Anyone else? Avionics nightmare, theft, sabotage

ebykowsky

ebykowsky

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Long time no post... I've been spending my time working, getting married, buying a plane, and general life stuff. First a huge thank you to this forum - all of you are responsible for so much of the knowledge I have as an aviator and member of the aviation community.

Now for the story (I'll keep it short). This is half-rant, half looking for others who may be in my situation:

In October 2021, I bought a plane and signed up for a panel overhaul with a local avionics shop (certified Garmin dealer). The director of avionics (DoA) offered to buy a GPS directly from Garmin on my behalf to get his dealer's discount and make the sale (because I was on a tight budget). I paid him directly for the GPS. The rest of the avionics (G5s) were purchased through the shop with a typical dealer markup (TL;DR at bottom)

Over the course of the next year, I barely flew my plane:
+ G5 install and panel retrofit finished in March (GPS still on "backorder")
+ 1 month later, my airspeed went to 0 in hard IMC. Found out it was due to shattered fittings on the G5
+ DoA replaced my fittings. Same exact thing happened a few hours later (shattered fittings)
+ Took the plane back into the shop (July by now). DoA replaced the fittings, but told me one of my static ports was "broken"
+ Static port was not available. I asked him to order even if there was a backlog. He said he would order.
+ 4 months later. Static port still not in. Have not been able to reach the DoA for 2 months now (blocked my number, wouldn't return calls placed to the shop's admin)
+ I finally order the part through another shop. Only a 4 week lead time. Find out the DoA never placed the order
+ Static port gets installed. Now my airspeed indicator (legacy - not the G5) is broken
+ Replace airspeed indicator. Now I have multiple leaks in my static line
+ Replace static line. Send to my trusted mechanic for annual. Aircraft won't start
+ Find out my ignition switch has a grounding issue
+ Replace ignition switch with an ElectroAir ignition. Takes the DoA 3 weeks to install it
+ Send back to trusted mechanic to complete annual. DoA "installs a new circuit breaker" in the plane after annual
+ Finally! I can fly! Oh no -- I can't -- because the wire from the circuit breaker to the starter is cleanly cut (by the DoA)
+ Find out the GPS isn't even installed... it's just a dead brick attached to my aircraft
+ Next day, DoA is arrested. 20 felony counts for theft by deception
+ I ask the owner of the avionics shop who did the work to check the serial number / see if the unit is stolen. He finds out that the GPS was stolen from his inventory. I am required to pay (a second time) for the GPS
+ Owner also informs me that the DoA intentionally sabotaged my ignition to delay install (since he hadn't been able to get a GPS yet) and likely intentionally failed to order the static port on my behalf
+ I also believe that he contributed to many of the other issues I had (static system, airspeed indicator, etc.) , for which I paid $5,000+ to fix

Anyone else who may be a victim of a similar incident with this person (there are at least 20 others), please reach out to me. You know who you are. I'd like to at least get solace through discussing with others, and hopefully take action together to make this right.

TL;DR: Director of Avionics sabotaged my plane and intentionally delayed me on multiple occasions to prevent me from flying. He then stole a GPS to install in my aircraft, which he told me came in as a legitimate order from Garmin 20 weeks ago
 
Sorry dude.
I deal with a reputable shop who has never had my plane for more than 10 days and I have a complete panel of Garmin gps and ap.

You get what you pay for, never try to cut corners for airplanes. And never tell someone you are not in a hurry because of funds.

Then they have provided great support while I wait and watch for updates and SB. I
I went there also during the installs and took pictures and learned what was behind my panel.My shop was not the cheapest but they are now years later because of the quality install and free support.

you need to find better people to hang out with. Shattered fittings?
 
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Holy hell thats as bad as it gets. Sorry to hear. Also what the heck is a director of avionics ? Seems like a job that doesn't really need a title.
 
I don’t even know where to start.
 
Just dropped off my plane at the shop today for some avionics work. Thanks….

sorry you had to go through all that. Some people just suck.
 
Ed Haywood said:
100%. Not much respect for that "owner" for putting this on his customers.
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Unless it was some sort of back door deal with an employee of the shop, then I would 100% understand a shop owner letting him hang out to dry.
 
I went outside the shop’s purchasing process, thinking I was buying direct from Garmin through a 3rd party agent (the avionics director) to get a good deal. I understand there’s a world where legally the shop can disclaim liability from the employee’s theft. But known sabotage that I paid thousands to fix, being grounded for a year, and having in-flight failures due to negligence or potential sabotage is what makes my blood boil. And the owner didn’t listen to me / dismissed me / yelled at me for a year while I tried to convince him there were issues with the process and my plane was grounded.
 
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Yup, the shop owner is responsible for the actions of its employees.
Paying twice, for the theft by an employee??
 
I can see why the shop owner didn’t put you at the front of the line since you didn’t buy your gps from him at first.
Doesn’t sound like a good deal since you are not going to get support from the shop since you didn’t buy it from the shop.

The cheapest is not always best.

I hope you find what you’re looking for here.

The rest is going to be hard to prove.

Good luck.
 
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Sounds like a shop here in Atl area where our club was getting some quotes for work. Great price. And then the avionics guy in the shop got arrested for stealing / fraud.
 
Who operation sounds crappy. Sorry to hear you got hosed. He probably was a substance abuser.
 
Oh boy.

Airplane ownership is hard, and when you're starting out, doubly so, as you don't know what you don't know. For better or worse trust is still a large part of GA, and it's sickening when people take advantage of that; it hurts the entire community.

Whoever needs to hear this.... Garmin, with very few exceptions (most notably G5's and "experimental" equipmen) doesn't sell hardware outside of their dealer network. Anyone offering to sell you new garmin hardware at a discount outside the confines of a written contract with a Garmin authorized dealer (you can find a list on their website), is trying to steal your money.

images (13).jpeg

That should've been your warning to stay far, far away from this guy, and tell his boss that he's trying to destroy his business. The business owner has some culpability as well for putting this thief in the position to do this, but in the end without airplane owners who are either naive, cheap, or some combination of the two, this guy would never have been able to scam so many.

In my experience, and that of several of my friends, price is fairly low on the list of factors to consider when choosing a shop. I did that once, and wound up paying the money I saved to another shop to fix their mistakes. Avionics seems to be very much a pay me now or pay me later business.

I sympathize, and hope you come out of this without it ruining your taste for aviation. There are good people out there, I promise.
 
Half Fast said:
Sounds to me like the shop should be liable for the actions of its employee.
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Jeff767 said:
You need to get a good attorney and locate as many victims as you can. The shop has some serious liability. They can’t push all the blame on the rogue employee.
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This. The shop owner should have known, and either has liability insurance to cover this kind of thing or deserves to be put out of business. Or more likely both.
 
ebykowsky said:
Director of Avionics sabotaged my plane and intentionally delayed me on multiple occasions to prevent me from flying.
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You do realize willfull damage to an aircraft is a federal criminal offence? And if the shop is a CRS the owner has also been lax on various Part 145 regulations concerning its operations. Have you contacted the FSDO or other offices about this? If there are 20 others they'll find them for you plus add to the misery of the "DoA" and owner.
 
I now feel nowhere near so badly about my own bargain basement messed up avionics install.
 
I'm so sorry. I hope you get inbounds. I'm also shocked that in such a small community we have more then one story along these lines in the news.
 
Yeah, you ignored some serious red flags. But I wouldn't hesitate to hold the shop responsible. Unless you met this Director of Avionics in the woods somewhere, as far as you knew, he was acting on the shop's behalf. You even said he agreed to the GPS purchase in order to "make the sale." And everything he did to sabotage your plane was while it was in the shop? Oh yeah, time for a lawyer letter and that shop owner to notify his insurance carrier.
 
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My opinion is that the business owner is on the hook for any malfeasance that occurred as part of work being done directly by the shop and paid for by the airplane owner. Any work or purchases that didn’t go directly through the shop would be between the aircraft owner and the person he was dealing with.
 
How did the OP pay him directly?

Credit card? Then call the credit card company.

Check, you wrote out to the avionics company or the guy directly? If you wrote it to the avionics company, they are responsible, if not, that’s between OP and DoA and any reasonable person should have realized they were doing something wrong.

Cash? I’m having flashbacks to Miami Vice episodes.

If OP bought stolen equipment directly from the guy, that’s his problem.

This is 1 side of the story, I’m betting the shop’s version is different.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
How did the OP pay him directly?

Credit card? Then call the credit card company.

Check, you wrote out to the avionics company or the guy directly? If you wrote it to the avionics company, they are responsible, if not, that’s between OP and DoA and any reasonable person should have realized they were doing something wrong.

Cash? I’m having flashbacks to Miami Vice episodes.

If OP bought stolen equipment directly from the guy, that’s his problem.

This is 1 side of the story, I’m betting the shop’s version is different.
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Agreed, the OP should have realized there was something shady. However, he was told that the DoA was going to order directly from Garmin, not stealing it from inventory. So there is a part of the situation that he is not responsible for.

All the rest, IMO, is on the shop for failure to supervise and monitor the work of the employees.
 
Time to lawyer up to recover what you can. The shop should have liability insurance.
 
If I understand this correctly.

You went to avionics shop for upgrade
You then made a side deal with their avionics guy to complete some work for less while in the same shop.
You did this knowing the shop wouldn’t know.
You were ok doing this and stealing from the shop so you could save some bucks.
It went sideways.
The crook you made a deal with to steal from the shop ended up stealing from you.
You’re upset at the shop.
You now think the shop should help you.
 
Jamie Kirk said:
You now think the shop should help you.
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As do several posters, which I find curious.

Having had experiences with dishonest employees, I fail to see how the business owner is responsible for the criminal actions of the employee, who was enabled by the OP's agreement to engage in subterfuge. The alleged poor work and failings by the shop over time were almost certainly a result of the employee and OP trying to hide the entire situation from the employer.
 
Sorry, sucks to be you.
I agree on legal counsel, certainly to decide what to do and if to move the plane elsewhere for fixing.

I really do not understand not naming the shop and the accused.
 
4RNB said:
Sorry, sucks to be you.
I agree on legal counsel, certainly to decide what to do and if to move the plane elsewhere for fixing.

I really do not understand not naming the shop and the accused.
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Probably worried about being sued for libel. Remember this is only one side of the story.
Also, if you buy stolen property, that’s on you, you can’t go after the shop for the stolen GPS which he paid for directly, knowing he was cutting the shop out of it’s markup profit.
For the other extra work that’s resulting in extra charges, yes, but then he have to admit what he did, in court, under oath.
 
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