G5 firmware upgrade cost?

[arnoha]

So, my plane, with dual G5's, was sent to LAC Avionics at SJC by my club, WVFC at PAO to correct a couple issues. There is an avionics guy at PAO, but, uh, he's sometimes a little special to deal with. (Best as I can tell, he's competent, but unusually unpleasant. He's avoided by most unless you're AOG at PAO.) Two issues: the KX155A 25KHz control stopped working and the G5s were disagreeing on heading.

The G5 fix turned out to be pretty easy...swing the magnemometer. It was off by 6 degrees, causing the G5s to complain about the GPS heading and the magnetic heading making no sense together. They charged a reasonable $220.

The KX155A issue was just that the dial needed a good cleaning. That charge was a little steeper, at $340, but not completely crazy. Ok, a little crazy, but I've seen worse.

Then...in debugging the G5 issue, they upgraded the firmware. Something I can do and have done. It takes 10 minutes. I had already tried a firmware update to fix the issue, but between that and getting it to the shop, there had been another update issued that I hadn't noticed. For the privilege of sticking in an SD card and power cycling, they charged me $175.

Then they charged it again for the other G5.

I'm...peeved. Obviously, they're off my list of available avionics shops. Is there something about this service that I'm not understanding? Am I right to be annoyed?

 

[dans2992]

Did you approve this in advance?

yes, I’d call them on it and mention that you do this yourself.

 

[bradp]

Did you clearly state in writing the scope of the work to be done prior to releasing the aircraft?

 

[bradg33]

$350 total to update the firmware in 2 G5s using the same datacard, taking a total of MAYBE 10 minutes (including creating the datacard)? And they did it (or may have done it) without asking? Simple, I wouldn't pay it. Sure, they should be paid something for the work, but an hour at their normal labor rate is generous. This is why I generally avoid avionics shops. There are, undoubtedly, a LOT of good ones out there, but it's exceptionally difficult (and the risks are high) to separate the wheat from the chafe.

 

[bnt83]

I'd update the G5s for half that including verifying the AFMS rev.

 

[arnoha]

Did you clearly state in writing the scope of the work to be done prior to releasing the aircraft?

This is the issue with having someone else operate your aircraft. It's on a leaseback, so day-to-day decisions are made by the club. They have a $500 limit on what they can spend without me authorizing...but this particular one was authorized. I flew the plane to SJC for the work, in fact. I have to have some level of trust in the club or the plane would have a terrible dispatch rate while they were constantly waiting for a moment of my time.

The MX department is competent, but sometimes doesn't pay attention to what it's spending on our behalf. There's 50 aircraft averaging 30+ hours each month and three or four (not sure if the last position got filled) mechanics. Only one is an IA and this is over two airports (they also have planes at SQL). They will sometimes do the expeditious and easy thing over the cheaper thing to keep things moving along. Often this is actually the right choice, as it gets the plane making revenue again faster, but for bigger stuff it can really hurt.

This is a case where they didn't really spend much time looking: they sent it off to LAC and just passed on the charges without looking too hard. LAC is their preferred vendor, so there's a level of trust there, too. I just feel that trust was a little violated with this charge.

 

[chemgeek]

My avionics guy would have done the firmware updates for free. And has. Worst case scenario it just gets rolled into the billable hours to complete whatever other task was being accomplished for which the upgrade was necessary. A separate fee of $175? You have to be kidding me. That is a customer relations epic fail.

 

[dans2992]

Bring it up with the club then if they’re authorizing the charges. They might be getting fleeced like this on all the aircraft.
(BTW, do you actually _make_ money on the leaseback? I’ve always heard it was a money pit)

 

[arnoha]

Bring it up with the club then if they’re authorizing the charges. They might be getting fleeced like this on all the aircraft.
(BTW, do you actually _make_ money on the leaseback? I’ve always heard it was a money pit)

Well, there was a reason I called it "revenue"...

Occasionally, the plane makes money in a year. Oddly, my plane is flying extensively despite the lock down. Almost 60 hours last month! (Of course, it was less than 20 the month before due to the club shutting down.) It takes about 30-35 to break even for a month. However, except for the first year, where it lit $30K on fire, it's been OK. I basically own the plane for free and pay a nominal amount for my flying. It's still a good deal financially, despite not actually putting money in my pocket, over fully private ownership. It's also really nice that others fly it, it stays limber and safe, getting frequent inspections and piles of highly qualified CFI through it. (For whatever reason, around here, CFI tend to be 15-30,000 hour pilots, not folks with their commercial ticket still shiny.)

Of the 50 aircraft I was first and I think still only with G5. So, no idea. LAC deals with the whole gamut of aircraft, being at SJC. They are definitely not specialists in our little planes. It's the first time I used them. Every other time I've managed to catch the club and take it to my preferred avionics shop. Unfortunately, my preferred shop moved from RHV to MRY, so I thought I'd just try LAC anyway. Oops.