I did all my wiring and panel on my RV-8 and I didn’t keep track of the time it took, but it was a lot. I enjoyed the experience, learned a lot, and it turned out almost exactly as I had hoped.
That said, having seen what the maintenance shop on my field has to deal with when doing anything behind the panel on certified aircraft – no thanks! I can see why they charge a lot – it’s hard work, and the wiring behind the panel is very often a spaghetti mess. Many panels don’t easily come out, so the tech is laying on his back trying to do stuff. I’m not surprised it’s expensive.
Dan, I don’t disagree with you on anything, but let’s say you need a hangar for the size of the job, and the only one is owned by a MC.
That is ultimately what supports the GA avionics business we know.
The fact that maybe 1% of owners can do, or participate in, the design, is almost incidental.
I have full sympathy for the shops who have to deal with 50 year old stuff with 20kg of undocumented and dodgy wiring, and owners who get 5 quotes of which 3 will be by muppets. I wish there was a solution but despite a fairly extensive experience of the business I have no idea what it might be. In life traditionally you expect a top job if you pay top price but that definitely doesn’t work for avionics.
The only reason I don’t have an IFD540 and 550 is because I don’t know who might do it. My “wireman” retired.
And extra complication is that GA businesses almost universally hate social media. Obviously the bad ones hate it. But even the OK ones hate it. A common thread is that they have no idea how to use it to generate long term business. We had one here who hated the US and everything made in the US and kept beating me up because I fly an N reg, mainly. We had another who pretended to be a happy customer of one firm; I told him to stop it and he vanished. Another participates a bit but goes on strike whenever EASA or the avionics business is criticised, like now 
In my business I am very careful to emphasise that an estimate is an estimate and a quote is a quote. I never give quotes and estimate always come with a caviat that there are often unknowns which are the customer’s responsibility.
Work doesn’t start until we have that understanding.
I lose business practically every week because I refuse to give quotes over the phone but my philosophy is, “if price is your most important criteria then this is not the place for you”.
I wanted a fault looked into and a couple of fairly straightforward wiring changes done.
I didn’t want to use the local guy for a couple of reasons but nothing serious.
I was reccomended to someone else. He asked why I wasn’t using a local bloke, as I clearly wasn’t local to him. I was reluctant to comment but he kept plugging. We weren’t moving forward.
In the end I mentioned a couple of low-key reasons. He then said that the 1st bloke was his ‘mate’ and he would ‘discuss’ it with him.
Obviously, now neither of them will do jobs for me. WTF! Should have seen it coming. Take notice, and don’t get caught out like me.
At times I really hate this industry.
I’m glad I’m closer to the end of my flying years than the begining.
GA_Pete wrote:
He then said that the 1st bloke was his ‘mate’ and he would ‘discuss’ it with him.
Obviously, now neither of them will do jobs for me. WTF!
And of course you are now the problem.
Stickandrudderman wrote:
“if price is your most important criteria then this is not the place for you”.
Yes that is your prerogative, however the converse applies.
Double your invoice price from the quote, and then you are certainly not the place for me….Present company accepted of course.
Quote
And of course you are now the problem.
…..sorry, not sure of your context.
It is all a matter of business practices, agreements, and communication between the shop and the aircraft owner. I used to own an Avionics shop. We quoted a price and would contact the customer if something unexpected came up that affected the quoted price. We would stop work and either take a picture and send it to the customer and always get their buy in to any additional work, I also found it necessary to conduct a pre-work flight to verify what worked and what did not. I got tired of fixing issues that were totally unrelated to the work we were performing. We would also do an inspection before we took on work and if the wiring was substandard, we would either refuse the job, quote a full rewiring, or only agree to time and materials. Now that I don’t operate a shop, I have had good luck here in the US of getting quotes and writing checks for the exact amount in most cases. Usually I was the one who initiated extra work, but if I did, an updated estimate was agreed to before the work was done. I did not get rich owning a shop and still drove my 15 year old pickup truck when I sold the shop.
I also found it necessary to conduct a pre-work flight to verify what worked and what did not. I got tired of fixing issues that were totally unrelated to the work we were performing
That’s astounding; a super idea which AFAIK nobody in Europe does.
Peter wrote:
That’s astounding; a super idea which AFAIK nobody in Europe does.
Not unusual at all. Like NCYankee, we always quoted and stuck with that apart from any extras subsequently requested by the customer or snags we found that were fixed by prior agreement. We also did a pre-modification inspection that also included photos of external and trim damage before we took the aircraft apart.
I know you have a PPL, wigglyamp, so you could have done a flight, testing all the avionics (which I also know you understand – a rare thing) but I have never heard of an avionics shop, including yours at the time, which did/does a flight before commencing work.
Your then shop had the King test kit to test the KFC225 entirely on the ground.
