Flight School Turns 25 Warriors into TAA Trainers

Nationwide Aviation, a flight school with locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Nashville, Tennessee areas, has updated the avionics on its fleet of 25 Piper Warrior training airplanes, qualifying the trainers as technically advanced aircraft (TAA). The company spent about $1 million on the fleet upgrade, which was completed by Sparkchasers Aircraft Services in Smithfield, North Carolina.

In addition to an IFR Garmin avionics suite, the modification included a new custom-designed and powder-coated instrument panel with dual USB-A and -C charging ports, custom switches, and an Electroair EA-15000 ignition switch panel with pushbutton starter.

The legacy panel had traditional vacuum-driven instruments, King radios, and a Garmin GNS 430 com/navigator.

Centered around a Garmin G3X Touch display with fuel quantity and engine indicating system, the Warrior upgrade includes a G5 standby instrument, GTR 20 remote com, GNC 255A navcom, GNS 375 GPS/transponder, Flightstream 510 wireless gateway, GMA 245R remote audio panel with Bluetooth, and GFC 500 autopilot.

“Investing in our fleet allows us to provide our students with the same advanced technology found in brand-new production aircraft,” said Trevor Hall, Owner of Nationwide Aviation. “We are committed to delivering the highest quality training experience without passing on costs to our customers. Our students can now train on modern, state-of-the-art equipment at the same rental prices as other area schools that are still using outdated aircraft.”