[vdh_19]

Hi all,

I've recently passed my PPL skills test and naturally my attention and obsession has now turned to how I'm going to continue my flying and whether I should buy/rent an aircraft.

I have a young family and I'm looking to buy something that will serve as a 5-seater for the next few years. I don't particularly want to go down the 6-seater route at this stage purely from a financial point-of-view, so I was looking at whether there are any options to convert the likes of the PA28's, 172's etc. to 3 rear seats.

I believe there is an STC in the US for such a conversion on some of the Cessna models and I found an STC in the list EASA provides for the same conversion on a PA28 but I'm not entirely sure how the whole STC approval/implementation process works.

Is it as "simple" as submitting an STC approval request for a third seat/seat belt in the back and then, assuming it gets approved, getting one installed?

Thanks,

Peter

[MidlandsPilot]

An EASA STC can only be submitted by an EASA-approved Part 21J design organisation. For something like this it will most likely be prohibitively expensive (5 figure cost!).

If the STC exists in EASA-land for your aircraft type (note it may only be applicable to a specific model, such as the 172S), then it is a “simple” case of parting with money to have it applied to your aircraft.

It is possible for FAA STCs to be imported to EASA. I’m not sure if you need a design organisation for this though, or whether your CAMO can sort it all out.

[Ian Melville]

What about a TB20? arn't they cleared for 3 on the back seat?

[flybymike]

I can think of many four seaters which I would think twice about even flyIng with three on board.

[vdh_19]

An EASA STC can only be submitted by an EASA-approved Part 21J design organisation. For something like this it will most likely be prohibitively expensive (5 figure cost!).

If the STC exists in EASA-land for your aircraft type (note it may only be applicable to a specific model, such as the 172S), then it is a “simple” case of parting with money to have it applied to your aircraft.

It is possible for FAA STCs to be imported to EASA. I’m not sure if you need a design organisation for this though, or whether your CAMO can sort it all out.

Thanks for your response on this. Indeed this seems to be as simple and inexpensive as I'd anticipated!!

What about a TB20? arn't they cleared for 3 on the back seat?

I believe so, although most of the one's I've found have been a) fitted with two seats at the back and b) a fair bit out of my price range.

I can think of many four seaters which I would think twice about even flyIng with three on board.

Yes, this seems to be a theme! I had pretty much the same response from a couple of folks at my flying school. It seems my search may be confined six-seaters, which isn't really a route I wanted to go down.

[defcribed]

TB10s are also three rear seats by default, though it means three slim people. No cake.

Some have had the centre seatbelt removed.

[shanwick]

An FAA STC considered as "Basic" can be applied to a single aircraft s/n. I did this for a replacement instrument panel a couple of years ago. No CAMO or design approvals required. Cost around €300 and took about 3 weeks. All very straight forward.

https://www.easa.europa.eu/newsroom-and ... imited-one