My name is John Stark. I am the owner of Stark Avionics in Columbus, GA. This year we celebrate 20 years in business. Up until this post, you could not find a negative comment anywhere on the internet! To make it 20 years without a single negative comment is unheard of. You will always have at least a couple customers that you can't please, no matter how hard you try. Below is the truth concerning Brian Herron, and his installation.
The major issues with this installation were as follows:
1. Prior to picking up the airplane, we notified Mr. Herron that connecting a GTN-750 and a GNS-530W to a GDL-88 to display traffic and weather is not legal, and not in keeping with the STC and therefore FAA regulations. That isn't to say that it won't work, it just means to do so would jeopardize my repair station with the FAA. Mr.Herron disagreed with this, and so did Garmin. I didn't want to leave this unresolved so I contacted my local FAA inspector and he said that I was correct, it was not in the installation manual, and therefore, would not be covered under the STC. That was not enough for me. I had to prove beyond any doubt that this was not something that could be done legally, so I contacted the Atlanta FSDO management team to get the ultimate definitive answer from up as high as it goes. I talked to
David M. Dunn
Regional Specialist- Avionics
RAMPS Coordinator
Southern Region Technical Branch- ASO230
Who talked to the person at the highest level
David Crew
Sr. FTE, ACE-116A
(404) 474-5563
David Crew agreed that this was not only breaking the STC, but could possibly be dangerous. He then went on about why this could potentially be dangerous.
After getting this definitive answer, the Garmin rep suggested that Mr. Herron go and get this done elsewhere, knowing that the FAA had ruled it illegal, at least according to the FAA that I have to answer to. To do this 2 wire, simple interface is not worth losing my license over. This fueled Mr. Herron to find us at fault for everything in the airplane. I understand the frustration, but I just can’t let the FAA take my repair station license, so that one customer gets a feature that he wants in a secondary GPS/nav/com. I agreed to do this before taking on the job, not realizing that my FAA would consider it illegal. I’m sorry that I couldn’t help my customer for this squawk.
2. The next problem was that the GTN-750 and the GNS-530W did not have the crossfill wires connected. This was a valid complaint and an oversight on the part of Stark Avionics. Mr. Herron had every right to be upset with this. Mr. Herron was allotted $1500 for this error, which I think is more than fair. We completely wired his Flight Stream 210 (minus the connector that never showed up from Garmin). It would have taken less than an hour to stick the wires we ran into a connector and mount the Flight Stream. This work had significant value and was removed from the invoice to compensate my customer. If you disagree, please call your local shop and ask them how much it would be to wire a Flight Stream 210 in a Cessna 414.
3. Mr. Herron decided to pick up his airplane after working hours on a Friday. Because of this, he was in a big hurry and made some VERY critical mistakes. We used external power to operate the airplanes electrical system the entire time that we had the aircraft. We do this so the battery will not be low when the customer picks up the airplane. As it turns out, a cell was bad in the battery and caused the battery voltage to be less than 24 volts, even when fully charged. I asked him to contact the local mechanic before going any further, but he refused to take the time, and asked us to jump start the airplane. The jump start worked, but because of the bad cell in the battery, it caused the electrical system many problems.
As Mr. Herron said, he contacted me and I couldn’t help him. However, I own an avionics shop. We are not authorized to do anything with batteries, alternators, etc. He made our inability to serve him in this capacity, into an unwillingness to serve him. That just wasn’t the case.
4. Finally, there is the pressurization issue. I have requested on multiple occasions for Mr. Herron to present me with that bill. I want to talk to the shop that worked on it. All we did was mount an antenna in accordance with a DER drawing. I seriously doubt that this was the issue, but I would be happy to pay for the work, if the maintenance shop that fixed the pressurization issue, agrees that it was something that Stark Avionics broke. The fact that he is unwilling to give out that information should tell you all you need to know.
Instead of taking responsibility for rushing, and using bad judgment, he asked that we compensate him for, not only the electrical problems resulting from his bad decision, but problems with the pressurization and a slew of other issues that, despite his claims, were probably bad before coming to our shop.
The airplane was in very bad shape when we got it. It was not maintained well and had more problems than I would care to even list here.
Please judge Stark Avionics on 20 years in business, having an impeccable reputation, other than what you see here in this forum.
John Stark
Stark Avionics
5290E ARMOUR RD.
COLUMBUS METRO AIRPORT
COLUMBUS, GA 31909
PH 706-321-1008
FAX 706-324-3770
Web page
http://starkavionics.com