peter-h
Line Up and Wait
There are many pilots flying US registered airplanes who live outside the USA.
Many are US citizens but many are not.
They fly on US licenses and ratings.
If they want to do a modification to their airplane, via a 337 i.e. a Major Alteration, this would ordinarily be sent to an FSDO for approval and when the job is done the 337 goes to Oklahoma for filing.
However, it is widely believed that the only FSDO which is allowed to support non-US customers (certainly for Europe) is the NY IFU.
Unfortunately the NY IFU has stopped processing avionics 337s (they confirmed this to me Dec 2010).
Can anybody confirm whether this FSDO geographical area restriction is actually true?
There are two separate aspects to this: one needs an FSDO to approve a 337, and one needs an ACO to approve an AFMS.
Many European avionics installers get around the first one by getting a DER to generate the approved data and then sending the 337 direct to Oklahoma for filing, but this does not deliver an AFMS. It's OK with an AML STC product like e.g. a GNS430W which comes with an AFMS that doesn't need individual FAA approval but it's no good for an install which needs a custom FAA approved AFMS.
Many are US citizens but many are not.
They fly on US licenses and ratings.
If they want to do a modification to their airplane, via a 337 i.e. a Major Alteration, this would ordinarily be sent to an FSDO for approval and when the job is done the 337 goes to Oklahoma for filing.
However, it is widely believed that the only FSDO which is allowed to support non-US customers (certainly for Europe) is the NY IFU.
Unfortunately the NY IFU has stopped processing avionics 337s (they confirmed this to me Dec 2010).
Can anybody confirm whether this FSDO geographical area restriction is actually true?
There are two separate aspects to this: one needs an FSDO to approve a 337, and one needs an ACO to approve an AFMS.
Many European avionics installers get around the first one by getting a DER to generate the approved data and then sending the 337 direct to Oklahoma for filing, but this does not deliver an AFMS. It's OK with an AML STC product like e.g. a GNS430W which comes with an AFMS that doesn't need individual FAA approval but it's no good for an install which needs a custom FAA approved AFMS.