Avionics News April 2023 - 32

DAYTONA AIRCRAFT SERVICES
Continued from page 31
ly flying around with very old electronics in their aircraft, "
he continued. " They wanted something new and better to
go with their shiny new transponder. Our avionics business
is still growing today. "
Currently, Daytona Aircraft Services is an authorized dealer,
installer, and service provider for Garmin, Avidyne, Aspen
Avionics, Genesys Aerosystems, Century, L3Harris, Honeywell,
Sigma-Tek, Eventide, PS Engineering, and others.
" We specialize in 'ground-up' panel upgrades and have
several aircraft going through the process at any given
time, " Clemens said. " Over the years, we've increased
our capabilities to better meet the changing needs of our
customers. We've always had talented installers, but we've
complemented their skills with the capability to craft our
metal instrument panels in-house now.
" Like most other shops, we used to send them out, but
it was too hard to keep control of the quality and schedule.
Buying the equipment and training our people to design
panels on CAD, cut metal, do laser etching, and the like
was the best investment we could make - it's just so much
better to do it in-house. "
In addition, Clemens said having a Class III maintenance
facility on-site provides a host of time and cost-saving
advantages that the majority of " dedicated " avionics
shops can't offer. One common instance occurs when the
company is installing a new autopilot in an old airplane.
" The autopilot manufacturers' FAA STC installation
guidelines are written assuming you have a bone-stock airplane
that's never had any other equipment installed since
it left the factory, " he explained. " When in fact, there have
been three major installations in its lifetime, and nothing is
as it should be. That's what we work with every day.
" For example, when we get a 1963 Comanche in here
for a new autopilot, when we remove the interior, we're
going to find numerous parts and components that haven't
seen the light of day since it left Lock Haven. We find
frayed control cables, locked-up turnbuckles, pulleys, broken
brackets - all things an A&P needs to take care of.
" Having licensed technicians at hand saves a lot of time
and money on many projects. It's just one more thing that
helps us deliver an exceptional customer experience. "
Expecting the unexpected
While having a highly experienced team in-house to
handle the unexpected, finding and having to fix these issues
can not only catch an owner off guard, but it can also
wreak havoc with the budget. And nobody wants that.
" From the beginning of every project, we work very
32 avionics news * april 2023
hard to minimize project creep and manage each owner's
overall expectations, " Clemens explained. " You never
know what you're going to find when you take a 40-yearold
panel apart. Sometimes, it's shocking. "
While there's not much you can do to prepare for hidden
surprises, he and his team try to educate customers early
in the process to ensure they understand exactly how the
avionics they've selected will perform in their aircraft.
" 95% of our installations now are Garmin equipment,
so we're quite familiar with how it works with most other
avionics types, " he said. " And while they're great products,
there is a lot of misinformation on the internet and amongst
pilots about what any particular component can do. Someone
is always telling them something, and it's usually wrong.
" That can add a lot of anxiety to the buyer. They look at
the website and come in thinking the piece of equipment
they want is going to cost X, only to find it's actually
$20,000 more to do what they want it to do. We must
spend a lot of time explaining all the required components
to provide the capabilities they want. "
Flowers' power
After running into the same issues and answering the
same questions time and time again, he realized all this
misinformation and confusion was adding to his team's
workload and amping up customers' anxiety levels.
Clemens decided the only thing to do was to proactively
address all the details that go into a typical panel upgrade. It
was clear that few prospective customers would read, let alone
understand, product manuals, but it was certain they would
watch a well-produced video series. And what better way to
create an informative and entertaining series than to reach out
to one of the best in the business, Josh Flowers, producer of
one of YouTube's most popular channels, Aviation 101.
" I met Josh a few years ago through a mutual friend, and
over time we talked about various upgrades for his Cessna
172, " Clemens said. " We decided to work together to create
this series of videos documenting all the steps that went
into upgrading his Skyhawk's panel with Garmin G3X
touchscreen, GTN 750, and a GFC 500 digital autopilot. "
You can check out the five-part series on YouTube at
https://bit.ly/3F8b34I.
" Before watching these videos, most of our customers have
no idea what goes into a project like this, " he added. " And
once they do find out how much work it is, they have much
less heartburn over the time and cost because they see it's the
talent and experience of our team that they're paying for. " q
To learn more about Daytona Aircraft Services, visit
daytonaaircraft.com.
https://bit.ly/3F8b34I http://www.daytonaaircraft.com
Avionics News April 2023

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