Owner's Manual Format

RST Engineering wrote:
We've been absorbing costs for about five years and just can't afford
to do it any longer. Two choices. Increase price or decrease costs.

For those that require a manual in the airplane, it is cheaper for
you to print it out on your inkjet than for us to use a copy service.

Jim



Jim, and I say this from a publishing background and the owner of laser and
inkjet printers, Bull****.

I can not print off a copy with an ink-jet or even laser printer cheaper
than you can have them printed. If I can you really need to find another
printer because you are getting screwed. And after you find a printer that
isn't bending you over you still need to increase the price do so.

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrote:
RST Engineering wrote:
We've been absorbing costs for about five years and just can't afford
to do it any longer. Two choices. Increase price or decrease costs.

For those that require a manual in the airplane, it is cheaper for
you to print it out on your inkjet than for us to use a copy service.

Jim

Jim, and I say this from a publishing background and the owner of
laser and inkjet printers, Bull****.

I can not print off a copy with an ink-jet or even laser printer
cheaper than you can have them printed. If I can you really need to
find another printer because you are getting screwed. And after you
find a printer that isn't bending you over you still need to increase
the price do so.

A "copy service" isn't for oneses or twoses, you do a run. To do that
you have to anticipate the future market for your kits. Parts have to be
bulk ordered, circuit boards made. Its alot to ask of 2 people who
already have their @sses on the line and are trying to save you a few
bucks. Plus you have to store all of the above, printed materials
included...

Apparently you have no concept of what postage costs either. That gets
factored in when you add weight and still want to be competitive with
the same widget thats already put together...

And since he's providing the circuit diagrams in .pdf format, that
allows others to simply roll-their-own, with no need to buy anything
from RST at all...

There may be a middle option ... separate the operator's manual from
the installation / maint / troubleshooting / detailed / programming
guide or whatever you want to call it.

If a one page describes how to perform most functions (I have seen
'howto' lists and tree navigation diagrams work well) then THIS
becomes the operators manual. This would keep the spirit of the
requirement.

When I am flying I do not want to have a large manual or navigate a CD
to learn how to perform an operation. It is probable that if I am in
this situation (learning equipment whilst airborne) then I may have
other issues to deal with and I am just increasing my workload.
Scanning a tree diagram (sorry, operations manual) is an acceptable
workload and the sign of well designed equipment. Anything else is
either because (i) I am playing with details of a non-critical
component or activity and should probably stop (ii) I have failed to
be familiar with a critical operation / equipment - this is poor
planning / decision making and I should not be flying this
configuration or (iii) the equipment is not suitably designed for
cockpit operations. Jim - your equipment does not fall into category
(iii).

Construction, learning capabilities, detailed programming,
configuration &c. should be ground operations - PDF / CD / print the
sections that you need should all work well. I use this criteria for
purchasing equipment and in my own construction.

A one pager for operations would be great. I'd hate to see great
products suffer because of the need to have trees fly instead of
letting them continue to produce oxygen and fuel.

Best Regards
Steve