Design and Functional Demonstration of a Miniature Compass Swing Trainer for AMTO Practical Training

Abstract

Compass swing practical training in Aircraft Maintenance Training Organizations is often constrained by limited access to training aircraft and maneuvering areas. This study designed and functionally demonstrated a portable miniature compass swing trainer produced by fused deposition modeling with a predominantly polylactic acid structure. Mounted on a tripod, the trainer supported controlled rotation and leveling. A single instructional run reproduced correcting-swing and checking-swing procedures and yielded illustrative Make Compass Read outputs (C = -2°, B = +6°, A = -2.67°) together with data for a training Compass Deviation Card. Six subject-matter instructors, purposively selected from 17 AMTO instructors, provided structured feedback (mean = 4.75 ± 0.34; 71 of 72 item-level responses were agree or strongly agree). The prototype is intended as a hands-on procedural and mathematical trainer, not a metrological calibration tool or electromagnetic replica. The findings support preliminary instructional functionality and expert acceptance but do not establish measurement accuracy, repeatability, full-scale equivalence, or student-learning effectiveness.