REFLECTOR: Blue Mountain Avionics

Michael Watson mikewatsspg at gmail.com
Tue May 5 13:26:22 CDT 2009


GRT HX is the way to go. These guys are innovative and have one of the best
support system in the industry. They just added Flight Director and AHRS
driven
Angle-of Attack to their synthetic vision HITS unit and they are relatively
cheap.


On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Andy Millin <amillin at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>  Warning: This is another one of my long winded posts … you may want to
> ignore it now!
>
>
>
> Evaluating a product can be a difficult subject to broach on the
> Reflector.  On one hand, if you have done the research, the community can
> benefit.  On the other, it is easy to come off as a shill.  I’m not selling
> anything!!!
>
>
>
> I remember when Blue Mountain debuted at Oshkosh.  They did not have a
> working, deliverable unit.  They had a demo unit and were taking deposits
> and orders.  They had the largest display I had seen available in glass.  It
> looked great.  I don’t normally like it when products are described as
> “sexy”, but the Blue Mountain stuff was sexy.
>
>
>
> At the time I think Chelton was advertising that they had just dropped the
> cost of a dual display system from $50,000 to something like $36,000 with
> the tag line “now cost isn’t a factor!”.  Well hell, buy three!!!  If BM was
> selling this big, beautiful unit for $12-14K, the price was very attractive.
>
>
>
> Many people recount that Greg Richter is one heck of a salesman.  He knows
> how to make things look good.  He has always had highly polished marketing
> material.  He knows how to sell the “sizzle”.
>
>
>
> My friends Jim and Heather Butcher took the plunge and put down a deposit.
> BM said the $12K was a show price.  I think the units went from $12K to
> $14K, but I don’t know the exact numbers.
>
>
>
> Jim and Heather finished their Europa.  They installed the BM EFIS and
> EIS.  From the beginning Jim had problems.  Features that were promised were
> not in the unit.  Other features technically would work, but Jim had to do
> all the research.  They have a Rotax.  Greg said that it would work well.
> It turns out they were the first to install BM with a Rotax.  There was
> nothing to copy from and BM didn’t know Rotax at all.  Support was minimal.
> It was impossible at times to tell if the unit was malfunctioning or just
> not calibrated correctly.  Jim is very savvy and very tenacious.  He dug
> in.  In the process he found several bugs in the software.  He reported them
> to BM.  All the while getting more frustrated.  They were supposed to be
> flying not debugging a very expensive piece of equipment.
>
>
>
> When Jim had most of the EIS working they went flying.  The whole scenario
> came back for the EFIS.  I believe the unit was pulled three times and sent
> back for update or modification.  Jim is a very smart guy and he just was
> not getting it to work.  During his test program, the ELT came up on his
> card.  He had yet to turn it on during flight.  He did so.  When he keyed
> the mic on the radio, the ELT went off.  How is that related to the
> EFIS????   Jim started working the problem.  He found that with the EFIS
> off, the problem never happened.  With the EFIS on, it always happened.  He
> never researched it further.  He had been fixing bugs for the better part of
> two years and had just had enough; the last straw.  The unit was pulled.
>
>
>
> Jim called BM and asked if an upgrade to the newer box might solve the
> problems.  BM said it might, but that they would only give him pennies on
> the dollar for his current unit.  That might well have been their last
> contact with the company.
>
>
>
> They replaced it with GRT.  Jim is not troubleshooting problems.  It
> works.  They are happy.  They are flying.
>
>
>
> Over the years I have heard many stories about BM.  It is hard to be in the
> Experimental Community and not know at least one person that bought BM,
> tried to make it work, and then pulled the thing out and replaced it.
>
>
>
> I have good friends that spent a great deal of money and got nothing but
> headache and heartache.  These are my friends and I have always wished them
> well.  I wanted this to work for them.
>
>
>
> It is also hard at times to hold your tongue when you hear someone say they
> want to buy BM.  I wince.  I hate badmouthing anyone.  I want to balance
> that against someone getting burned because I didn’t have the guts to speak
> up…
>
>
>
> I’m posting this in the genuine hope that it might be of use to someone in
> the decision process.  I have nothing against Greg Richter.  I don’t own his
> products.  I think competition is good and the more options we have, the
> better.  Let me qualify that, the more GOOD options we have, the better.
>
>
>
> Like anything else,  please*10^10, do your research.  (field performance,
> support, upgrade policy, etc…)
>
>
>
> In the interest of disclosure:  My good friend Carlos works for Grand
> Rapids Technologies.  My research has led me to believe I want their
> equipment in my plane.  I don’t work for GRT.  I have heard very good things
> about Dynon as well.
>
>
>
> FWIW,
>
>
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> =====================================
>
>
>
> Andy Millin
>
> amillin at sbcglobal.net
>
>
>
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-- 
Mike W.
1997 Velocity Elite RG
Franklin /IVO Electric CS
Dual GRT EFIS Synthetic Vision
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