REFLECTOR: Blue Mountain and GRT

Tue May 5 21:02:21 CDT 2009

Why, the new fuel injected dual electronic ignition engine of course.

On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 4:06 PM, Brooke Wolf <bwolf1 at tds.net> wrote:

> 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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-- 
Mike W.
1997 Velocity Elite RG
Franklin /IVO Electric CS
Dual GRT EFIS Synthetic Vision
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