Definition
A maintenance facility holding an FAA repair station certificate with the appropriate ratings to test, inspect, calibrate, and repair aircraft instruments such as altimeters, airspeed indicators, and static systems. Only personnel at such a station, or other specifically authorized technicians, may perform and approve the periodic tests and inspections required by the regulations for these instruments.
Plain English
A shop officially approved by the FAA to work on aircraft instruments. If an altimeter or static system needs testing or repair, this is the kind of place legally allowed to do it and sign it off.
Context Anchor
Seen in altimeter-error discussions when an altimeter needs testing, adjustment, or repair beyond normal pilot use.
Derivation
"Certificated" means holding an official certificate -- in this case, one issued by the FAA. "Repair station" is the FAA's formal name for an approved maintenance organization, distinct from an individual mechanic. Together the phrase points to a facility specifically licensed for this kind of work.
Why Pilots Care
Only repairs performed at these stations satisfy regulatory requirements for returning instruments to service and restoring legal airworthiness.
Intuition Check
Do not read certificated as just “skilled” or “recommended”; here it means officially authorized by the FAA. Instrument means an aircraft instrument, and repair station means an approved maintenance shop, not a travel station.
Example Sentence 1
Before the IFR check ride, the owner sent the aircraft to a certificated instrument repair station to have the altimeter and static system tested.
Example Sentence 2
Logbook entries must show that the pitot-static instruments were serviced by a certificated instrument repair station to meet inspection standards.