REFLECTOR: Blue Mountain and GRT

[Brooke Wolf]

Ok Andy and Michael.  You are making it easy.  For me it will be  
Aerocomposite Prop and GRT avionics.  Now about that engine!!?

Brooke


On May 5, 2009, at 3:12 PM, reflector-request at tvbf.org wrote:
>
> From: Michael Watson <mikewatsspg at gmail.com>
> Date: May 5, 2009 2:26:22 PM EDT
> To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
> Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Blue Mountain Avionics
> Reply-To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org 
> >
>
>
> 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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