Services/Products that you've gained/lost confidence in?

[timwinters]

So let's hear it. What services or products have you either completely lost faith in or, conversely, have definitely proven their worth to you?

This is just an effort to provide data points for people when they're contemplating product purchase/use.

I have a few (hence the reason for this thread) but I'll reserve mine for now.

 

[DanWilkins]

Product thumbs up: UPF-7. No ADs to comply with. No ADs ever issued on this dream of an airplane!

 

[Fearless Tower]

Things I used to have confidence in, but now don’t:

-ANYTHING made by Apple.

 

[steingar]

Ebay and Paypal. They are comfortable being the agents of criminal enterprise.

 

[timwinters]

I was thinking more along the lines of aviation related products but points taken.

 

[gdwindowpane]

Lift has definitely proven it's worth to me... I like lift.

Gravity can be a struggle at times...

 

[timwinters]

When I had my engine overhauled a couple of years ago, I drove it down to Georgia because I wanted to see it come apart.

I was amazed and appalled at the amount of corrosion inside. In fact, I'm glad I saw it myself because I likely wouldn't have believed it.

This, even though it was flown at least every week or two, well over 100 hours per year...some years over 200 hours, and I religiously used camguard.

I still use it. why? I don't know..."just because" I guess. But I definitely no longer advocate it.

 

[RudyP]

Things I used to have confidence in, but now don’t:

-ANYTHING made by Apple.

Gradually getting there too... it’s a bummer since I’ve been an Apple guy since childhood (back in the days of the Mac Plus)!

 

[OkieFlyer]

When I had my engine overhauled a couple of years ago, I drove it down to Georgia because I wanted to see it come apart.

I was amazed and appalled at the amount of corrosion inside. In fact, I'm glad I saw it myself because I likely wouldn't have believed it.

This, even though it was flown at least every week or two, well over 100 hours per year...some years over 200 hours, and I religiously used camguard.

I still use it. why? I don't know..."just because" I guess. But I definitely no longer advocate it.

Interesting, Tim. I've been using the stuff for the last 3 years or so. I've never been an additive kind of guy in, but I hoped Camguard was one of the few legit ones. Just for kicks, what oil were you using?

 

[Clark1961]

Interesting, Tim. I've been using the stuff for the last 3 years or so. I've never been an additive kind of guy in, but I hoped Camguard was one of the few legit ones. Just for kicks, what oil were you using?

Corrsion is one of those things that I think even CamGuard can't overcome. Unlike automotive motor oils, aviation oil doesn't 'cling' to surfaces. I think it's the 'non-dispersant' aspect that makes the oil non-wetting but that's just a guess. Anyway the oil can't prevent corrosion when it doesn't stay on surfaces after shut-down.

 

[OkieFlyer]

Corrsion is one of those things that I think even CamGuard can't overcome. Unlike automotive motor oils, aviation oil doesn't 'cling' to surfaces. I think it's the 'non-dispersant' aspect that makes the oil non-wetting but that's just a guess. Anyway the oil can't prevent corrosion when it doesn't stay on surfaces after shut-down.

Well, I thought the whole point of Camguard is to "maintain and active lubricant film on critical parts, even after prolonged periods of inactivity."

 

[Clark1961]

Well, I thought the whole point of Camguard is to "maintain and active lubricant film on critical parts, even after prolonged periods of inactivity."

I saw improvement in the film with CamGuard but it is still not like automotive oils.

 

[luvflyin]

Is the G'vment a Service/Product?

 

[timwinters]

Just for kicks, what oil were you using?

It varied and it depended on where I was working.

When I was in S. Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Northern Ohio, I typically ran Phillips 20/50 XC year round.

When I was in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, & Mississippi I typically ran straight weight Aeroshells. W80 in the winter and W100 in the summer.

 

[jsstevens]

Corrsion is one of those things that I think even CamGuard can't overcome. Unlike automotive motor oils, aviation oil doesn't 'cling' to surfaces. I think it's the 'non-dispersant' aspect that makes the oil non-wetting but that's just a guess. Anyway the oil can't prevent corrosion when it doesn't stay on surfaces after shut-down.

What's the difference in formulation that makes this so and why is it this way?

 

[Clark1961]

What's the difference in formulation that makes this so and why is it this way?

I don’t know. I did a little reading last night and note that aviation oils can be dispersant or non-dispersant so those surfactants don’t seem to be at the root of the issue.

 

[jsstevens]

I don’t know. I did a little reading last night and note that aviation oils can be dispersant or non-dispersant so those surfactants don’t seem to be at the root of the issue.

Is it the lack of detergents?

 

[Clark1961]

Is it the lack of detergents?

I’m thinkin’ many of the surfactants available today hadn’t been investigated and accepted for use in motor oils when the military specifications were written. The arguments back then were stuck on single viscosity versus multiviscosity so things were ‘primitive’ from a chemistry perspective.

There have been many technical mistakes over the years with various oils. There has also been a lot of good work done to go along with those errors. It’d be nice if credible technical data was available but marketing sorta precludes that. Not really an answer to your question just saying that the oil marketers keep their secrets and use smoke and mirrors and race car drivers and pretty girls to sell their products.

 

[Tom-D]

I’m thinkin’ many of the surfactants available today hadn’t been investigated and accepted for use in motor oils when the military specifications were written. The arguments back then were stuck on single viscosity versus multiviscosity so things were ‘primitive’ from a chemistry perspective.

There have been many technical mistakes over the years with various oils. There has also been a lot of good work done to go along with those errors. It’d be nice if credible technical data was available but marketing sorta precludes that. Not really an answer to your question just saying that the oil marketers keep their secrets and use smoke and mirrors and race car drivers and pretty girls to sell their products.

One of the many factors that effect us today is the pure sweet crude that these mil-spec's were written on no longer are available.
Our engines ran just fine on a simple single weight oil, made from good crude, for millions of hours.
Another thought, auto engines are now built with better materials and with oil clearances that can run 5 weight oils, I'm still required to built aircraft engines with .002" clearance in each bearing so we must run 50 weight.
To get that changed, is a costly nightmare, in an industry that is hog tied with regulations.

 

[Gerhardt]

I wanted to keep this aviation related, I did. But dammit, I've been working with ATT for 4 hours and 5 minutes now trying to resolve a problem.

Back in December my 82 YO dad was frustrated at being charged $50/mo for his landline, plus $65 for internet. So I checked with ATT and they have something they mysteriously call a "wireless internet device" that will give him both and cost me only $20/mo. So I add it to my account, go out to his house to hook it up and it doesn't work. So a few days later he takes the box to the ATT store where we bought it and they give him another one. He tells me a few days later the new one works great, and btw, he had to change my PIN on my account. I was surprised they let him, but didn't think much about it.

This morning I went online to get my daughter a new cell because hers gave out. When I pull up my account I see they've been charging me for TWO wireless internet devices since December. So I call them, but they won't talk to me w/o me knowing my PIN. It takes me a while to get ahold of dad, and he's forgotten what he changed it to. "Sir, what's your favorite restaurant?" I'm thinking they want to make this right with me, but no, that's the secret question to get around the PIN problem. It wasn't McDonald's, Applebee's or any of the others you'd think. I have no idea what it was, I think the girl was guessing and finally hit the right one. So anyway, she's finally in my account and I explain the problem to her.

"Great. We can cancel that. There's a $214 early termination fee though." I spoke with three CSRs, a supervisor and a manager, all of whom said they understood the problem, but they clearly did not. All of them used the phrase, "I can understand that you're feeling frustrated." When the manager used that phrose the second time I asked her to please not say that again. "I don't think you folks realize how much that ****es people off."

So I went to the ATT store in person and the guy laughed, said they can take care of everything in just a couple of minutes. "Okay, what's your PIN?"

I'm at a loss.

 

[timwinters]

just saying that the oil marketers keep their secrets

My first job out of college was with a big A/E firm. Bob Snell, the chief engineer (and great guy), used to work at an oil refinery. I *think* it was Shell and I *think* it was in Alton, IL. But that's been almost 40 years ago now...way too many beers ago.

Anyhooo...he said exactly what you said. He said if one of their competitors needed gasoline, they'd open a pipeline and send it to them...they traded gasoline (and diesel, etc.) back and forth all day long every day without hesitation.

But oil???...not only no, but...HELL NO!!!...they held their oil formulas very close to their chest.

 

[Stewartb]

Unhappy with Aeroshell 15-50. Happy with Phillips XC 20-50. Even happier when I add Camguard.
Happy with Garmin.
Happy with my iDevices.
Happy with Back Country Supercubs.
Happy with Superior Air Parts.
Happy with Whirl Wind Aviation propellers.
Happy with Basil Hayden's dark rye.
Happy it's spring.

 

[X3 Skier]

ForeFlight. They keep “improving” until I think I’m going to have a gazzilion gigabyte iPad just for VFR.

Symptomatic of the universal need to have code writers occupied after the 2.0 version of anything has fulfilled the basic need and mostly debugged.

Cheers

 

[Stewartb]

How much storage does Foreflight use on your device? Garmin Pilot uses 1.38gig on my iPhone. That's pretty small for what it provides. I remember Foreflight being about the same as GP when I maintained both.

 

[Lndwarrior]

IFly GPS happy early on, happier now. They just updated their software for synthetic vision. Guess how much they are charging existing users for the upgrade? Zero, nada, nothing.

IFly has been adding features and upgrades constantly - and never charge a dime for any of them. Also their support is awesome.

No other avionics company just gives stuff to existing customers the way IFly has been doing for years.

 

[timwinters]

How much storage does Foreflight use on your device?

My Foreflight takes right at 15GB. I have all the VFR charts, IFR low charts, taxi diagrams, AF/D's, and approach plates for the lower 48. Not sure how much it takes when we're still on a cycle but I already have the next cycle downloaded.

I have two main ******* with Foreflight these days:

1. How long it takes it to "boot up" these days. It used to be pretty much instantaneous. Now it's more like 20 to 30 seconds.

2. It is no longer immune to crashes. They're still quite rare but they do happen. I'm guessing about once a month. I was a very early adopter (iPad ONE!) and didn't have a crash for the first 4 or 5 years. I certainly can't say that any longer.

I'm still running an iPad Air 2 though so some of this may be a function of my older iPad.

 

[Stewartb]

That's a lot more charts than you need. Why not just load what you use? Planning a trip, add what you need and delete when you're back.

 

[timwinters]

That's a lot more charts than you need. Why not just load what you use? Planning a trip, add what you need and delete when you're back.

I tried that, it doesn't speed things up, and I have plenty of memory on my iPad. I'm currently only using 27 of 64 GB.

I keep my 7000 songs on my phone to make sure my iPad has adequate room!!

 

[Stewartb]

Ya, I have 32g of music. My weakness! Love iTunes and family sharing.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Happy it's spring.

Dammit! It's YOUR fault there's now a Winter Storm Watch here and it's supposed to snow all weekend!

How much storage does Foreflight use on your device? Garmin Pilot uses 1.38gig on my iPhone. That's pretty small for what it provides. I remember Foreflight being about the same as GP when I maintained both.

This depends *greatly* on how many charts you download. IFR + VFR for the entire US is ~7-8 gigs, which means twice that much when the new cycle downloads before the old one is expired.

I used to download everything, but that takes a long time. Now, I download my state (WI) and the five states surrounding it (IA, IL, IN, MI, MN) and use the Pack function to grab everything I need for longer trips.

 

[Stewartb]

Winter storm watch? That's what the Basil Hayden's is for!

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Good products: The Garmin GMA 350c audio panel. If you try it at Oshkosh or Sun 'n' Fun, the voice recognition sucks... But it was designed to be in an airplane, not in a tent full of people. When you use it in the airplane, it's awesome! It saves a LOT of taps on the GTN. Very glad we spent the extra $400 or so on it (compared to GMA 345).

Bad products: Anything by Honeywell/Bendix-King. It's clear to me that they don't care about the small GA market any more. Very poor (and expensive) support of their older products ($9600 for an overhaul exchange trim servo on my KFC150, for example, and they didn't even have any), and their new efforts are either outright bad (KSN 770 GPS, where you need to pull out the manual to go direct to something) or their certification efforts are so lackluster (KI-300) that they've gone three years since announcement and still aren't certified or shipping. Weak.

Good services: Poplar Grove Airmotive engine overhauls. Engines always come back from them running smooth, and they run them a couple hours in the test cell to do the initial break-in so you can't screw it up. We've gotten engines back from them that are basically broken in already before they're even hung on the plane. In terms of longevity, the last engine we owned the whole time went 951 hours between overhauls (Poplar Grove both before and after), and we recently sold one with over 3200 SMOH that was still going strong. Needless to say, they've earned our business for the foreseeable future.

Another: Skycom Avionics at KUES (Waukesha, WI). Have done some work with them on club planes (ADS-B upgrades, mostly), but lots with the Mooney. First of all, they have a fantastic component-level repair guy who saved us from having to do the aforementioned $9600 exchange on our trim servo, and also recently re-did our KX165 so it works like it's brand new. He's been doing component-level work on avionics for 30+ years. More recently, we did major panel upgrade: Removing GPS, Nav/Com, ADF, DME, audio panel, intercom, and a ton of associated stuff, moving another nav/com and the HSI slaving control, adding GTN 750, GTX 345, GMA 350c, and FlightStream 510. It was done *perfectly*. On time, on budget, and every single thing worked on the first try (with the exception of a minor issue that was fixed for free with a Garmin software update), even the stuff that wasn't so obvious: The GTN gets fuel flow from our old Shadin, and our (rare) dual music inputs both work perfectly... Every single thing that was left in the plane works seamlessly with all of the new gear. You won't find better work anywhere.