Avionics News April 2015 - 44

RIGHT: Robert Gow, DAR and
founder of Avionics Design Services,
conducts a test flight.
BELOW: For nearly 20 years,
founder Robert Gow (far right) has
grown Avionics Design Services
to 15 employees with offices in
Midland and Toronto, Ontario, and
Vancouver, British Columbia.

AVIONICS DESIGN SERVICES
Continued from page 43

it would help safety. They have been very proactive in adopting
that technology.
"It was a very interesting program because that particular
installation included not just the flight and navigation instruments, but they got rid of the old annunciator panel and put in a
crew alerting system. It was a very sophisticated installation. It
was an enormous amount of work and probably one of our most
challenging, most rewarding projects in a long time."
A changing landscape
With his company's headquarters in Midland, 130 kilometers
from Toronto, it's difficult for Gow to attract engineering talent
to the small town. The ongoing demand for his services keeps
the DAR constantly looking for engineers to hire.
"We have an awful lot to keep us busy," said Gow, who
recently opened a 1,600-square-foot office near the Toronto
National Airport. "In fact, we can't find enough people. We can't
find enough good, qualified people to do the work that we're
getting. Toronto will give us access to more engineers and more
technical people. We're starting with three or four engineers until
we can get more work."
Even if the projects flow in quickly, Gow knows it will take
time for his engineers to be up to the task.
"It takes about five years to make a good delegate out of our
designated engineers, to get them to the level they need to be to
be completely independent," he said.
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avionics news

april

2015

The lack of access to qualified engineers isn't the only challenge Gow faces. He expects the upcoming loss of experienced
people at Transport Canada to make his work more difficult.
"I recently put together a small advisory board," he said.
"We're brainstorming how to change the way our procedures
manuals are written and the kinds of delegations we have, to see
if that will help us get through the next five years with Transport
Canada, and also with the FAA. The FAA has fewer and fewer
of the old hands, too, who really understand what's going on.
Newer folks are coming in, and they're doing their best; they'll
get there. It's just a lot harder right now, and it affects our customers' timetables."
A disparity in the bilateral agreement between Canada and the
U.S. slows business, too, according to Gow.
"Transport Canada has been graciously accepting FAA STCs
very quickly," he said. "If a U.S. company has a U.S. STC and
it wants to get a Canadian equivalent for a Canadian-registered
aircraft, it can do it in a week or two. If you have a Canadian
STC and you want the U.S. equivalent, that process is taking up
to a year. The local Canadian regional offices are very accommodating at processing those STCs. But it doesn't work the other
way around. So there's an issue there in terms of fairness. It's an
unequal playing field."
As with the FAA, it has been taking up to a year to
receive EASA approvals, according to Gow. Despite the
challenges, he is appreciative of his customers and the
sudden success. "It all started by word of mouth," he said.
"We've been going strong ever since. I expect to see us at
20 employees within a year." q

Avionics News April 2015

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