I had a customer today inquire about the annual inspection of the AmSafe Airbags. In follow-up to my investigation with AmSafe, I received the following e-mail. If your airplane is equipped with airbags, this information will be of some value at Annual Inspection time.
<From AmSafe> "We have quite a few service centers available in your area, just be sure when you contact them to make sure they have the proper System Diagnostic Tool (SDT) – P/N 508987-401. We have two (2) SDT’s in the field and all of the service centers have not yet purchased both tools. You can also use your current service center and we can rent a tool to them. If your facility wishes to rent or purchase a SDT they can contact Carrie Bojorquez at cborquez@amsafe.com or (602) 850-2795 for pricing and availability.
To find a service center convenient for you, please use one of the following links:
Many people may not know that the bags have to be tested annually or the airplane cant be legally returned to service. Finding local testing equipment will be difficult. I know of no one becides CC that has the equipment. I called AMSAFE to enquire on purchasing the equipment but its VERY expensive. I dont know how each insurance company will deal with the issue but if they arent tested upon annual its my impression the aircraft is out of compliance. I installed the old style harness in my plane but kept the bags in case I changed my mind. If I am off base with this info please let me know.
I have several customers in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina with the AmSafe bags, and we have had no problem finding shops with the required test equipment. They are the same airbags as in most new Cirrus aircraft, and almost every Cirrus Service Center can do the test.
Chip Allen
SWT Aviation, Inc.
Cubcrafters Southeast Sales Center
Marietta, GA
Since I had the second S2 delivered, I had to have my airbags installed after I came home from Yakima. The folks at Hill Aircraft FTY installed them, but when I went in for my inspection, they only had the tester for the Cirrus and Cessnas. Epps at PDK had the right tester but no one to do it the day I went down, so Hill graciously drove over and got the device and did the inspection in only a few minutes.I would recommend that when an aircraft is taken in for inspection, that they make sure the facility has the right device.
I contacted a shop that had the correct SDT with the listed part number, but the connection from the tester is not even close.....guess a call to AMSAFE is next. May go back to original harnesses if this becomes impossible. Anyone else have luck?
When I had mine inspected in September, once they had the right part number for the tester, it connected easily and took less than 5 minutes to do. We used the part # in the log book insert or the literature that came with the airbags. Sorry you are having trouble..
Ken
Thanks to Ethen and an instruction file, I will head back to the shop and show them where the correct place is to hook up and test the system. Thought they would know but apparently not since they only test Cirrus systems normally.
Amsafe Airbags
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