AEA Pilot's Guide 2023-2024 - 48

THE HIGH COST OF CHEAP
Continued from page 47
Schefer said. " The No. 1 gotcha is the lack of aftersales
support. "
When Schefer hears from one of these aircraft
owners who went elsewhere but now has a problem
with an installation, he prefers they go back to the
installer to resolve things. If the problem is with
the actual avionics equipment under warranty and
DeltaFox is an authorized dealer, as it is in most
cases, it can do the work. But equipment problems are
rarely the case with 99% of the problems being with
the installations.
The installation work is only under warranty through
the installer. The problem for the aircraft owner may be
that the newly retrofitted aircraft is now 100 miles or
more away from that installer who can do the remedial
work under warranty. " So beware of that super low
price, especially at a distant shop, " Schefer said.
One victim of a long-distance installation decision
ended up paying DeltaFox $40,000 to completely redo
a $100,000 cockpit upgrade with a new panel and
autopilot. The original installation was so dysfunctional
that the aircraft owner didn't trust the original shop to
fix it. He approached Schefer, and DeltaFox stripped it
out and reinstalled the entire equipment package.
The wiring had been done incorrectly with the wrong
types of wires, improper terminations, uncapped and
unstowed hot wires, etc. The worst thing was an avionics
rack held together with blue painter's masking tape.
" I couldn't believe it; the entire thing was a fire
hazard, but unfortunately we see this sort of thing
more often than you'd think, " Schefer said. When
the aircraft owner approached the shop that did the
original installation about restitution, he was offered a
check for $1,500. He refused to accept the insufficient
amount on principle.
Another case was a client who bought an aircraft
through a broker, which had recently been upgraded
with a new autopilot. The broker wanted the cheapest
installation possible to help sell the aircraft because
it would have a new autopilot, so he went for a cutrate
install. After the purchase, the new owner tried
to turn off the autopilot in-flight with the disconnect
button. Nothing happened. Then he turned it off on the
avionics panel. Nothing happened. Finally, he pulled
the autopilot circuit breaker and still there was no
disconnect. To land, he had to arm wrestle the airplane
to get it on the ground without damaging the plane or
getting killed or injured.
DeltaFox was asked to help and found the autopilot
was not even connected to the autopilot circuit
breaker. In addition, few of the new autopilot brackets
and pulleys specific to the airframe that came in the
STC kit had been used. Using the kit would have
required sheet metal work and riveting. Instead, the
installer reused the old autopilot's pullies that were
decades old and left out required parts from the
install kit. This was probably done to save time on the
installation.
DeltaFox was not surprised the paperwork for this
installation was not in order. There was no Form 337
covering a major repair or alteration written or filed
with the Federal Aviation Administration as required
within 48 hours of delivery. The log entry for the
modification was signed off by an authorized dealer
over 100 miles away from the unlicensed individual
who actually performed the installation. The weight
and balance form had no signature, only a hand-drawn
" star " - probably so the unlicensed installer could
claim plausible deniability that he never signed it. In
the aftermath, the FAA looked into these infractions,
but the new owner was left with the expensive
problem. " The lesson learned is to follow the money
and motivations, " Schefer said. " Whether installing
avionics or performing maintenance, a maintenance
facility should always have a plan. If you fail to plan,
you plan to fail as the old adage goes. "
Case in point, a Citation 2 (CE-550) came in with a
problem with previously installed avionics. DeltaFox's
technician discovered that the STC install instructions,
the avionics installer's engineering drawings, and
what was actually installed in the plane were all
completely different. DeltaFox contacted the installer,
and the shop manager explained that the technician
doing the installation just dove into the project and
decided to deviate from the STC due to variations in
the aircraft. Then, tragically two days after he finished
the installation, he was killed in a car accident. The
shop's other technicians then had to reverse engineer
what their late installer had done in the best way they
Continued on page 50...
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AEA Pilot's Guide 2023-2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AEA Pilot's Guide 2023-2024
