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Posted for "Wally Bestgen" <whiskeyb@sbcglobal.net>:
Jim,
I recieved this fro OP.
Wally
From: "Dexter Turner" <dturner@optechnologies.com>
To: "'Wally Bestgen'" <whiskeyb@sbcglobal.net>
Wally,
Here’s something that you can post:
Op Technologies has been selling and shipping systems with the Crossbow NAV420 since mid 2005. The NAV420 has the same hardware platform as the 425 so is susceptible to the same issues, although we have been fortunate that none of our customers have reported issues. This is probably due to the fact that even after we started offering the NAV420 in our Sport packages, we continued to sell AHRS500 units to many of our Viper and other higher-end customers because the 500 has the lightning protection, better shock and vibration isolation and has undergone and passed all of the DO-160D environmental testing. We haven’t shipped a lot of NAV420 units so since not every NAV420/AHRS425 customer experiences any issues, we haven’t had a lot of exposure. Also, one of the biggest issues was with the cheap GPS antenna that the factory supplies with the AHRS and we recognized that one early on and substituted a higher end GPS antenna with all of the units we’ve shipped out. We would have liked to have seen Crossbow solve all of the issues from the field quicker than they did, but from our experience on other programs from our previous life before Op Technologies, we know that EMI issues are not always easy to run down and solve. Crossbow has implemented fixes for the issues reported in the field and are attempting to work with the 425 customers who were affected but as you saw from the release that was put out earlier in the week, the relationship between Crossbow and Direct2 isn’t the best right now and that may prevent Crossbow from working with these customers. We have to remember that Crossbow is same company that put out the AHRS500 (which has proven itself to be a great unit) so they know how to build a quality product. Since they are far enough down the path at this point to have implemented fixes for the issues reported in the field, we are going to work with them to verify their fixes. In every avionics program we’ve been involved in, in spite of all of the lab and flight testing there is no substitute for the field and there has been an awful lot learned about this unit from the field. It’s the wrong decision for us to not take advantage of that and continue to use what is now going to be a better product. I’m not privy to what goes on with our competitors, but after reading the release put out by Direct2, I emphasize with their customers that have been affected (especially for those who have lost the use of their airplanes) and it stinks to see a business relationship go so publicly bad as we are seeing here. When a relationship goes bad, its almost impossible to work together to solve a complex problem. I can again emphasize with Direct2 in their specific case, but due to a combination of some decisions we made and some luck, we haven’t had big exposure to the field issues and none of our customers lost the use of their planes for IFR. We have a good working relationship with Crossbow and will continue to work with them to make all of their products great.
Dexter Turner
Op Technologies
(503) 690-0800 ext 29
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