I think those saying that it's going to be relatively inexpensive to put an FDR in a Navajo are fooling themselves and haven't really considered what would be involved. This isn't simply a case of ordering the correct FDR, fabricating a 9g mounting bracket for it, hooking up power and "Bob's your uncle!". Consider the case of a Navajo with mechanical gyro instruments. Other than pressure altitude and GPS derived position, altitude and groundspeed, I can't think of a single parameter of interest which would exist in such an airplane in the form of digital electronic data. And those exceptions I mentioned would not have not provided much more meaningful information in the accident at hand, beyond what TSB already had in the form of radar data. That means that for each and every single parameter of interest, you will have to install some kind of sensor, transducer or encoder in the airplane whcih allows the measurement of that parameter. You want throttle position recorded? OK, you'll have to engineer a throttle position sensor to be installed somewhere in the throttle linkage. You want elevator deflection recorded? Well, you need to engineer an elevator position sensor and install it somewhere in the pitch control system. So every measured parameter is going to involve a modification of the airframe and the control system. The cost of just the installation of the equipment is going to add up quickly, but that's not the only cost, there's going to be the cost of design and certification. Every on of these FDRs will have to be installed under an STC, and the STC's are going to be specific to the model of the aircraft. The STC for a navajo isn't going to allow installation in a Caravan, each individual model added to the STC will have to individually go through the certification process for that model of aircraft. And the certification process is not going to be simple or cheap. These are modifications of the aircraft's primary flight control system. The process for certification of modifications to the primary flight control system will be (and should be) pretty rigorous. You can substitute "expensive" for "rigorous". There will be a significant pot of money sunk into the certification process, and those costs will have to be recovered in the sale of units. And if you want to sell an FDR for a Cessna 402, you will have to do most of that all over again. How many Navajos are operated commercially in Canada? That number is the number of sales the considerable development costs will have to be amortized over. So take all those costs of engineering, flight test, design review, fees to Designated Engineering Representatives (or whatever the Canadian equivalent is) and all the other costs of pushing through certification the modification of aircraft primary flight controls. Add them all up, and divide by the number of Navajos operating commercially in Canada. That in the amount of money that has to be added on top of the cost of manufacturing the actual equipment. That's just the price you pay to get the equipment dropped off at your hangar, that's before you start paying your mechanic to install the equipment.
Those claiming that this won't cost "tens of thousands of dollars" are simply delusional. Yes it will cost tens of thousands of dollars, many tens of thousands of collars.