[bjherron]

Welcome to the forum John.

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.

You start out this with "prior to picking up the plane...". This statement is false, you never told me that you didn't wire this up before I paid you and flew the plane home. It was only after my trip when I came up with a large squak list that you said it wasn't allowed and this whole discussion with the FAA and Garmin began. At that point, it becomes a defensive topic because a feature was paid for, never delivered, and only after the fact is it proclaimed that it can't be done because of the FAA (and contrary to Garmin's own rep)

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.

I think we can agree that there was a $1500 credit, however we do not agree why.

The credit was primarily because you charged me for a Flightstream 210 that was never delivered or installed. Your definition of "pre-wired" was to run a power and data wire into the avionics bay but not actually install the connectors. There were numerous other things that happened that had a huge cost to me (dead STEC autopilot, no pressurization, transponder switch wired wrong, dead battery, no crossfill) that $1500 doesn't even scratch the surface of.

I didn't even want the money, I wanted what I paid for. My offer was to pay the flight and travel expenses to have your guy come up and fix the wiring issues, but you declined. I'm sure most people could understand that I wasn't willing to fly the plane back and risk another bad departure experience after the first one.

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.

Again, this is not how the story played out, but in any story I suppose there are two sides and the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Bottom line is we agreed on the Friday afternoon pickup time. If you did not want to be inconvenienced in a Friday, you should have not agreed to it. I am a small business owner and if someone wants to give me $30K in business, I would be there on a Saturday night for them.

Only when I arrived was I informed that the battery wasn't holding a charge. The plane was also not fully finished, a tech was still working on the panel when I pulled in.

You suggested leaving the charger on it that was already connected while your tech was working on the panel, so we tried it. It didn't work, and by the time I taxied back you were already gone and unwilling to return to the airfield. Only then, from your cell phone, did you say that you're only an avionics guy and that I should call a field mechanic to fix my problem.

This did not rise to the level of service that I expected. And truthfully, the pickup experience is the moment really where everything went south.

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.

Are you offering to pay for this issue? Is this a serious offer? You can check flightaware and see that I flew to your shop at a pressurized altitude, but had to return at an unpressurized altitude. I'll have to check the work order but I think they checked the plate seal and that wasn't the case. I think the heater hose going into the avionics area was damaged causing a large leak.

I'll be happy to send you the work order and bill in exchange for payment if you are serious. However I don't recall this being offered during the issue so I'm skeptical.

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.

I simply posted my opinion of my experience. It's obvious we disagree, and thus things fell apart.

I don't think claiming I flew in on a airplane that was not well maintained (that I fly > 100 hours a year all-weather) is really taking a step forward. Everyone knows GA planes are old, and working thru issues that can occur during maintenance is something that any pilot/owner/mechanic has to deal with every day. For me it's how those issues get handled that determines the experience.