Narco - it's lights out

The Narcos in my Mooney were good radios. Too bad Narco forgot about customer service. Prices and time were excessive if you needed it. Not surprised they didn't last. Talked to them at the the Palm Springs AOPA expo and was amazed they seemed to feel they were provided what folks needed.
 
murphey said:
Go into one of the big fabric/sewing stores. They have flip-up magnifyers that clip to your glasses, just like clip-on sunshades. Great idea, and about
$10. Perfect for contorting yourself under the panel trying to tie-wrap stuff out of the way of the controls.
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Or a pair of these:

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Well its just awesome that my plane has an entire Narco stack.

If you have ever sent a radio in for repairs, you know why they are closed.

Guess my planes value just dropped about 10k
 
Dave Theisen said:
I wasn't surprised to hear that Narco is going out of business. I WAS surprised that they were STILL IN business.
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Many years ago I had an on-going relationship with the guy who ran the company in the early 1990s when I saw him at AOPA in LAS. If he was still running it I am amazed it lasted this long.
 
So how much do I get to knock off the asking price for a Narco equipped 172?????

:0)))
 
Y'know, Narco had a bad business model, pizzed away a rock-solid market position. But it was their service that stunk, not their radios. And, contrary to common wisdom (which as it turns out is, all too often, not so wise), you can still get Narco radios serviced.

I have a 12D that is a rock-solid performer, much better COM radio than my 430W.
 
Henning.....no it was just a general question since I thought if the manufacturer is gone and parts are getting hard to find then the Narcos in an aircraft might have lost most or all their value wether they work or not......it would appear I thought wrong.
 
genetk44 said:
Henning.....no it was just a general question since I thought if the manufacturer is gone and parts are getting hard to find then the Narcos in an aircraft might have lost most or all their value wether they work or not......it would appear I thought wrong.
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They have no value to lose until they don't work, then they still have salvage value and some radio guy buys it for dirt cheap on eBay when I upgrade it out the panel and there will be some more parts in the support network. So this stuff just kinda keeps rolling at a zero dollar value to cost ratio while it works. More and more SVT upgrades happening to decent older planes because people see the value and want the safety upgrade in technology. You can build a double sided 600 with isolatable dual 750s and one of the glass engine options for <$100k. Might even just put a 300 on the right.
 
I for one loved my Narco 121 and 122's as it gave me a way to put a whole VOR/GS in a Grumman panel that only had a 3 1/8 inch hole available!. And they worked great!
Narco's problem wasn't with their products (which were great), it was when some SSOB convinced them that they were leaving money on the table by not forcing everyone to go directly to THEM for service. No parts or SB's to third parties, nothing. This was later recinded but by then the damage was done and the company name became synomomus with greed and poor service.

We're going to have to wait and see how the newer tech gizmos fare when they crap out...where can you send you G1000/296/396/496/696 when it dies? Garmin or a third party? And I'd bet it will cost more than having your alt/vsi/as steam gauge rebuilt...same problem different day.

JMPO and YMMV

Chris
 
Hiperbiper said:
I for one loved my Narco 121 and 122's as it gave me a way to put a whole VOR/GS in a Grumman panel that only had a 3 1/8 inch hole available!. And they worked great!
Narco's problem wasn't with their products (which were great), it was when some SSOB convinced them that they were leaving money on the table by not forcing everyone to go directly to THEM for service. No parts or SB's to third parties, nothing. This was later recinded but by then the damage was done and the company name became synomomus with greed and poor service.

We're going to have to wait and see how the newer tech gizmos fare when they crap out...where can you send you G1000/296/396/496/696 when it dies? Garmin or a third party? And I'd bet it will cost more than having your alt/vsi/as steam gauge rebuilt...same problem different day.

JMPO and YMMV

Chris
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Their lack of entry into the new GPS tech was their failing.
 
Actually they had a GPS, they've been dying for longer than GPS's were derigeur.
Something happened to them around 1990. The Mark12 D+ appeared on paper to be superior to the King Silver Crown stuff at a better price point. But something got wierd. First, the D+'s weren't reliable. Second, they pulled field service (albeit so has Gamin now) and factory service was problematic slow. Operating a flying club out of IAD we pretty much had to can the plane that had these Narcos because we had to have radios to operate and the plane was just down too much while Narco farted around with them.

My big concern is that management was hosed. The president of the company made some really bizarre statements in the magazines, etc... at the time which pretty much had me doubting his sanity. I suspect it was management philosophy rather than any technological decisions that killed them.

I believe they had partnered with Trimble to get GPS technology (Trimble was/is one of the big names in GPS but they decided to get out of the aviation market a long time ago).
 
flyingron said:
I suspect it was management philosophy rather than any technological decisions that killed them.

I believe they had partnered with Trimble to get GPS technology (Trimble was/is one of the big names in GPS but they decided to get out of the aviation market a long time ago).
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A couple of notes from my perspective:

1) While the features vs price-point may have been good, I always found the receivers & transmit audio to be lacking a bit. The receiver performance never was as good as the Garmin or King units. The audio wasn't great either.

2) I still have an NCS-812 in the stack. I use it as the #2 - the DME works OK, the NAV is a mixed bag, much less performance vs the Garmin (my #1). COM is distinctly lacking. That unit is a candidate for replacement, I've been putting it off due to cost/vs/plane value & overthinking the "keep vs sell the plane" question. The -812 is basically reliable, but doesn't perform as well as the other units I've used.

3) I pulled a Narco ADF-841 when I got the Garmin 430. It was unreliable, and factory service was overpriced. It's still in a box if someone wants to buy it. The issue appeared to be seating in the tray... I haven't used it in a long time.

4) Trimble is still in business, but left the aviation business. They never could compete against Garmin (who could....) - the development costs to put a moving map model on the market was too high. The 2000-series of GPS units were rock-solid, but lacked the features of the Garmin. Trimble is a big name in surveying applications & similar commercial uses of GPS. On the military side, Rockwell is huge. I think Trimble will be squeezed further in the future.
 
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