Avionics News June 2022 - 45

bique, " said Kirk Fryar, president of Sarasota Avionics. " The 212
is a Spanish-built STOL utility aircraft - basically an orange juice
box with wings. We were told the president wanted it because
it was big, roomy and operated easily off the unimproved strips
they have in eastern Africa.
" We put a half-million dollars of avionics in each one of
them, and a good part of that was the engineering and labor. It
was a huge project. They took the airplane out of a storage box,
assembled it, and flew it to our shop in Sarasota. We had to get all
the various parameters correct. It took us months and months to
get all that done.
" We had a big problem getting the trim rigged properly. On
the first test flight, it took two pilots to pull back on the elevator
enough to land. We had to bring a guy in from Brazil who was
very experienced on the CASA to help get it all sorted out. "
Rigging aside, he said that installing and interfacing all of the
new Garmin avionics - G500, G600, GTN 750 - went rather
smoothly. But there was still the added step of making it all night
vision goggle compatible (it was a military aircraft after all), so
even the standard avionics were special.
Among it all, Fryar said the two biggest areas of difficulty
were interfacing the new Garmin avionics with the original autopilot
and custom-making new engine monitors. All of it was done
with no original engineering or wiring diagrams.
" The original engine monitoring system - Baumann or
something like that - it cost $180,000 to get them overhauled in
Europe, " Fryar explained. " The owner wasn't going to pay for
any of that. When we started looking for new engine monitors,
we learned there is nothing FAA certified for a CASA 212-400.
Since the entire avionics upgrade was going to be experimental,
we were able to get Electronics International to help design a
one-off, dual-screen setup for the Honeywell TPE engines. "
Unfortunately, the Sarasota Avionics team also learned the
aircraft's original fuel senders were yet another issue. Fryar said
they were capacitor fuel senders instead of resisted, so they had
to be changed to work with the new Electronics International
engine displays.
" It took a lot of work, " Fryar said. " They (Electronics International)
had to make special resistors to work with the fuel
senders; it was a nightmare. We thought we had it all fixed, but it
acted up when they flew it to South Africa where the aircraft was
to be painted.
" The technicians in Africa couldn't get the senders to work,
so I went over there. They had to open the fuel tanks so I could
climb up in there and Facetime with the owner of Electronics
International so he could see the backs of the fuel senders and tell
me what to do.
" One of the big pluses for us was I ended up hiring the
technician from New Zealand. He came up to South Africa
to help fix the fuel senders. He did such a good job, I brought
him here to Florida. Would I do it (CASA-212) again? Yes,
because it was a lot of fun to try and figure it all out. In the
end, it was a cool project. "
The first job was nearly the last job
" I was working for an avionics shop at the time, and through
my local network of aviation friends, I came across an opportunity
to do a freelance FMS upgrade on a Cessna Citation II, "
said Rick Ochs, CEO of Spirit Aeronautics. " I contracted with
the owner to remove the current unit, send it to the OEM for an
upgrade, and then reinstall it in his airplane.
" The labor was simple, but it was still a very expensive mod to
get done. I had never had any kind of training on the right way to
package a part for shipping - a little common sense would have
been nice. Anyway, I put it in a box with about an inch of foam
padding surrounding this very expensive piece of avionics.
" As I closed the lid and taped it shut, I remember thinking to
myself, 'You know this should have more protection.' Then I
assured myself, 'No, it's going overnight. It will be fine.' I had
run out of Styrofoam padding.
" The next day - keep in mind that this was back in the day
when you could actually call the manufacturer and talk to
someone - I get a call from the OEM's quality manager saying
that when it arrived, the whole corner of the packaging had been
caved in. My heart sank. I saw my dreams of my own business
being crushed with the box.
" The QM also said the damage was so severe that they didn't
even want to put it on their test stand. They felt it probably had
all kinds of internal issues. This was probably an $80,000 component.
I was on my own - first time entrepreneur; first job of
my own; no insurance; a wife, four kids, and a mortgage - now I
have this huge liability.
" I asked him to please put it on the bench to test it. Please! At
least see if it would turn on and check. I remember putting my
youngest daughter to bed that night, wondering if I would have
a roof over our heads in a few days. The Citation's owner would
surely sue me for the damaged unit. I didn't sleep that night. "
Ochs said he got a call the next morning from the FMS
manufacturer with dream-saving news. They put the unit on the
test bench, and it worked fine. They could fix the dented case and
complete the modification.
" In a real turn of fate, it turned out they didn't have a part they
needed for the upgrade, so they ended up sending me an already
upgraded exchange unit, " Ochs said. " It showed up the next
morning. I had it back in the Citation by noon, and it worked
perfectly. The owner came in at 1 p.m. and took the airplane on a
trip to Mexico, none the wiser.
" I learned a lot from that experience. One of my biggest
lessons was not to take anything for granted when you're dealing
with avionics. Even the simple things like a shipping box are
very important to the outcome of a job, and possibly the success
of your company. " q
avionics news * june 2022 45
Avionics News June 2022

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