Where I work we have a Cessna 185 amphib. It has a camera port cut through the fuselage located roughly between the back seats. We just received approval to add a couple of video cameras for oblique video from the back seat. We're discussing building a temporary platform cut to fit in the luggage area above the aux fuel tank. Then mount the cameras on platform to shoot through the small windows all the way back. This calls for replacing the back windows with windows that have a port so the lens can see outward without the distortion of plexiglass.

The belly mount was a royal PITA as it was a structural mod and had to go the the approval process. The airframe guy we deal with said that the bureaucracy for mods is far worse than 6 years ago when we did the fuselage work and suggested we go for a temporary system which does not require approval.

Now doesn't that sound like a buncha crap to you? FAA has made mod process so onerous that people advise shopping for loopholes.

So that leads me to two questions.

#1 Anybody have suggestions for (inexpensive!) oblique camera mounts in a Cessna 185?

#2 The FAA, is it getting more *****y or is our guy just having some problems with them on his own?