I like Aircraft Spruce

Albany Tom said:
I miss the local electronics and privately owned hardware stores, but they haven't been around in years. At least near here, anyway.
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The maker movement brought back some of the former. Microcenter lists a few passives such as capacitors as being in stock.
 
172andyou said:
I buy my oil at Oshkosh and Phillips gives me a ride back to N40. Like Uber, but free because it's something I need anyway.

I hope they still do it, but at least a few years ago that was still an Oshkosh-hack.
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I used to get 2 cases at the booth at Oshkosh, but they upped the minimum to 3 cases to get a ride to the airplane, so now I just buy 2 at a time from Aviation Oil Outlet.
 
AS in Canada was hit and miss. AS here in Texas is great. When i still lived in Canada, i oftentimes ordered on the US AS website and paid for international shipping/customs to avoid messed up orders from the Canadian warehouse.
 
I've flow into DuPage a couple times and gone directly to their store. A couple hundred $ in avgas to save $20 shipping is a clear win right?

For oil right now I'm favoring https://airplaneoil.com/ Not only are they the cheapest but they're close enough to me(St Louis area) that I can pick up my order at the warehouse, again saving on shipping. It would probably be cheaper to just pay for the shipping but I've made a trip to St Louis out of it several times.
 
cowman said:
For oil right now I'm favoring https://airplaneoil.com/ Not only are they the cheapest but they're close enough to me(St Louis area) that I can pick up my order at the warehouse, again saving on shipping. It would probably be cheaper to just pay for the shipping but I've made a trip to St Louis out of it several times.
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Yeah, thanks for putting me on to them.

Nauga,
and some cheepnis
 
"Aircraft Spruce is a monopoly" just says that they were for many years such a good place to buy what you needed, that the higher price and poorer service shops died.

They have done an amazing job of having most of what we need, finding it on the shelf, and handing it to the OUTSIDE DELIVERY SERVICE, which, hopefully delivers to our satisfaction, and they have continued to make a profit. Consider also how much money they invested to have that inventory on the shelf in all those warehouses. A lot of AMU's, for sure.

When that ends, they will be gone. Businesses that do not make a profit are rapidly out of business. Loss of the founding partners or family can have the same results. Anybody get any good deals at Tandy/Radio Shack lately?
 
geezer said:
"Aircraft Spruce is a monopoly" just says that they were for many years such a good place to buy what you needed, that the higher price and poorer service shops died.

They have done an amazing job of having most of what we need, finding it on the shelf, and handing it to the OUTSIDE DELIVERY SERVICE, which, hopefully delivers to our satisfaction, and they have continued to make a profit. Consider also how much money they invested to have that inventory on the shelf in all those warehouses. A lot of AMU's, for sure.

When that ends, they will be gone. Businesses that do not make a profit are rapidly out of business. Loss of the founding partners or family can have the same results. Anybody get any good deals at Tandy/Radio Shack lately?
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Agreed. I do worry a bit about them getting big enough to be a target of private equity ala hartzell.
 
Jim K said:
Agreed. I do worry a bit about them getting big enough to be a target of private equity ala hartzell.
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I think the percent of inventory that’s drop shipped (or drop-shippable) might be a factor there. Holding inventory is a drag on the balance sheet.
 
baboss said:
They seem to be hawking a new flight bag every f'ing week. Judging by their weekly emails, they're a flight bag store.
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Which begs the question, with everything electronic now, what the heck is carried in the bags?

I bought a nice flight bag about 10 years ago. I haven't touched it in at least 8 years. Certainly not since I bought my plane.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Which begs the question, with everything electronic now, what the heck is carried in the bags?

I bought a nice flight bag about 10 years ago. I haven't touched it in at least 8 years. Certainly not since I bought my plane.
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I still carry mine every time i go flying. i look way more important with that bag! lol.
 
I fly multiple airplanes, so my small flight bag carries the headset, EFB and my flight docs (certificates, medical, radio, passport) plus a few personal items.
 
baboss said:
IL folks, and others who have states with no sales tax on aircraft parts, check w/ Spruce and get your account notated. I emailed [email protected] which sent it to accounting ([email protected]) and gave them this:
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Thanks for this pointer! I did a little research and it looks like Arizona has this exemption also, though only recently. I followed up with them and that's still in progress; unfortunately I didn't see this until after I had already placed an order (same day, but completed the checkout). I don't know if they'll be willing to apply it retroactively or not.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Which begs the question, with everything electronic now, what the heck is carried in the bags?
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One of mine is full of test cards and a checklist or two, the other is full of old expired charts for places I haven't been in years and probably a few dead bugs.
I've never understood the attraction of a fancy bag, mine are just mesh-backed vinyl (dare I say naugahyde?) bags cobbled together in a paraloft and I love them.

Nauga,
the bagboy
 
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geezer said:
Consider also how much money they invested to have that inventory on the shelf in all those warehouses. A lot of AMU's, for sure.
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Bing "Effing" Oh

Surprisingly, many people are unfamiliar with inventory costs, including the yearly inventory tax in some cases. Then factor in other overhead, like facilities and employees, and that adds up quickly, dragging the margins down.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Which begs the question, with everything electronic now, what the heck is carried in the bags?

I bought a nice flight bag about 10 years ago. I haven't touched it in at least 8 years. Certainly not since I bought my plane.
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I keep most of my stuff in the plane and have no regular need for a flight bag, but earlier this year I rented a Cherokee a few times while my engine was torn apart. My old flight bag came in handy then for hauling my headset, iPad, sunglasses, water bottle, etc. back and forth.

Were I as wealthy as a POA member is supposed to be and owned multiple aircraft, a bag would be handy for moving stuff between planes.
 
I bought one flight bag when I was student pilot...from Sportys! lol
Still have it and it rides in the plane up on the front passenger floor unless I have a FO.
It holds all the normal flight stuff and a few personal items.
I use it to carry my headset in when going to hotels.

Then I won a real nice one from my flight school. I haven't used it as a flight bag but use it for a over night bag once in a while.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Which begs the question, with everything electronic now, what the heck is carried in the bags?
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I use my flight bag to carry a heavy pile of mostly obsolete crap back and forth between the house and the plane.
 
Half Fast said:
Were I as wealthy as a POA member is supposed to be and owned multiple aircraft, a bag would be handy for moving stuff between planes.
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Not really, you'd be wealthy enough to have everything twice or thrice (or however many planes the average POA'er has) and still wouldn't need a bag for any other purpose than looking important (and that bag better be Gucci or something).
 
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I can't see what they see but I have read multiple negative product reviews one day bringing down the average rating and then those reviews are gone the next day. All that **** smells fishy as hell.
 
I hate Spruce and avoid them the best I can. They screwed me on an AOG warranty issue and I will never forget it.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I hate Spruce and avoid them the best I can. They screwed me on an AOG warranty issue and I will never forget it.
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I'm trying to think of who I would head to under that scenario -- Aviall? What other "generalist GA stores" even exist?
 
schmookeeg said:
I'm trying to think of who I would head to under that scenario -- Aviall? What other "generalist GA stores" even exist?
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I've used Chief at times. Most of the parts I need are Piper specific and I go through a dealer for those. Then some other parts can be had from places like Airparts West and Preferred Airparts and even Knots 2U.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I've used Chief at times. Most of the parts I need are Piper specific and I go through a dealer for those. Then some other parts can be had from places like Airparts West and Preferred Airparts and even Knots 2U.
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I used wag aero a few times....until spruce bought them out.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Which begs the question, with everything electronic now, what the heck is carried in the bags?

I bought a nice flight bag about 10 years ago. I haven't touched it in at least 8 years. Certainly not since I bought my plane.
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They're a discrete way to carry your gatorade bottle urinals.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I've used Chief at times. Most of the parts I need are Piper specific and I go through a dealer for those. Then some other parts can be had from places like Airparts West and Preferred Airparts and even Knots 2U.
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Funny. I got hosed by Chief about 25 years ago on some avionics wiring that caused me to spend several hours under the panel to fix their problem. They admitted the problem and their "make right" was pretty much... "It happens". I won't use them unless they are the only ones who have what I need. We all have our hot buttons...
 
MRC01 said:
I like Aircraft Spruce too and order plenty of stuff from them. But I get my oil from Aviation Oil Outlet because it's the cheapest I can find ($85 / case for Phillips 20w50) and they don't charge tax or shipping.
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I appreciate the post. I had been looking for somewhere to order oil that had reasonable prices and a lower threshold for the free shipping.
 
I placed an order for some stuff I needed for the RV this evening at 4:47 PM. I got a shipment notification email at 7:07 PM. Not paying for expedited shipping or anything, just regular old ground, although I did pony up the extra $1 to ship it UPS instead of letting it fall into the USPS rabbit hole for a week. That's some pretty damn impressive order fulfillment in my book. I never guessed they'd have people there picking orders after normal business hours.
 
Jim: It will depend on which branch they ship from. I've had stuff come from Georgia or California, depending on what it was, and I was't picking up here in Roanoke.
 
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