The CAME is the approved manual describing how a CAMO works: its organisation, procedures, personnel and compliance monitoring. It is the reference document authorities audit against — changes to how the CAMO operates must be reflected and, in many cases, approved before use.
The Continuing Airworthiness Management Exposition (CAME) is the approved manual describing how a CAMO operates: its organisational structure and accountable personnel, the procedures for maintenance programme management, AD evaluation, defect control, records, airworthiness reviews, contracted maintenance oversight and the compliance monitoring system. It is to a CAMO what the operations manual is to an airline.
The CAME is a controlled, living document: the authority approves it, audits the organisation against it, and significant changes — new procedures, key personnel, scope extensions — require approval or notification before implementation. An organisation that works differently from its CAME is non-compliant even if what it actually does is sensible.
Why it matters for flight schools
For ATOs holding or considering their own CAMO approval, the CAME is where the real cost of the approval lives — not writing it once, but operating in continuous conformity with it and evolving it under authority control. Audits are conducted against the CAME line by line: findings are rarely 'you managed airworthiness badly' and usually 'you did not do what your own exposition says'. Procedure-reality drift is the standing risk, and it grows every time tools or people change without a CAME revision.
How FlightLogger handles it
FL Maintenance gives a CAMO system-enforced workflows that mirror CAME procedures — AD evaluation, programme control, review preparation — so the exposition describes what the organisation demonstrably does, not what it aspires to.
Frequently asked questions
Does every flight school need a CAME?
No — only organisations holding CAMO (or combined CAO) approval need an exposition. Schools that contract airworthiness management to an external CAMO operate under that CAMO's CAME rather than writing their own.
How is a CAME kept current?
Through controlled revisions: changes to procedures, personnel or scope are documented, approved by or notified to the authority as required, and distributed so staff work to the current issue. The compliance monitoring system audits actual practice against the exposition.