Progressive,
Excellent post! And you are correct, many LAME's would not know. Is that their fault for not educating themselves? Which under the burden of everything else is easy to understand. Or is it the regulator who should be more proactive in educating industry and owners?
I think more the latter.
The issue about paying for the research…..well an avionics shop should be able to do the vast majority of the research in 15 minutes or less. Why? because they know the system (or should) and as you point out when you know where to look, it is far easier.
Straight forward installation of any avionics with an STC/AML is in most cases a monkey see monkey do process, the same as the last one, the same as the next one. At $110/hr that cost is max $30 not $700.
A more proactive approach to this and many other things in GA from both the regulator and the maintenance orgs would possibly make life in GA more affordable and thus create more work, not less.
I am sure Leadsled will have something to say on this when he gets around to it. Something like….look at how the biggest GA community in the world do this work.
BTW…hope the world is treating you well over there
