Avionics News October 2012 - 44

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Van Dardis of 3S Engineering
What’s your background?

With...
My dad owned a welding shop, and I was 13 when he died. My uncle was in the aerial application business, and I started going to the airport with them and never stopped. My uncle went into the salvage business, rebuilding wrecked airplanes. Later in life, I got into the turbine business as a mechanic. I’m an A&P and a private pilot. In the late 1980s, I wrote the engine section of the maintenance manual for Air Tractor. On April 1, 1994, I had a major airplane crash and was off work for more than two years. I went to college for two years, the first semester on crutches. I didn’t think I’d be back in the aviation industry, but a strange turn of events occurred. I had moved back to Vernon, Texas, where I was born and had a lot of support. I saw an ad for a job building rotor blades. I had the skills, but not the ability due to my injuries. I was pretty torn up, but I tried it. I couldn’t do the riveting and had to quit the job. The company called and asked me to come to work on the engineering side, and I’ve been on that side ever since. What I found to be a blessing is that I brought 25 years of experience on the other side of the fence. Eventually, I moved to Mineral Wells, Texas, to work for S-TEC where I managed the customer support department and the repair station. I loved that job, as I could troubleshoot well and interact with customers. Then, with

Recently, Patricia Luebke, Avionics News contributor, spoke with Van Dardis to learn about his work at 3S Engineering.

Is Van your full name?

My father’s name was Charles Van Barkley Dardis, and my name is Van Barkley Dardis. No one knows where the Van Barkley came from, and everyone knew my dad as Bud.

e wife, Alic is and his Van Dard

What’s your role at 3S Engineering?
My formal job title is senior certification project engineer.

S Engineering provides engineering design in support of Federal Aviation Administration approvals, including type certificates, supplemental type certificates, major repairs and major alterations via designated engineering representative approvals for FAA Form 337. 3S Engineering assists in the field approval process with specific DERapproved data. It provides 14 CFR Part 23 and Part 25 DER support in all disciplines and has extensive experience with major cockpit and cabin STC programs, as well as numerous smaller STC, parts manufacturer approval and major alteration programs. In addition, sister company 3S Certification is holder of an FAA organization designation authorization, which allows 3S to provide complete project services from inception to STC issuance.
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What does that mean?

3S Engineering does STC work, and I’m a certification engineer – basically, a project manager. I assist in determining compliance requirements and gather them from the engineers and DERs.

How many projects do you work on at once?

Most of the time, all of us at 3S are working multiple projects – anywhere from three to five apiece at different levels and stages. Currently, I’m on a large ISR (intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance) project in North Carolina. It’s a special-mission airplane for the State Department for drug interdiction. I was there five weeks, came home for a week, and I’ll go back soon for a month. It will probably go like that until some time in October.

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Avionics News October 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News October 2012