Mitch
I no longer own my plane which was Avidyne equipped but I had nothing but good, nice service from Avidyne.
Just another data point. I hope to have a plane again in the future.
don henline
Welcome Mitch! As a Legacy Owner this is my top priority!
Mitch welcome and thank you for your support and your call today.
I look forward to the opportunity to serve on the COPA / Avidyne board if Roger wills it.
As an owner of a full Avidyne install with all the latest equipment and software, I’m excited to see the OEM support.
I’m looking forward to meeting you soon, maybe on my next trip to Melbourne.
Talk with you soon,
Mike
Welcome, Mitch. I see you have not joined COPA, and this thread is in the non-member Guest Forum, which is sparsely read by COPA members and in which many COPA members prefer not to post, since it is accessible by bots. Also, you will not be able to see the vast majority of posts about Avidyne that can only be accessed by COPA members.
So my first suggestion if you want to interact with COPA is to join COPA.
Welcome to COPA, Mitch: it is good to see Avidyne reaching out to us. I hope this is the dawn of a new day!
I am based in the U.K. and fly a G2 with Entegra which I upgraded with a DFC 90 and the Avidyne weather system and lightning detector. I really like the equipment and used to be a big Avidyne fan.
There are several points I would like you to consider:
-
Whilst I welcome your engagement: here in the U.K. a colleague of yours started posting on one of our forums under the name “Avidyne Steve” promising much the same as you promise here. After a few posts, and no visible action, he seems to have vanished. Hopefully that won’t happen with you.
-
Avidyne has a record of promising product availability and not meeting those promises, e.g.:
DFC 90: I was an early adopter. After several delays, mine was eventually installed without the envelope protection working (it hadn’t been certified!). Neither I nor the Avidyne rep who sold it to me knew that would be the case before I tested it in flight, thankfully deliberately in VMC. It works properly now and is a great autopilot.
Syn Vis on R9: I was told it would be available as a free upgrade in “a couple of months” during a demo flight when R9 was first sold. How long did it actually take to arrive? How many promised dates were missed?
IFD 440/540: this was also several years late despite repeated broken promises. In the event, I gave up and upgraded my 430s to Garmin 750/650.
This doesn’t mean I don’t like the 540/440, they are excellent designs: I just gave up on the Avidyne customer experience.
Whatever the excuses: Avidyne really must stop doing this
- Post warranty pricing
This is gouging.
Raising the standard repair price for a PFD to over $5000 to force pilots to take on one of your oppressive indemnity warranties is outrageous.
Beyond that, regardless of the option chosen, or the rights and wrongs of it: charging an additional $2000 for an “advance exchange” bears no relationship to costs and reflects only exploitation of customers that have no alternative to being AOG until you fix and return their Avidyne product, made worse by the additional shipping time here in Europe.
Also, the comments about the quality of the exchange units received by pilots posting here speak volumes.
- Avidyne recently almost doubled the subscription price to your weather service in Europe, presumably thinking we have no choice but to pay. Wrong: I cancelled my subscription and bought a sensibly priced alternative, even though I had to buy new hardware rendering the Avidyne kit I bought in good faith redundant.
From the above you will gather that, much as I like Avidyne equipment, I am no longer a fan of Avidyne the company and, absent a substantial change in attitude, will never buy a piece of Avidyne equipment again regardless of how attractive it looks technically.
Here in Europe, at least, I can assure you I am not alone.
I really hope your engagement heralds concrete actions to reverse that view and you will prove me wrong: I would love to become again the Avidyne fan I once was. Time will tell, but in the meantime I will continue reading with great interest the threads here about potential replacements for Avidyne kit.
Thank you.
Why don’t we give the manufacturers a free membership… seems like an appropriate gesture for their valued participation?
I can’t imagine any one of us would care about giving away $65. At the same time, if a $65 fee marks the difference between engaging COPA or being more distant, it sends a clear message about sincerity. I kind of like the litmus test it provides us.
3,000 or more of us consider the membership fee inconsequential in light of its value. For an avionics manufacturer, it is less than nothing. They should be proud to pay it. If they choose not to, we should take note of that.
In general I agree, but think about the cost Avidyne would pay to aircraft clubs they have equipment in. Cessna, Cirrus, Beechcraft, Piper, others and then sub model clubs. It begins to add up and I fully understand it’s mostly a Cirrus thing.
I agree completley. What do we get “for free” from Avidyne?
If $ 65 was the problem for a manufacturer for attending this forum, then this would speak volumes.
If $ 65 was the problem for a manufacturer for attending this forum, then this would speak volumes.
Since the dialog on this thread has morphed into a philosophical discussion regarding where I post and should I spend $65 I’ll respond since I feel it falls into item 3 below on my original post.
*I have been with Avidyne for a little over a year as the VP Sales & Marketing. Today I simply want to address 3 issues that I think will help. *
- Some Avidyne Guidance on the CMOS Battery issue many of you have voiced concern over with Extant
- My discussions with Roger Whittier and establishing a COPA advisory council
- Use this forum for more transparency between COPA and Avidyne
Avidyne has a dedicated employee to monitor not only COPA, but many of the active forums including Avidyne’s own forum Avidyne Live. Yes, it is a paid COPA membership. In fact many Avidyne employees are paid members on COPA in addition to our marketing paid account. I’m sure Garmin does as well. It’s important in today’s digital world.
I chose to post on the Guest Discussion thread in hopes to gain more eyeballs and not limit the discussion to only paid members. I believe paid members will get additional benefit from Item #2 above – The COPA Advisory Council.
And just a reminder, Avidyne did provide 10.2 software for free, SynViz to the IFD for free, IFD100 App for free and myriad other features/enhancements. More importantly, I believe a better partnership with COPA will create value through the Member Advantage program which will far exceed the $65 annual subscription.
Fly Safe
Mitch
Thanks for the clarification regarding the membership.
I think much of the frustration comes from the CMOS battery issue - and especially the fact that it would not be changed for free (or an acceptable fee) in warranty cases and if the customer has paid for the extended warranty.
Thank you for the clarification. I would suggest however that your choice to post in the Guest Discussion forum will likely have the opposite result than you intended. Many (most?) COPA members choose not to “join” the Guest forum because (a) there is little activity there, (b) there is no privacy protection, (c) people who post there tend to be less committed (unwilling to invest $65 to learn) and/or (d) etc.
Members that do not “join” the Guest forum will never see your posts there.
Welcome! Look forward to a good dialogue. As always, it’s only results that counts, but this looks promising.
Welcome to the group! I’m another one of the ones in love my with Avidyne Dream Panel configuration with the IFD540/440 combo. So far I’ve been impressed with customer service as well working to fix the traffic issues.
Excited to hear about any plans for PFD/MFD upgrades too!
I deleted the post I initially had on this thread when I realized that is was in the guest forum. I don’t want my specific comments about Avidyne to be Google searchable. Mitch - please join COPA and start a new thread internally!
Glad to have you here. With all the downsizing/reorganization at Avidyne, I’ve lost all my contacts. Sometimes it helps to have someone to ask a simple question rather than having to run to the mechanic. So hope Avidyne becomes more active on COPA.
We’re actually hiring quite a few folks. Business is great. I only know enough to be dangerous regarding technical issues. Our Tech Support Team or your Regional Sales Manager would be the best source for individualized questions. Send me a PM with your state/Airport base and I’ll hook you up with the RSM.
Technical support is 888-723-7592
Mitch
Mitch is a member now. We gave him a complementary membership.
Welcome aboard.
i’m sure you hear this a lot, but I have an R9 with the Becker transponder and a check book. Need ADS IN/OUT. would love to write the check this year. Any hope?