Avionics News April 2023 - 31

occupied the same location at Daytona Beach International
Airport in Florida since the Sheltair days. In 2017,
it opened a satellite MRO facility at the Spruce Creek
Fly-In Airport (7FL6).
" The Spruce Creek facility has a manager, and three
full-time A&Ps provide much-needed maintenance services
to the variety of aircraft based there, " he said. " Since
it's a satellite of the Daytona repair station, it has the same
ops specs, quality control manual, etc., as we use here. "
While providing more than 25 years of quality services is
in itself a differentiator today, Clemens is especially proud
of the fact that Daytona Aircraft Services is one of the few
remaining facilities to hold the coveted Class III repair station
designation from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Basically, Class III means the company can do any inspection
and repair on any aircraft under 12,500 pounds.
Its Class III rating along with the limited ratings for
other aircraft types allow Daytona Aircraft Services to
perform a wide range of airframe tasks across multiple
aircraft categories. Along with airframe work, the
company can also provide overhauls of Continental and
Lycoming piston engines, as well as hot section inspections
on many turbine and turbojet engines.
" Most repair stations today have a capabilities list of
what they can and can't do, " Clemens said. " We're not
constrained by that. It (Class III) is pretty much a dinosaur
certificate today. The FAA no longer issues them,
and we work very hard to keep ours. "
If you install it, they will come
While the MRO side of the business continued to grow
organically from its roots with Sheltair, Clemens said the
avionics work was only a small part of the company's
offering until the Garmin GNS 430/530 GPS navigators
hit the market. Then things took off.
" Between the 430/530 installations and the RVSM
mandate, we were doing a lot of avionics work, " he
explained. " After those needs were met, avionics kind
of slowed down for a while. But then when the ADS-B
mandate was announced, we started reaching out to our
customers. Like with every other shop, that's driven a lot
of business for us for a long time. "
Clemens said that while installing a new transponder to
comply with the FAA's ADS-B mandate was the reason
most customer aircraft came in, it's not all they left with.
" When we started looking at how to best handle their
ABS-B upgrade, many owners realized they were actualContinued
on following page
The company, in order to keep control of the quality and schedule, purchased
the equipment to craft metal instrument panels in-house.
avionics news * april 2023 31
The company offers a long list of aircraft inspection, maintenance and upgrade
services at its facilities at Daytona International and Spruce Creek Fly-In Airport.
Daytona Aircraft Services has built a reputation as one of the leading providers of
maintenance and avionics upgrades for the Citation family of business jets.
Avionics News April 2023

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