those involved in AIAA’s NFF Steering Committee to meet up to discuss current initiatives in the world of NFF, to get involved in presenting at the conference sessions, and to plan the priorities and the way forward for the NFF Steering Committee.  This includes plans to form working groups to review and refine ARINC672 , and a group to investigate the economics of NFF.  Both threads of work are invaluable.  To tackle NFF decisively you need a business case to do so and the tools to take it forward; and the business case for reducing NFF is inescapable provided you are collecting the data that genuinely quantifies the problem for you.

If you would like to know more about the AIAA NFF Steering Committee then contact us at CTL or liaise direct with the Chair-person, Lori Fischer.  Lori can be reached via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Want to know more?  Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The ADS MRO & Logistics Network has established a No Fault Found Working Group (NFF WG) with a view to cutting across organisational boundaries in pursuit of a joined-up approach to solving NFF across the industry.

The decision follows a strategic review of the UK MRO sector by  members of ADS (the UK trade association for aerospace, defence and security industries) and the Aerospace, Aviation & Defence Knowledge Transfer Network.  It was recognised that there is an opportunity to strengthen the UK MRO sector's capabilities and competitive edge by making step-change improvements to solving No Fault Found (NFF) problems, which are estimated to affect the commercial aviation sector to the tune of approximately $200k per aircraft per year.

From the outset CTL's support has been instrumental in the formation of the NFF WG, and we have organised the inaugural meeting in conjunction with the EPSRC Through-Life Engineering Services research centre. 

The ADS MRO&L Network NFF WG is open to all interested parties from the world of aerospace, defence and technology, whether from the private, public or academic sectors.