You know, nothing really interests me less than the US legal system.
But, of course, we all know that “frivolous” law suits really exist over there. Maybe Avidye has a good reason to protect itself from those … My plane is owned privately anyway. And I am sure they would have a hard time to hold this up in Europe (even if it really means what you think, but I have to read that again).
There are 200 posts on this on COPA (… no wonder with most SR2xs flyig with Avidyne avionics).
This is part of one of the posts:
In order for this to be a bad thing a lot of things have to line up:
You have to have an incident that causes a loss.
You (or your estate) have to be sued.
Avidyne has to be named in the suit.
Your estate has to lose the suit.
Avidyne has to be held liable and a portion of the loss assigned to them.
I don’t know the numbers but, how many times has this happened up until now?
Are you comfortable with that risk?
If you take on that risk, you get a reasonably priced warranty to fix the units for a few years.
If you become uncomfortable with that risk, sell the plane
I don’t know the numbers but, how many times has this happened up until now?
Yeah but if that never happens, why does Avidyne take the reputation damage over something’s not worth anything? Their counsel running amok?
That’s what I don’t get. Why chuck away a lot of the “Avidyne is the underdog, trying hard under Garmin’s massive boot to bring out some competitive products” position? The company has great products now but has been trading on so much of this anti-Garmin sentiment. Their cash raising programme has been a total joke, otherwise.
What do they know?
Maybe they had their backs against the wall on some corporate financing deal. The most lucrative corporate financing is with borrowers who have an apparently viable business but have their back to the wall on cash flow.
Or maybe they had their back to the wall with product liability insurance. That cover doesn’t cost much (maybe a few % of trade revenue, for avionics) but you do have to have it.
The arguments about this have been done to death here and on other forums.
One aspect that has yet to be mentioned is that, if Avidyne is ever sold one of the questions that will be covered in the legal due diligence process will be the extent of any potential exposure to legal claims. Apart from the arguments already made: this is one way of trying to minimise that.
The arguments about this have been done to death here and on other forums.
Not here, EuroGA. US ones maybe, closed paywall ones maybe, but most EuroGA readers won’t have seen them.
There was just one other and it got derailed.
Good point about the company value, if planning on selling it. Presumably Garmin would be banned from a takeover merger?
Who are the investors in Avidyne? Maybe they are trying hard to preserve an exit route – as all investors do.
There has been quite a bit of activity about the IFD540 failures on the Avidyne forum. The noise level may not be a true indication of the number of underlying problems (<10 if you believe Avidyne statements). The number of affected boxes is of course higher than 10, but maybe not as high as it sounds from the noise level. The number of incidents also needs to be put in the perspective of >1000 installed boxes (again, if you believe Avidyne). Quite a few of the issues appear to be related to a tight fit and physical connection alignment when installing into a Garmin 530 tray due to a very slightly larger IFD540.
Nonetheless, each in-flight failure is a potential accident and therefore a risk for Avidyne (not to say the pilot, etc). It seems that many of the early buyers are being conservative with their use of the box, with some limiting use to VFR for a while until confidence builds up, and others having a backup alternative in their aircraft to cover eventualities. The backup alternative is always a good idea, even with Garmin boxes, but needs to be built into the panel design with consideration for different scenarios. Nothing is perfect when devices fail.
It might be that Avidyne is using the warranty extension credit to try to lure as many onto the plan as possible to insure against their costs for any accidents that might occur during the high-risk period of birth pains. Avidyne will of course weigh and make their own decisions about reputation damage vs advantage, just like any manufacturer of a consumer product. There has been a lot of flaming of Apple and they are still very successful.
Pre-buyers get a 2 year warranty (AeroPlan warranty extension adds 1 year to that at no charge). Current buyers get 1 year warranty and the AeroPlan warranty extension adds 2 years to that at no charge. As a pre-buyer, I won’t take the extension or sign the waiver. If the box is not stable after 2 years, I’ll just need to bit the bullet and pay the $1200 flat rate fee for repair. That’s what I’ve done with my Garmin transponder and the flat fee amortization over the time in service is still a better deal than the insurance of an extended warranty. Self-insurance is often a good alternative if one saves for it or acknowledges the risk. The biggest difference may well be the priority handling and turnaround time. My hope is that the box will be so popular that it may be possible to find a loaner in case of RMA. Time will tell if that is realistic. My opinion is that it compares more than favourably overall with a Garmin 750, depending a bit on pilot preferences. The menu system is FMS-like and superior to Garmin’s and it sounds like the box is very popular in the US… time will tell if it meets Europe needs.
Vince
Ben is referring to AeroPlan. I would recommend anyone interested/concerned to actually read it.
And after reading it and you still don’t want to sign up for it, no problem – totally your choice.
For the record, the warranty story is:
12 month product warranty. Everybody gets that.
Additional 12 months of warranty for registering the unit for a total of 2 years. Registering is optional but encouraged.
Additional 2 years of warranty for signing up for Aeroplan for a total of 4 years. Signing up for Aeroplan completely optional.
AIUI, you are not obliged to take that extended warranty. It’s a straight tradeoff between the extra liability, and the value of the extra years’ warranty which will depend on your view of how likely the unit is to pack up if it didn’t pack up within the first year.
Also, IMHO, IANAL, etc, a private individual buyer will not be bound by such a warranty in Europe. Only if you own the plane as e.g. Ben Aviation Ltd (which admittedly is what many private owners do) do you lose the protection. Or if the UK leaves the EU in June 
