How do I get _________ approved on my airplane? Pt. 1

Fill-in the blank. This is the $64,000 (+) question. The answer depends on whether this ______ is considered by the FAA as a "Major Repair", "Major Alteration", "Significant Change", "Critical part",.. (I know I have lost about half of the audience right here). It also depends on whether you have "approved data", or if it is being proposed as an "STC", "field approval", "337 with DER support",.. (I bet I lost a bunch more readers right here). The rest goes on to say blah.. blaahh... blahhh!

The FAA answers for all of this are so complex that many of the FAA employees themselves don't even understand it. It's all covered right here in one convenient document, FAA Order 8900.1 called FSIMS. I've spent a career learning the definitions to all of this and frankly it is mind boggling. To make it worse... tell the FAA you have a "Vintage" airplane and many of their own engineers and inspectors don't even know how to deal with it. And they are the ones who have created this label for old airplanes by definition.

So what is a fellow to do when he wants to improve his antique airplane, upgrade to modern equipment, install newer parts, add horsepower.. or whatever? That's where C.A.P. comes in. We can help sort this all out.

1. First, we'll educate ourselves on your specific issue. We will do our homework to make sure we understand all of the potential pitfalls and FAA certification issues at hand.
2. Second, we will give you FEEDBACK and discuss the certification costs and obstacles. This is to help you make the best decision for your airplane and for your pocketbook.
   
3. Then we will educate YOU and your A&P/IA so that you can be ahead of the FAA in understanding their own regulations, policies, procedures, and red-tape.
4. Next, we'll help you make a plan of attack to address the certification issues in a way that makes sense to everyone. We will work with your FAA-trained A&P/I.A. and make sure we are all on the same page.
   
5. Once we have done all of our homework, we will talk with the appropriate FAA office (FSDO inspector or ACO engineer) and make sure we understand exactly what they will need.
6. Next we will help you develop a submittal like the FAA needs to have. We will coordinate any necessary FAA compliance inspections, conformity inspections, substantiation tests, or analyses. We will help you with drawings, reports, and any other required documentation.
   
7. We will keep in touch with you and your A&P-IA until all the paperwork is ready and everything is submitted to the FAA.
   
8. We won't stop there. We will follow through with the FAA until the job is done.

With CAP, you get the TOTAL PACKAGE. We specialize in project management.