Presenting my Avionics Bootcamp lecture in a crowded hangar of Grumman owners at the Grumman Owners and Pilots Association’s (GOPA) annual convention and fly-in last month got me thinking about the value of well-organized type clubs. Sure, there are some politics, and large gatherings of A+ pilot types … well, you understand. But these events can be a huge source of education when it comes to maintaining, flying, training, upgrading and just about everything else that tags along with aircraft ownership. It’s more important now than ever to help support their existence, and national gatherings can be a lot more than lunches, dinner banquets and little white lies about optimistic cruise speeds.
At the GOPA event, it was clear that the majority of attendees were there to soak up as much technical advice and information as their brains could absorb. My presentation—a candid roundtable discussion about planning and executing major avionics upgrades—with Todd Adams from Lancaster Avionics in Pennsylvania, confirmed what I already knew: Aircraft owners are pretty confused about the current market for avionics upgrades. Worse is that a trip to the local avionics shop for advice might not do much to add clarity, and in some cases it could send the expensive investment off the rails.