Loaners take a lot of the “trouble” out of avionics troubleshooting.

When today’s integrated avionics suites work, there’s nothing better at helping pilots fly safer and more efficiently. When they don’t work, troubleshooting the problem pushes even the most experienced avionics technician to the brink.

Why? Because the systems are so “integrated,” the problem with system “A” may actually be caused by a seemingly unrelated component. So technicians can spend countless hours and dollars chasing the wrong cause.

But Duncan Aviation has a solution: its avionics Loaner Program gives technicians the capability to swap out a suspect LRU for one of their “known-good” units. It can cut literal days out of the troubleshooting process and save a technician’s sanity.

“The idea of ‘loaners’ actually started back when our founder, Donald Duncan, was selling Learjets in the early 1960s,” explains Dustin Johnson, Duncan Aviation’s assistant manager, component services. “There would be instances where an owner would fly their Learjet here for an avionics or instrument problem, but instead of having their aircraft down while our bench technicians fixed it, they would ‘box swap’ theirs with another owner whose aircraft was in for maintenance.”

“Then when their component had been fixed, they would come in, and we would replace both units in their original aircraft,” he continues. “That sparked the idea of Duncan Aviation creating a dedicated loaner inventory. While a customer’s component was in for repair, we would ‘loan’ them a replacement to keep their aircraft in the air.”

It’s a simple solution for a complex problem.

And keeping the aircraft in the air is paramount in today’s world. That’s the value of Duncan Aviation’s Loaner Program and the knowledge of the people behind it.

“We will get a call from an aircraft owner or MRO that’s run into a difficult troubleshooting problem. Our Customer Account Representatives are very experienced and can help them narrow the problem down,” Johnson says. “The availability of a loaner unit enables them to perform cross-diagnostics and confirm the cause.”

This simple step eliminates the guesswork and prevents unnecessary and costly no-fault-found (NFF) cycles that occur when a “healthy” unit is pulled for repair due to a misdiagnosis during troubleshooting.

“Once they have identified the suspected issue, we can ship them a loaner or two so they can swap them out to see if that either solves the problem or further narrows down the cause. Most of the time it does,” he explains. “The customer has the option of keeping the loaner in the airplane to continue flying while we repair their original unit.”

Johnson says that because the customer agrees to send their unit in for Duncan Aviation to repair, the cost of the loaner is negligible compared to an OEM rental.

Once the original component is repaired, part of the loaner agreement is that the “loaner” be returned to Duncan Aviation, in good working order, within 14 days of the original unit being shipped to the customer. Johnson says that once the loaner unit is returned, Duncan Aviation runs it through its testing and recertification process, during which it receives a new 8130 tag.

“We do charge a ‘loaner recertification fee,’ to cover that cost, but it’s very small compared to getting a unit through an OEM’s rental program,” he says. “But, in most cases, when it comes to these legacy avionics and instruments, the OEM doesn’t have anything available.”

There’s nothing like it.

As to which types of legacy components the company offers for loan, he explains that it is strategically aligned with Duncan Aviation’s in-house repair capabilities. If they have the experience, specialized bench tools, and technical data to repair a component, they will likely have a loaner available.

“We maintain a robust pool of legacy Honeywell, Collins, BendixKing, and JET Systems components,” he says. “But it changes, so the best solution is to contact one of our Customer Account Representatives to discuss your specific needs.”

To help ensure that the loaners perform as promised, Johnson says that each component in Duncan Aviation’s 1,200-plus part-number inventory is tested and certified as “known good.”

“Duncan Aviation’s Loaner Program saves customers quite a bit of time and greatly reduces AOG impact and costs,” Johnson explains. “That’s why we’ve set up the program the way that we have. Technicians can swap boxes to solve problems faster, and owners can keep flying their aircraft while the original unit is being repaired.”

“It’s the only program of its kind in business aviation today,” he continues. “And it’s proven to be a convenient and cost-effective way to maximize aircraft availability, while reducing overall maintenance downtime and costs. It’s another way we deliver the high level of services our customers expect.”