Pilot's Guide to Avionics 2013-2014 - 83

cedures Manual for its popular
CTSW S-LSA, “Unauthorized
modifications, including the fitting
of optional electrical equipment,
must not be carried out under
any circumstances without official
modification authorizations issued
by the factory.”
When contemplating the paperwork requirements of adding
to or replacing an S-LSA’s equipment, the first place to look is
the manufacturer’s maintenance
manual.
If the desired equipment or
work to be performed is described
in the manual – for example,
replacing standard-equipment
radios with listed optional equipment – no further paperwork is
necessary, except appropriate
logbook entries. Just comply with
the published procedures. This
includes both TSO’d avionics and
products lacking certification.
If no appropriate description
exists, a major repair and alteration form, which is very similar
to the FAA’s Form 337, must be
submitted to the manufacturer
to obtain authorization for the
proposed work. The S-LSA owner
may complete the form, which is
submitted for a specific airframe,
by serial number. In this regard,
the S-LSA manufacturer functions much like the FAA or other
national regulatory authority. Of
course, the policies an S-LSA
manufacturer may impose before
approving an MRA are likely to
vary, based on the work to be
performed and the company.
Experimental, amateur-built
aircraft fall somewhere between
the two extremes of typecertificated aircraft and S-LSAs
when considering paperwork and
authority for modifications. As far
as the FAA is concerned, responsibility for what to do and how it’s
done rests mainly on the E-AB
owner/operator, who is responsible for determining its continued

airworthiness. The challenge for
an avionics shop often will be
making sense of sketchy wiring schematics supplied by the
owner/builder, finding appropriate
mounting locations and/or adopting dissimilar equipment that was
never designed to work and play
well together.
Navigating the experimental
avionics market for an aircraft
owner can be daunting. A wide
variety of products and configurations are available for installation in an E-AB, many which
offer features and capabilities
well beyond those available from
traditional manufacturers of certified avionics like Garmin, Avidyne or Bendix/King. The good
news is it’s unlikely a minimal
panel configuration for an E-AB
will be complicated. The even
better news is you might get an
early look at an experimental
avionics product’s advanced capabilities well before they appear
in a certified box.

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE/
AVIONICS SALES
AND SERVICE
 26 years in So. Cal.
 One of the leading Garmin
dealers in the southwest USA
 Custom instrument panels
 Autopilot specialists
 Specialize in EFIS installations
1401 Fairplex Drive • La Verne, CA 91750
phone: (909) 593-2596 • fax (909) 593-2278
robin@howardaviation.com

ABC AvioniCs Co.

Minimal, But Not Marginal

On many levels, modern avionics can be quite complicated,
both to install and use. Pilots
and aircraft owners who just
want to talk to air traffic control,
get a squawk code and motor
off to their destination in good
weather neither want nor need
instrument flight rules-certified
moving maps, ADS-B or incockpit NEXRAD displays. They
may, however, want support for
their portable gear – including
increasingly ubiquitous personal
electronic devices – decent
communications and a reliable
transponder.
Working for the aircraft owner/
pilot, the avionics shop’s challenge will be to keep things
simple, navigate the regulatory
thicket and integrate modern
equipment into an aircraft originally not designed for it. q

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AvioniCs shop, inC.
• All Major Lines Represented
• Major/Minor Upgrades
• CNC Panel Fabrication
• Avionics Sales & Service
• VFR/IFR Certification
Tacoma Narrows Airport
1026 26th Ave. NW #A
Gig Harbor, WA 98335
phone: 1-800-821-9927 • fax: 1-253-851-3009
dan.neil@avionics.bz
www.avionics.bz

http://www.avionics.bz

Pilot's Guide to Avionics 2013-2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pilot's Guide to Avionics 2013-2014