Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

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danno2000
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Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by danno2000 »

Going on a couple of years since I bought my DA40 and after having used my home-base maintenance guy for the first annual, I want to use a more Diamond-specific experienced shop this time around. I'm also looking for help on considering ADS-B solutions - this is an old steam-gauge 40 with dual non-WAAS 430s, and I'm hoping to do a WAAS upgrade at the same time as adding a compliant transponder.

Looked at archives and saw good things about Three Wing Aviation at KBDR - anybody had good experiences elsewhere? KAQW North Adams is kind of equally inconvenient for most of the Diamond-certified shops shown on the Diamond website.

thanks,
dan
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ZAV
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by ZAV »

I had my prebuy and annual done at Three Wing last year. Nothing but good things to say. They are more expensive per hour than some other places. However, they were very thorough and knowledgeable. They picked up on discrepancies and A/D’s that had been passed over for several years. I know they’re familiar with ADS-B solutions for DA40’s as well. Jared Gowlis is the contact.
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by blsewardjr »

The previous owner of my steam-gauge DA40 was an early adopter and went the upgrade the 530 to WAAS and Garmin GDL-88 ADSB route. It's worked well with the added benefit of being able to fly LPV approaches. I particularly like having a certified traffic display and aural call-out solution. (The weather via Stratus/FF is better on my Ipad.) However, if I were to do it today, I think I'd still do the Garmin 530 upgrade but go with the GTX-345 transponder instead of the GDL-88. This is because my tail number on the GDL-88 cannot be changed by the pilot, which means that because the FAA has deemed that your ADSB info must match your flight plan, for Angel Flight and Compassion missions, I can't use their unique call signs. With the GTX 345 you also you get ADSB/GPS and flight plans sent to Foreflight/Garmin Pilot on your Ipad (but NOT the reverse -- you still need the Garmin FS210 to send flightplans from the Ipad to the Garmin 530/430W.) Also, be aware that if you are thinking about changing your Garmin 430 to an Avidyne unit, you'll probably need an Avidyne ADSB solution as well. I wanted to change out my Garmin 530W for the plug and play Avidyne 540, but it turns out that the Avidyne can't provide the GPS info to the GDL-88 so I'm stuck.
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Rich
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by Rich »

I too was an early adopter of WAAS upgrade and opted to do both the 530 and 430 back when Garmin charged $1,500 per unit. I'm also (many years later) an early ADS-B out adopter at a time when choices were limited.

Some things about the GNS WAAS unit upgrades that are good to know and might not be obvious at the outset:

1. If you upgrade only one unit and not the other I believe you won't be able to crossfill, if that's important to you. I'm also not sure how multi-unit nav data subscriptions work if one is WAAS and the other not.
2. Diamond used RG400 cable between the original GNS units and their GPS antennae in the original installation. This means the cable need not be replaced when installing the new antennae.
3. You will get new data cards when the upgraded units are returned. If you operate with spare data cards be advised the original ones will not accommodate the expanded data for WAAS. You'll need to purchase the WAAS-compatible data cards. And depending on what you are currently using to load the data, you may need to get a newer adapter. And it is a different subscription.
4. There is a requirement that the pilot have, in his field of vision, an annunciation of the TYPE of GPS approach (LPV vs. LP, vs LNAV+VNAV, etc.) being used. For the GNS units this can mean replacing the white-wire gizmo. BUT in the DA40, assuming the units are placed in the center stack, the display of the units themselves meet the certification requirement of being sufficiently in the left-seat field of view. Therefore no replacement of the non-cheap WW display.
5. The installation itself is not particularly labor-intensive. Mostly swap out the units and the antennae. But there is a minor W&B impact and a bit of new wiring between the #1 GPS unit and the autopilot system.
6. Be sure to flight-check the system (duh) before storming off into the clouds (duh). I did have a squawk to deal with, though I don't recall exactly what it was. Easily rectified by the shop, however.

In addition to the cost to Garmin, between shipping and whatnot, the installation labor/parts/paperwork came to something like $600-$700 (too lazy to dig it up from the archives).
Last edited by Rich on Fri Dec 28, 2018 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by TimS »

NexAir Avionics has a great reputation for Cirrus, but I know they also do Diamonds. (http://www.nexairavionics.com/)
They actually get customers from Europe and the west coast who fly out to have the work performed. A few owners have paid to fly Dave and/or Brian to their location to have the work done. Dave and few others there will actually fly your plane back to you and even pick it up (I do not recall the details).

Otherwise, I know East Coast Aero Club has a few Diamonds they do the MX for, and did some avionics upgrades. I do not know how much of an upgrade they did (e.g. could have been a 430 to 430W).

Lastly, there are some good shops around Michigan which is only a couple hours flight away. You should consider them also. Places like Great Lakes Diamond.

Tim
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by CFIDave »

Another good place to consider in the northeast US is Take Flight Aviation at New York's Orange County airport about 30 miles north of NYC. The same folks who were AOPA's highest-rated flight school in the country (flying Diamonds, BTW) for 2018 also have a maintenance facility that specializes in Diamonds:
http://www.takeflightoc.com/maintenance/
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Charles
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by Charles »

XU Aviation at CYXU in London ON is located next to the Diamond factory. They are staffed with a lot of ex-Diamond employees. They also have a close relationship with Diamond which gives them privileged access to information. They even borrowed a fixture from the factory to redo the rear door hinges on my plane, if I’m not mistaken. The composite work they did on my plane was pretty involved and the result was flawless. I can’t imagine a better shop for the trickier Diamond issues.
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by Tom-B »

A month ago, I upgraded my steam gauge/WAAS DA40 with the Garmin 345 and the FlightStream 210 (I also had this team upgrade my ELT). So a month in, I am very pleased with the performance of both of these upgrades.

I used Lancaster Avionics (@KLNS) and I was very impressed with their customer service and work. LA was able to fit me into their schedule last month because another customer had to cancel. I jumped at the opportunity to get this ADS-B work done because last November they were scheduling for slots in March of 2019. Another advantage to using Lancaster Avionics is that there is a Diamond/Cirrus center (FlyAdvanced) literally next door, so if there is any deferred work that you would like a Diamond Center to address (i.e. rear wing spar) this could be convenient. I have used FlyAdvanced on a few occasions and continue to be a very satisfied customer.
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by danno2000 »

Many thanks to all of you for your ideas. The challenge is always getting home, but KMGJ Orange County is close enough to get my 172 buddies to go with, and I think there's even ground transportation I could make work from KPYM Plymouth.

And thanks for sharing experiences re the WAAS upgrade.

Happy New Year!
dan
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Re: Good maintenance shops in New England/Northeast US for annual/avionics?

Post by danno2000 »

Just following up on this - ended up having a good experience at Lancaster Avionics in PA with ADS-B work. Had to wait a few months, but once my slot came, they got me in and the work done quickly and under budget. Went with the GTX 345 along with trading one of my non-WAAS 430s for a 530W and added FlightStream 210 as well. Very pleased on the return flight home.

Annual at Take Flight at KMGJ didn’t go quite as smoothly. Ended up taking about a month longer than expected, and communication wasn’t ideal. Already scheduled with Three Wing at KBDR for this April - fingers crossed!

best,
dan
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