The FAA doesn't sign your SMS. You do.
A charter operator, an air tour pilot, a manufacturer and a repair station. Work out which ones Part 5 covers and under which paragraph, then find your own path.
Learn to run a safety management system you can stand behind when an inspector asks for the data, from the safety policy to the records that prove it works.
Training + AI coaching + reusable workflows. Learn Part 5 SMS responsibilities and use Coach Q to prepare hazard, risk-authority and gap-assessment records. Your authorized people verify the evidence and accept the risk.
Created by a quality auditor with 20 years in the industry, from 14 CFR Part 5 as amended in 2024 and the FAA's guidance in AC 120-92D and AC 21-58.
100+ years of combined quality and compliance experience, boiled down to one thing: proving your safety system works before anyone asks.
See how it works ↓Try lesson 1 before you pay. 3-day refund after you buy.
One-time course purchase. Lifetime lessons and your AI coach included.
Coach Q, your private AI coach, comes with your course. No subscription or renewal fee. Your purchased lessons remain available for life.
Training your team? Part 5 requires SMS training for everyone 5.23 names, from the accountable executive to every employee (5.91). Train them together, so everyone runs the same SMS.
10% off for 5 or more people.
- Check your SMS the way an inspector will, from who accepted each risk to the records that show it works
- A certificate anyone can verify, earned on a final exam (3 versions, 80% to pass)
- 32 hands-on lessons with cases from charter, air tour, manufacturing and repair station operations
- Coach Q, your specialist coach, included with your course
- A study plan, a focus timer and an application tracker
- SMS templates you can save as your own
- Every lesson, yours for life
3-day refund window. Refund policy
More than 50 people, or need an invoice instead? Email will@qmslearning.com for a quote.
Learn it. Practice it. Bring it to work.
Build subject knowledge, earn your course certificate and prepare work you can check and use.
Pass the final exam and your certificate shows your name, the course, the date and what was tested. Anyone can confirm it at academy.qmslearning.com/verify, and you can add it to your LinkedIn profile in one click. It records your course achievement; your workplace results come from applying and checking the work.
Work through the lessons at your own pace. Ask Coach Q to explain a concept, try another example or question your reasoning. Use the course study plan and focus timer to fit learning around your week.
Use Course Hub to create workflow materials, save revisions and keep reusable templates. Download your work for review by the people who will use it. Your lessons remain available for life, and AI coaching comes with your course.
Learn the skill. Put your AI coach to work.
When a change is coming and you need to run it through safety risk management, return to the method with Coach Q. Your AI quality and compliance colleague helps you think through the problem and build a workflow you can review.
Know what good work needs
Learn Part 5 SMS, work through the course scenarios and ask your AI coach to explain what is unclear. Bring your own reasoning and ask it to challenge the gaps.
Build a reusable workflow
Use the Course Hub document tools to prepare a hazard register, a risk acceptance authority table, a Part 5 gap assessment and an SMS training matrix, using the facts you supply.
You'll check every risk level against your own acceptance authorities, so no AI output accepts a risk your accountable executive hasn't.
Start the next job with a method
Edit your workflow materials, save revisions, download your work, or save the structure as a reusable template. For the next case, replace the old facts and check the new evidence before drawing conclusions.
Your saved work is in Course Hub when you return to the same account.
An expert in your pocket means an AI coach within reach. Learn in your browser, then return when you need help applying the subject. AI output can be wrong; you and your organization own the review and the decision.
Coach Q, your private AI coach, comes with your course. No subscription or renewal fee. Your purchased lessons remain available for life.
Answer the inspector with the record, not a promise.
Short lessons, a plan that fits your week, and a coach who knows the job. These are real screens from the course, and the label says when one comes from another course. Click through at your own pace.
Practice on realistic SMS records before an inspector pulls yours.
Short lessons, then hands-on exercises built on situations you'll actually face. Make your call, then see how an experienced pro would handle it.
- Built on situations you'll actually face
- See how a pro would handle it
- Pick up right where you left off
Ready when you are.
$295 per person, one-time. Lifetime access to the lessons · AI coach included · No subscription · 3-day refund window.
10% off for 5 or more people.
The SMS is on paper. Would it hold up if an inspector pulled the record?
“We filed the declaration. We're covered.”
The declaration is your own attestation, and the FAA's acknowledgment isn't approval. After you declare, the inspector checks whether the SMS actually runs. You'll learn what it has to show.
“The chief pilot signed off on the risk.”
Your own SMS names who may accept each level of risk (5.23(b)). An acceptance below that level is a finding against your own system. You'll learn to check the log before an inspector does.
“The owner controls the money. The president runs the flying.”
So who is the accountable executive? One person has to pass all four 5.25(a) tests. You'll learn to spot the gap and fix the structure on paper.
“The reporting box went quiet.”
A form that demands a name, copies the manager and sends honest errors to discipline empties the box. You'll learn what 5.71(a)(7) asks for, and why confidential isn't the same as anonymous.
“We bought an SMS manual.”
Part 5 doesn't require a separate SMS manual, and a template that repeats your operations manual leaves two versions of every procedure. You'll learn to put SMS processes in the manuals your people already use.
“It held for a month. Close it.”
A corrective action closed before the data shows the fix held is a problem waiting to come back. You'll learn to set the check that proves it worked, and close only when it's met.
Myth or fact?
Four things people say about Part 5. Make your call on each one.
“Once we file the declaration, the FAA has approved our SMS.”
“Part 5 requires a safety manager.”
“Part 5 doesn't tell you which risk matrix to use.”
“Confidential reporting has to be anonymous.”
0 of 4 checked. Tap Myth or Fact on each one.
Practice on the records an inspector will ask for.
Counted from the course lessons.
You don't just read the rule. You practice running the SMS an inspector will check.
Every lesson puts a realistic SMS record in front of you, like a hazard register, a risk acceptance log or a training matrix, and ends with a checkpoint you work through with your coach. The cases follow four fictional companies: a charter operator, a one-helicopter air tour, a type and production certificate holder, and a repair station with EASA approval.
Your path and your dates
Sort companies into the Part 5 section that covers them, or out of Part 5 altogether, then pin down what's due and when for your own company.
5.1 to 5.15 · Module 1A safety policy you can sign
Check a proposed policy against the seven elements 5.21 requires, and draw the line between the reports you protect and the conduct you discipline.
5.21 and 5.23 · Module 2An accountable executive who passes all four tests
Find out why nobody at a fictional charter operator qualifies, and fix it with a written delegation of authority.
5.25 · Module 3A risk accepted at the right level
Analyze a new mountain base, score the hazards, test the risk with the controls applied, and route the acceptance to the person your SMS says can make it.
5.51 to 5.57 · Module 5A review that loops back
Read a quarter of example data against a safety objective, name the control that stopped working, and send it back through risk management.
5.71 to 5.75 · Module 6Your own gap assessment
Trace one change the way an inspector would, rate your evidence as strong, weak or missing, and start the gap assessment of your own operation.
Module 9 · Declare it and keep it runningLearn it, practice it, prove it, use it.
Part 5, section by section
Lessons of about 20 minutes on what each section requires, what is only FAA guidance, and what evidence shows it's working. Who Part 5 covers and your dates come first.
Realistic SMS records
Audit policies, risk assessments, hazard notices, training matrices and review minutes, then work each lesson's checkpoint with your coach.
A final exam in 3 versions
Each attempt is 30 questions. Finish every lesson and score 80% or better to earn your certificate.
Your own SMS
Check your risk acceptances, close your gaps and get ready for the inspector, with your coach on hand.
Ask the question you'd ask an experienced auditor. Get a straight answer.
Coach Q comes with your course. It points you to the Part 5 section, the record to pull and the next step. Whether your SMS is ready stays your call.
Yes, against your own SMS. 5.23(b) asks you to name the levels of management that can accept safety risk, and your table gives high risk to the accountable executive only.
Take the assessment to the accountable executive for acceptance, and record who accepted it, at what level and on what date. Then check the log for any other acceptance that skipped a level.
Want me to prepare an authority check for your risk acceptance log?
From your first lesson to an SMS you can stand behind.
9 modules. About 9.5 hours of self-paced lessons.
- Module 1
Who Part 5 Covers and What You Owe by When
Which section applies to your company, the dates on your calendar, the sole individual exception, repair stations with EASA approval, and what is rule versus guidance. 5 lessons.
- Module 2
A Safety Policy You Can Sign (5.21 and 5.23)
The seven required policy elements, the line between reporting and discipline, and who is accountable for what, including who may accept risk. 3 lessons.
- Module 3
The Accountable Executive (5.25)
The four tests one person must pass, the five duties, and the managers who run the SMS day to day. 3 lessons.
- Module 4
Emergency Response Planning (5.27)
Who needs a plan, what goes in it, and a tabletop on an overdue aircraft. 2 lessons.
- Module 5
Safety Risk Management (5.51 to 5.57)
Hazard, risk and consequence, when SRM kicks in, system analysis, the hazard register, risk acceptance, and notifying the companies who can fix a hazard. 6 lessons.
- Module 6
Safety Assurance (5.71 to 5.75)
Where the data comes from, confidential reporting, objectives and indicators, the accountable executive's review, and proving a fix held. 5 lessons.
- Module 7
Safety Promotion (5.91 and 5.93)
Training everyone to competence and communication that explains why. 2 lessons.
- Module 8
Documentation and Records (5.95 and 5.97)
What you have to write down, where it can live, and which record you keep for how long. 2 lessons.
- Module 9
Declare It, Get Overseen, Keep It Running
The declaration of compliance, the Part 21 implementation plan path, life after you declare, what an inspector samples, and your capstone gap assessment. 4 lessons.
Built for the people who answer for the SMS, or are about to.
- Accountable executives at Part 135 operators and 91.147 air tour operators
- Safety leads and department managers who run the SMS day to day
- Quality and engineering managers at Part 21 type and production certificate holders
- Repair stations whose EASA approval requires an SMS that meets Part 5
Written by a quality auditor with 20 years in the industry, from 14 CFR Part 5, the FAA's guidance in AC 120-92D and AC 21-58, and the real work of auditing management systems.
Every company, person and record in it is fictional. This course is $295, runs at your pace, and ends with a final exam and a certificate for your training record.
Straight answers.
What does an expert in my pocket mean?
Can I use what I learn on a real problem?
Can I reuse the work for the next job?
Is this an FAA certification?
Does it cover Part 21 and repair stations?
Do I need to buy anything else?
How do I earn the certificate?
Can I try it first?
How long do I keep access?
Can my company pay?
What if it isn't for me?
Training a team?
The FAA doesn't sign your SMS. Make it one you'd sign.
$295. About 9.5 hours. Every Part 5 section, realistic SMS records, a final exam and a certificate anyone can verify.
10% off for 5 or more people.
3-day refund window · Lifetime access to the lessons · Certificate anyone can verify · AI coach included · No subscription