Avionics shops in Kansas

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Blueangel

Line Up and Wait
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Jan 5, 2015
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San Diego
Display Name
Scott
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KMYF
I am considering buying a plane in the Salina, Kansas area and having a new Garmin panel put in to use for my IFR training and long distance flying. Looking for reputable avionics shops in the area to make things convenient from a time and cost perspective. The plane is IFR but only has VOR and ILS with no GPS.

Scott
 
Wells Aircarft in Hutchinson, KS has a good rep.
 
Thanks I looked at ballpark figures to put a new Garmin 750 GTN panel in with a new transponder, GMA 340 audio and GDL 88 for ADSB out and looks to be around 20k. Considering the price for a nice F33A Bonanza is around 120K that would still be far less than even a used Beech G36 or used Cirrus SR22 which come closest to the F33A for my mission of a long range comfortable cross country IFR machine.
 
Bevan Rabell in Wichita or Kings Avionics at New Century.
 
another vote for Bevan Rabell. They've been very helpful for me with my transponder checks on the gliders, my flying club is getting a similar Garmin 750 upgrade done right now there to a Skyhawk, and they just helped Matt get a bunch of little work done on his Mooney.
 
Thanks! I sent them an email with shots of the panel for a quote. Another Kansas shop quoted me ~ 37K for a new Garmin 750, Garmin 340 GMA audio panel, Garmin 330ES transponder and Garmin GDL 88 which seems a bit high.
 
Blueangel said:
Thanks! I sent them an email with shots of the panel for a quote. Another Kansas shop quoted me ~ 37K for a new Garmin 750, Garmin 340 GMA audio panel, Garmin 330ES transponder and Garmin GDL 88 which seems a bit high.
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They might be expecting to replace most of the antennas and coax, antenna spacing problems etc.

Does the airplane have an autopilot? Hopefully it works or they'll get you for it too.



I'm wiring a PS audio panel with all the options right and wow its a lot of wire and work. I've probably got a 100 hours just in it alone :redface: but I wanted to be able to disconnect the aft passenger jacks (mounted to the sidewalls) easily so everything back there has to run through another connector.
 
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Blueangel said:
Thanks! I sent them an email with shots of the panel for a quote. Another Kansas shop quoted me ~ 37K for a new Garmin 750, Garmin 340 GMA audio panel, Garmin 330ES transponder and Garmin GDL 88 which seems a bit high.
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That's probably not too far off. The GTN 750 is around $14k for the unit alone. The 330ES transponder is another ~$3.5k. GDL88 is around $4k. The GMA 340 is around $1300. So in equipment alone, not counting any "misc." supplies that will be needed (Annunciators, etc.), you're talking in the ballpark of about $23,000.00. The labor involved to install them isn't minimal, either. $37k is probably on the high side, but it's probably not outrageous assuming the radio shop charges in the ballpark of $100/hr. I'd be surprised if you can get the job done for under $30k.
 
Hmm so you are saying that it costs 10k plus just for labor and installation? That sounds a bit extreme. I can see 4-5k for labor.
 
In lower end installations (430W), the labor is freq the same price as the equipment. Higher end stuff, I would expect it to be more...
 
Blueangel said:
Hmm so you are saying that it costs 10k plus just for labor and installation? That sounds a bit extreme. I can see 4-5k for labor.
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That's exactly what I'm saying for labor and the miscellaneous (and sometimes expensive) parts that you'll end up needing. The labor to install nothing but a single 430/530/GTN 650/750 can easily be $3-5k, depending on the airframe and what's already in there. I don't think it's at all inconceivable that the job you want done, done correctly, could cost $10k+ in labor alone.

Side note: if you manage to find a shop willing to install all of that equipment for $4-5k, jump all over it assuming you can find some people willing to vouch for the shop's work quality.
 
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Still seems awfully high just for a Garmin GPS and transponder put in a plane.
 
Blueangel said:
Still seems awfully high just for a Garmin GPS and transponder put in a plane.
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Yeah, avionics labor is outrageously expensive, but you've got to understand that none of this stuff is even remotely plug-and-play. On top of that, in many cases it's being integrated into an airplane that was designed (and in some cases built) decades ago. It's simply very, very labor-intensive work that takes a lot of time to do correctly, exacerbated by the difficult environment some of the work has to be performed in (have you ever tried working behind or under the panel in your average single-engine airplane? It's not fun).
 
True but even for a fairly new plane like 1990-2000 it still is expensive labor costs. Just the Garmin 750 was quoted 20K. The other stuff is super expensive for ADSB so may wait on that until lower cost ASDB products come on the market before 2020 time frame.
 
Blueangel said:
True but even for a fairly new plane like 1990-2000 it still is expensive labor costs. Just the Garmin 750 was quoted 20K. The other stuff is super expensive for ADSB so may wait on that until lower cost ASDB products come on the market before 2020 time frame.
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Its going to be cheaper to do it all in one shot than separate events.


ADS-B out /in is likely to end up a remote box. That means wire from the front of the airplane to the tailcone.

That doesn't even account for the likelihood that the cheaper boxes won't work with garmin panel mounts and need another screen to display them like ipad or other.
 
Sarasota quoted me $30k OTD versus $40-50k for the Kansas avionics shops. Those Kansas folks are greedy!
 
Blueangel said:
Thanks! I sent them an email with shots of the panel for a quote. Another Kansas shop quoted me ~ 37K for a new Garmin 750, Garmin 340 GMA audio panel, Garmin 330ES transponder and Garmin GDL 88 which seems a bit high.
Click to expand...


Since you're in Sandy Eggo, try Ramona Avionics at Ramona airport. Great rep on both price and service.
 
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