Avionics News July 2013 - 60

AMATEUR-BUILT INSTALLATIONS
Continued from page 59

That’s the nature of experimental aircraft: the builder would
rather do this work himself or herself. After all, the satisfaction
of building is one of the reasons homebuilders tackle the task
of creating an aircraft. Instead, the average avionics shop likely
will find more work fixing problems and correcting mistakes
the builder made than performing a start-to-finish installation.
But the problems builders encounter don’t necessarily involve
bad crimps or a poorly mounted antenna.

Interfacing
“It’s mainly interfacing the newer electronic systems,” Fryar
added. “They get the wires backwards, or it’s a setup issue they
can’t figure out. That’s a huge thing with the new Garmin equipment. It gets pretty detailed how you set those up. And it can
snowball on you really quick: You change one thing, and then
you change another thing, and you’re all confused. But those
are the challenges we work with every day. The builder is doing
this one time.”
One issue avionics shops are always encountering is obtaining
technical support from an equipment manufacturer. What about
support from what many shops might consider nontraditional
equipment vendors? Are they more attuned to dealing with endusers/homebuilders than an avionics shop? How responsive are
they?
“It depends on which company you’re dealing with,” Fryar
told us. “Of course, Dynon – they’re very good with support.
Garmin, Aspen and TruTrak – they’re all very good. With some
other vendors, what we find is there are only one or two guys
dealing with technical support, so you might have to wait a day
or two to get your answer.”
Marketing itself can be another issue for the traditional avionics shop. According to Fryar, he’s always open to giving free
advice to homebuilders and owners of certificated aircraft alike.
“That’s one thing we offer – our expert advice is free, so a guy
can call me to ask, ‘What’s the best way to suit his needs and his
airplane,’” Fryar said. “We’re not going to charge him to give
him advice on which path to take. Or, if a guy calls up for tech
support, I don’t charge for those services.”

Packaging, Outside The Box
But is working on an E-AB more or less difficult than doing
the same tasks on a certificated aircraft?
“Sometimes it’s more difficult,” Fryar allowed. “With an
STC’d product, everything’s there and labeled ‘this is how you
60

avionics news

•

july

2013

do it.’ But with an experimental, sometimes you just have to
guess, and you must think outside the box. As a technician, it
might not be right in front of you. You must imagine what it’s
going to do, what it’s going to be like. How is this going to affect the flight characteristics of the aircraft? With an STC, all
that’s done for you.”
Physical access to avionics and room to work often is a challenge shops face when working on certificated aircraft. Aren’t
the generally smaller E-ABs even worse? What can the avionics shop do to minimize these problems? Where can they start
this process with a builder?
“Most of the time, especially if he calls me first, we tell
him, ‘Plan your avionics first, because you build your aircraft
around that.’” Fryar said. “Especially with the RVs, because
once they put that turtle deck on, things are kind of locked in
and hard to get to. Once it’s in there, it’s hard to troubleshoot.”
But when it comes to upgrading a system already installed
in an E-AB, Fryar said Sarasota Avionics doesn’t get much of
that kind of work. Of E-AB builders, Fryar said, “They put the
greatest system they can in at the time and very rarely do they
upgrade. Most of the time, this stuff is done before the panel
even goes in.”
One of the things that helps Fryar’s company serve its E-AB
customers is to offer package deals. “We have a little plan we
came up with where we do a flat rate,” he said. “If you want us
to build your panel, we’ll put everything you want in it – not
counting the equipment, of course – we’ll work from the customer’s template obtained from the kit manufacturer; we’ll cut
all your holes, we’ll put in all your wiring for a flat rate. We can
say to the customer, ‘Here’s what your labor is.’ We test it; we
ship it out to you. If you want us to put it in the airplane, there’s
another flat rate to do that.”

An Easy Sell?
Any other advice for an avionics shop considering its
first foray into working on experimentals? “I’ve seen a lot
of shops get in trouble overpromising,” Fryar said.
The issue he’s seen involves trying to make different
components from competing companies work and play
well together. While there are standards, the absence of
certification often means a manufacturer can change specifications at will, sometimes rendering connected equipment
inoperable.
Also, the avionics shop might see a situation where a
manufacturer promises a certain interface or capability,
but delivery is delayed. Meanwhile, the customer is impatiently tapping his or her foot, waiting on a capability

Avionics News July 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2013