Story ID: 
We’re up-front about what’s behind the panel.
By: Greg Rzekos
Caption: With decades of experience and thousands of installations, the avionics pros at Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems know that the only way to deliver the performance their customers demand is to pay attention to every tiny detail. 
Word Count: 721
Whether you’re flying a turboprop or large-cabin jet, sooner or later you’ll need to upgrade your avionics. The problem is that any shop can make the front of the panel look great. But it’s the attention to detail behind the installation that truly makes a difference in performance and reliability.
Prioritizing detail is what makes Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems’ installations stand out from the rest.
As the company’s Director of Aircraft Modifications, Rob Reed, explains, “Over the years, we’ve developed several STCs to alleviate obsolescence issues on many types of aircraft. But no matter the goal, each job starts with our team ensuring every element is done to the highest level of quality and by paying attention to every detail behind the panel. That’s the only way to guarantee that the systems will provide reliable performance for the life of the aircraft.”
The termination is really the beginning.
One of the “smaller details” that sets Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems installations apart is the quality of their wire terminations. It may not seem critical, but after a few hundred hours of vibration, a poorly terminated connector will fail, and so will the unit it’s connecting to.
“The quality supervisor in our Greenville (South Carolina) wiring harness shop has been certified as a trainer for the IPC/Wiring Harness Manufacturing Association A-620 standards,” Jim Williams, Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems, VP Government Operations, adds. “It includes a robust quality assurance system that approves every phase of our harness-making and connection termination processes.” This level of quality assurance and harness-building excellence is in place at Stevens’ wire harness facilities in both Greenville and Nashville.
Another detail that sets the company’s installations apart is the craftsmanship of its wiring harnesses. For example, both Stevens’ wire harness facilities have full-size mock-ups of King Air compartments to create pre-contoured harnesses for Garmin G1000 installations.
“Other shops build them on a flat table, and that means the wires and connectors can be strained during installation—which can lead to failures,” says Gary Brown, Stevens’ Nashville sales director. “We pre-contour the harnesses to eliminate all those stress points—and prevent problems.”
More than good enough for government work.
Reed adds that the company’s unmatched history of delivering high-end installations is one reason it does so much avionics upgrade work on various U.S. government agency aircraft.
“Our DoD contracts require extremely detailed processes, and we have incorporated many of them into our standard installation practices,” he says. “The result is that we’re bringing even higher quality, reliability, and safety to all of our customer aircraft.”
While the processes have evolved to keep up with changing technologies and customer needs, Williams stresses that it’s still the skills and attention to detail provided by Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems technicians that makes the difference.
He added that the company is so proud of its technicians’ work behind the panel that it sends photos of the finished work to the aircraft’s owner. Not many shops do that today.
“It comes down to the technicians behind the connections,” Williams says. “They are the ones touching every part of the installation. It’s their unwillingness to compromise that sets our installations apart.”
That level of quality enables Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems to cover each of its avionics installations and stand behind the workmanship for “as long as they own the aircraft.”
“In the past four years alone, we’ve completed hundreds of cockpit and cabin avionics installations across our network of locations,” Williams explains. If there is ever a problem a problem with our workmanship, we will stand by it and get you flying quickly.”
“That kind of reliability is why our customers come to us,” he says. “In the end, system reliability is critical to their operational safety.”
The Solution	Authorized installer for Collins, Garmin, Gogo, Honeywell, STARLINK, Universal, and others	From connectors to cut-outs, every detail is completed to the highest U.S. DoD standards	Stevens’ world-class workmanship warranty - proven by 70-plus years of civilian and government installations and backed by decades of solid proven performance.