Is this quote reasonable?

[weirdjim]

I'm not going to write you an instruction guide on this, but take a look at FAA Order 8300.16, AC 43-210A, and the Major Repair and Alteration Job Aid for FSDO inspectors. I don't think there's any room for legitimate debate that a field approval in the form of a FSDO-signed AFMS is required to install a non-STCd IFR GPS in a certified airplane. I'll certainly agree that you can install a GPS all day long, for VFR-only operations, on a logbook entry. But if you want to use it for IFR, it's a bigger process.

That's one problem with thread creep. We started out talking about a VFR GPS and somewhere in the middle that got transposed to an IFR GPS. My error in not recognizing the jump.

On the other hand, reading anything that the FAA puts out is sort of like reading the Bible. You can point to either one to defend any particular position you want to take. You say there is no legitimate debate and I disagree. But this is hardly the forum to debate something as subjective as major/minor modification. That debate has been raging on for the last 60 years that I've been in this business and I don't think either of us have enough horsepower to make a definitive dividing line. Yes, I've perused the decision tree outlined in the Job Aid and can zig it or zag it either way we want. I come back to the fundamental principle laid out in Western Region's great little publication that says, in italics, that "It is the opinion of the mechanic doing the work as to whether a repair or modification is major or minor." That's a real difficult sentence to misinterpret.

I'm not going to argue further.

Jim



Jim

 

[mtuomi]

The GX50 is approach-capable. The GX55 is the enroute-only version.

Ah, you're correct, I got 55 and 50 mixed up (which is stupid since I have the 55 in my 150!)

 

[mtuomi]

Michaels will fix that radio super cheap if there is a problem.

Unfortunately the days of cheap repairs by TKM are gone. They don't touch radios that are older than 15 years, and the base repair price is $385 plus parts and additional work required to fix it.