chief a/c avionics

[bernard nowlen]

For those of you in the northwest, in need of avionics/etc, I'd avoid doing business with dana blix at chief avionics. His estimate for a compass systen installation went 37% over budget and he never called to advise me, or get my approval, for the additional costs. He won't negociate on the cost overun. he's holding my twinco locked in thier hangar, my old a/p dg, garmin GI 106A and my 1C388 radio coupler hostage. The additional cost isn't worth going to court as i'm in CA and chiefs in OR which would probably mean i'd have to use a federal court.
I've thrown away thier catalog and at this point i wouldn't buy a spark plug casket from his company.

[9089P]

Hi Bernard,

With regard to your comment on a forum for a law suit, it would most likely not be federal court, at least initially. However you likely would need to go to Oregon to file. Depending on the amount at issue, small claims in Oregon might be an option.

Don

[bernard nowlen]

thanks for the info. i am just going to "pay the piper" (pun intended) and will incourage everyone i know to not do business with cheifs. I've been flying for 48 years and owned over 30 planes(sel/mel/ses) and probably have over 25 folks that will be geting this forwarded email. I hope dan blix get's housed.

[jeffrey aryan]

To get more coverage out of your unfortunate dealings with Chief. May I suggest you also put a post on the public Delphi Forums.

Jeff

[bernard nowlen]

PS: the nsd 360 won't slave and chief's said every thing worked fine when "they" checked it out on the ground. If i'm willing to fly the plane back to them they will check it out again but i get to pay for the 2+00 flight costs. This time maybe they can go flying and see that it won't slave inflight. I think they did something to the vacuum line on the final installation but Dana Blix stands by his installation even though it won't work. The guy doing the local troulbleshooting has 2 twinco's is an A&P, CFI, retired AA pilot etc.

[Chris Kuyoth]

My dad purchased an altimeter from Chief @ 20 years ago. It was bad right out of the box. When returned, Chief insisted that "someone must have sucked on the static port" and would not warranty the unit. Chief would not even return the damaged unit unless my dad paid to have it repaired. Nothing like having to pay for an overhaul to a brand new altimeter!

Chris

[T210DRVR]

Chief's is located at my home field so I know the owner fairly well. I buy a fair bit of stuff from them and haven't had a problem. The avionics shop is another matter and I've heard similar stories to yours.

From what I understand, to do business with Garmin you have to have an avionics shop. I'm told, second hand again, that the avionics shop is a necessary evil and I don't think they look for it to make a bunch of money. Dana doesn't do anything at a loss, and I understand that. But since the shop isn't a high priority I've never felt all that great about the guys that he has hired over the years to run it. Since I like Dana, I just don't use his avionics shop for any work except an IFR cert. I'd rather not have bad feelings between him and I.

So, I have no problem recommending them for your parts and radio needs but I'd recommend staying away from his shop.

[Tom Veatch]