A day as an Avionics Installer
An avionics installer spends most of the day upside down under an instrument panel with a flashlight in their teeth. You're the person who takes an old airplane's steam gauges and radios out and puts a glass cockpit, a new autopilot or an ADS-B transponder in their place. The day below is at a small avionics shop on a general aviation field, working a panel upgrade on a single-engine piston airplane.
One panel upgrade, hour by hour
Stand-up at the whiteboard
The lead tech walks the board: which airplanes are in the hangar, which ones the owners want back by Friday, and who's on the Bonanza. You get the Bonanza. You pull the job folder, which holds the installation manual for the new display, the wiring diagram the shop drew up for this airframe, and the work order the service writer quoted to the owner.
Stripping the old panel
Yesterday you pulled the old vacuum instruments and the stack of radios. Today you're tracing the wires left behind. Each one gets a label or gets removed, because dead wire left in an airplane is weight, a fire risk and a trap for the next person. You tag everything against the diagram and bag the hardware so none of it rolls under the rudder pedals.
The diagram and the airplane disagree
Here's where the plan breaks. A previous shop moved the fuel quantity sender wiring years ago and nobody updated the drawings, so the pins you planned to use are already doing something. You stop, find the lead, and the two of you check the logbooks for the old alteration. The fix is a revised pin assignment, a note to the engineer who drew the diagram, and a phone call to the service writer, because this adds hours the owner didn't expect.
Building the new bundle on the bench
After lunch you're at the bench laying out the new wire bundle on a pin board. You cut to length, strip, crimp contacts with the right die, and push them into the connector backshells. Every run gets lacing cord or ties at the spacing the shop's standard calls for, and every splice gets heat shrink and a sleeve label. It's slow, quiet work, and it's the part that decides whether the airplane has gremlins for years.
Ring out, then power up
Back in the airplane, you route the bundle behind the panel, clamp it clear of the control cables, and ring out each pin with a multimeter before anything gets power. Then the first power-up with the lead watching. The display boots, the GPS finds satellites, and you write up what you did in the work order so the inspector can check it tomorrow and sign the return to service.
What separates this from general aircraft wiring
An aircraft electrician or airframe mechanic fixes what's already there. You're adding something new, so most of your day follows an installation manual and a set of approved data rather than a maintenance manual. That changes the work. You care about antenna placement and cable runs for radios, about how a new display talks to the autopilot and the engine monitor, and about configuration pages in the avionics software after the wiring's done. You also live closer to the paperwork than most shop-floor roles, because any change to the panel has to be documented as an alteration before the airplane flies again. Some shops send installers out on the ramp to do squawks too, but the heart of this job is the retrofit.
How people end up behind the panel
From an aviation maintenance school
You finish an airframe and powerplant program, or an avionics program at a community college, and join a shop as a junior installer. Shops like this route because you already know aircraft hardware, safety wire and the FAA's paperwork habits.
From military avionics
Former military avionics and electrical techs move over often. You'll already know wire repair and test equipment, and the main gap is civil paperwork and the general aviation gear most shops install.
From electronics assembly or wire work
People who built cable assemblies, worked in electronics manufacturing or held a wiring job in another industry get hired as helpers. You start on bench work, building bundles and connectors, and move into the airplane as you learn aircraft standards.
What Avionics Installer postings ask for
Hiring the most
- Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation5
Remote
0% of openings are fully remote.
Questions people ask
Do I need an A&P certificate to be an avionics installer?
Not always. Many shops hire installers who work under the supervision of a certificated repair station or a licensed mechanic who signs off the work. An airframe and powerplant certificate still opens doors, because it lets you sign for more of your own work and makes you useful on the rest of the airplane. Check what the shop's own repair station rules allow.
Is avionics installation mostly wiring or mostly electronics?
Mostly wiring and fabrication. You'll build bundles, fit connectors, cut panels and mount trays far more than you'll troubleshoot circuit boards. Bench repair of the boxes themselves is usually a separate job at a different kind of shop.
What's the hardest part to get good at?
Reading an airplane's history. Older airplanes have been modified by several shops over the years, and the wiring rarely matches the book. Learning to check the logbooks and trace wires before you trust a drawing is what makes a senior installer.
5 Avionics Installer jobs are open today
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