Air Force codes that count toward an A&P

What the table shows

How to read this one

The 2AXXX family is aircraft maintenance. Two structural facts are worth seeing before you scan the table. First, the propulsion codes — 2A651, 2A671 and 2A691 — are the only Air Force entries that map to Powerplant alone. Second, the large avionics and structural blocks all map to Airframe only, which is a surprise to people who spent years around engines but were coded on the avionics side.

Airframe-and-Powerplant credit concentrates in the flightline maintenance codes: the 2A3X3, 2A5X1/2/4 and 2A3X7/8 families. If you are hunting for both ratings, that is where the table is generous.

One oddity worth knowing so it does not look like an error on this page: the AC itself prints 2A353 and 2A358 twice each, with different titles. Both printings are reproduced below exactly as published.

The table

Table A-1 — U.S. Air Force

Both = “Airframe and Powerplant.” † = Note 1 in the AC: “ASI evaluation is required to determine if the applicant has experience relative to the rating(s) applied for.” Where the AC says “A or P” rather than “A and/or P,” read it as the narrower of the two. Note 2: “Codes listed in the 'Previous Code' column are no longer active but remain listed, since experience does not expire.”

Your old code still counts

Experience does not expire

The AC states it directly: “Aviation maintenance experience does not expire; therefore, the codes in the 'Previous Codes' column are still valid for persons wishing to credit their military aviation maintenance experience toward meeting the requirements of an FAA Mechanic Certificate.”

There is no cut-off date and no requirement that your service be recent. If you got out in 1994, your code is as valid today as it was then.

Where your evidence lives

Air Force records worth pulling

AF Form 623 and 623a — the On-the-Job Training Record and continuation sheet, tied to your CFETP. This is the single best Air Force document for this purpose, because it records tasks performed and signed off, which is exactly what § 65.77 is about.

Air Force training is not on the Joint Services Transcript. Request a CCAF transcript through the Community College of the Air Force via Air University — electronically through Parchment for a small fee, or free by mailing a wet-ink-signed request form.

Everyone needs a DD Form 214, Member-4 or Service-2 — not Member-1, which omits fields you need. milConnect is fastest if your separation date qualifies; eVetRecs and the SF-180 are the fallbacks.

The part the table does not tell you

A code is not creditable time

Finding yourself in the table above establishes which rating your experience points at. It does not establish how much creditable experience you have — and that is the number that decides whether you can apply at all.

Training time does not count: not boot camp, not your MOS or tech school, not the follow-on pipeline. For many maintainers that is six to twelve months off the top. Purely supervisory and inspection time is at risk too, which hits the most senior people hardest.

Work out where you actually stand — it takes about two minutes and it is the thing to do before you request a single record.

Other services

The rest of Appendix A