Flying Colours Completes Challenger 300 Avionics Installation

Flying Colours' avionics team completed its first installation of a Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 Advanced avionics suite in a Bombardier Challenger 300. The installation was completed while the aircraft was undergoing a scheduled maintenance check at the MRO company’s Missouri facility at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS). According to Flying Colours, the super-midsize jet was upgraded and returned on time.

During downtime, the team checked that the twinjet's ADS-B Out was integrated to meet requirements that will start on Jan. 1, 2020. The Pro Line 21 Advanced avionics suite is built with flexible architecture, allowing customers to add features such as FANS 1/A, RNP 0.3 AR, synthetic vision system and multi-scan radar upon installation or at a later date.

Flying Colours said it will complete more of this type of upgrade in the future and is in discussions with multiple operators to complete such modifications for them. According to Flying Colours director of sales Kevin Kliethermes, the company’s avionics business has increased in the last year-and-a-half and will continue to do so because of NextGen mandates and the variety of flight deck options.

“Our avionics team has completed many upgrades to existing systems, as well as installations of completely new systems,” Kliethermes said. “In fact, we have upgraded avionics on more than 20 different aircraft in the last year, but this was the first time working with the Pro Line 21 Advanced package.”