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The Gyro House



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 8th 05, 12:47 AM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

Does anyone have experience with The Gyro House in Auburn, CA?

I ordered two factory-new Sigma-Tek vac gyros from them recently, with
air freight. When I ordered them, I mentioned repeatedly that I was
looking for factory new gyros and preferred that the gyros be no more
than 30-60 days old. The Gyro House confirmed that the gyros were
factory new, and that they had some on the shelf that were within the 30
day window.

When the gyros arrived, one of them appeared to have been repackaged
(shrink-wrapped) by The Gyro House with one of their stickers on top of
the instrument (under the shrink-wrap.) This gyro was date-stamped
April 2005.

The other gyro appeared to be in the original Sigma-Tek packaging and
was date-stamped November 2005.

Having concerns about the repackaging and shelf-life of the gyro from
April, I called Sigma-Tek, who told me that their gyros have a
recommended 6 month shelf life. They suggested that I ask The Gyro
House to replace the unit dated April 2005.

The Gyro House told me that I shouldn't have any concerns about a gyro
that's been on the shelf for 8 months, but they weren't willing to
commit that the gyro wouldn't have a reduced life-span. They did offer
to locate a newer gyro and ship it to me as an exchange, but they balked
at my request for expedited shipping even though they did not ship me
what I'd asked for the first time. They further told me that they would
be losing money on the returned gyro, because it would have to be
"re-worked" due to the fact that it was outside of Sigma-Tek's 6 month
window.

So... I'm trying to digest this situation and determine whether or not
I'm making a big deal out of nothing. Is 8 months on the shelf really
too long? Should receiving a re-packaged "factory new" gyro raise a red
flag, or is this a common procedure for these types of shops? Any other
first-hand experiences or advice?



Thanks,
JKG
  #2  
Old December 8th 05, 03:23 AM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House


"Jonathan Goodish" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have experience with The Gyro House in Auburn, CA?

I ordered two factory-new Sigma-Tek vac gyros from them recently, with
air freight. When I ordered them, I mentioned repeatedly that I was
looking for factory new gyros and preferred that the gyros be no more
than 30-60 days old. The Gyro House confirmed that the gyros were
factory new, and that they had some on the shelf that were within the 30
day window.

When the gyros arrived, one of them appeared to have been repackaged
(shrink-wrapped) by The Gyro House with one of their stickers on top of
the instrument (under the shrink-wrap.) This gyro was date-stamped
April 2005.

The other gyro appeared to be in the original Sigma-Tek packaging and
was date-stamped November 2005.

Having concerns about the repackaging and shelf-life of the gyro from
April, I called Sigma-Tek, who told me that their gyros have a
recommended 6 month shelf life. They suggested that I ask The Gyro
House to replace the unit dated April 2005.

The Gyro House told me that I shouldn't have any concerns about a gyro
that's been on the shelf for 8 months, but they weren't willing to
commit that the gyro wouldn't have a reduced life-span. They did offer
to locate a newer gyro and ship it to me as an exchange, but they balked
at my request for expedited shipping even though they did not ship me
what I'd asked for the first time. They further told me that they would
be losing money on the returned gyro, because it would have to be
"re-worked" due to the fact that it was outside of Sigma-Tek's 6 month
window.

So... I'm trying to digest this situation and determine whether or not
I'm making a big deal out of nothing. Is 8 months on the shelf really
too long? Should receiving a re-packaged "factory new" gyro raise a red
flag, or is this a common procedure for these types of shops? Any other
first-hand experiences or advice?



Thanks,
JKG


They should send you what you ordered and not make substitutions or excuses.
If they will lose money on the gyro because it is too old, then why should
you be stuck with it at full price? They should never have sent the old
gyro to you and if they lose money because of their decision, that is their
problem, not yours.

Mike
MU-2


  #3  
Old December 8th 05, 03:30 AM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

Jonathan,
I ordered a Gyro from them last fall. I was satisfied but not entirely
happy with the final outcome.
The original gyro I ordered was supposed to be a re-built sigma-tek. It
apparently blew up during pre ship testing. I waited several days for
the gyro to arrive. It didn't. I called them and he apologized. Ok what
do you have? We started talking and I thought we agreed on a New
Sigma-tek. A new RC Allen arrived. I called he apologized again. I
really needed the gyro at this point since I could not fly to work due
to weather. I installed it. It works but it was not what I wanted.
Michelle

Jonathan Goodish wrote:

Does anyone have experience with The Gyro House in Auburn, CA?




Thanks,
JKG


  #4  
Old December 8th 05, 04:57 AM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

In article t,
Michelle P wrote:
Jonathan,
I ordered a Gyro from them last fall. I was satisfied but not entirely
happy with the final outcome.
The original gyro I ordered was supposed to be a re-built sigma-tek. It
apparently blew up during pre ship testing. I waited several days for
the gyro to arrive. It didn't. I called them and he apologized. Ok what
do you have? We started talking and I thought we agreed on a New
Sigma-tek. A new RC Allen arrived. I called he apologized again. I
really needed the gyro at this point since I could not fly to work due
to weather. I installed it. It works but it was not what I wanted.



Michelle & Mike,

Thanks for your responses.

When I called to question the date, I was immediately transferred to the
president, Rich Anderson. He had one of his managers with him, and they
initially said that there was nothing wrong with an 8 month old gyro.
When I told them that Sigma-Tek disagreed, they said "since Sigma-Tek
told you that, we'll find you a newer one." Sigma-Tek did ask me who
sold me an 8 month old gyro.

I will confess, I did expect them to take responsibility for the
mistake, which they did not, even though they did locate a newer gyro.
I also expected them to at least negotiate expedited shipping so that I
could get the gyro to my mechanic before I leave on vacation on Friday.
I was told that there was no chance that they would pay for expedited
shipping. I probably should have ponied up the extra for shipping
because I really do need the mechanic to work on this while I'm on
vacation over the next week. I guess my schedule isn't important to
them.

I will say that the attitude gyro is what I ordered, it appears to be in
original Sigma-Tek packaging with documentation (unopened), and is dated
November 2005. So I'm happy with that. I am not happy that they tried
to pass off an 8 month old repackaged gyro as new, and that they acted
like they got caught in the bank vault when I told them I had talked
with Sigma-Tek.

We'll see how the replacement goes. It may get here by Friday morning,
which will enable me to get it to my mechanic before I leave. If it
doesn't, I may have him do the AI and send the DGs back for refund, and
buy someplace else.



JKG
  #5  
Old December 8th 05, 12:59 PM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

It wouldn't hurt to mention to them that the significant percentage of
active GA plane owners are following this story with interest... I know
i just made a mental note of where not to do business...

denny

  #6  
Old December 8th 05, 02:38 PM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

On 8 Dec 2005 03:59:29 -0800, "Denny" wrote:

It wouldn't hurt to mention to them that the significant percentage of
active GA plane owners are following this story with interest...


Interesting comment, I have always wondered how many people are
involved with the rec.aviation NGs. I think we are a small subset
(maybe 1 or 2%) of active GA pilots.

WAGs folllow...
r.a.* has perhaps several hundred (regular) posters, and several
thousand lurkers? In contrast, there are something like 600k pilots
in the US... Maybe 100-150k of those are active GA pilots?

It would be interesting to see Google/dejanews statistics on how many
times archived threads are read.

-Nathan
  #7  
Old December 8th 05, 03:43 PM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

Jim Burns wrote:
: Over the weekend the DG in our Aztec turned TU. (or heading bug down)

: I googled aircraft gyro repair and overhaul and an Avweb article came up
: that mentioned The Gyro House. So I pulled their website up. It showed
: that they had overhauled autopilot DG's so I emailed them for a quote on a
: direct replacement for ours.

: $625 plus $1200 core charge. The $625 was comparable to other overhaulers,
: I have no idea if the $1200 core charge is reasonable but after reading this
: thread I'm glad I sent ours out to a local shop for repair.

I would have sworn we sent ours to a place called The Gyro House, but it was
in Kansas IIRC. They were very reasonable... $600 to initially have the AI
overhauled, and the DG replaced with a sigmatek. After we installed the overhauled
DG, it had a bit of "jitter," shaking about \pm 2 degrees in flight. I called the
guy, and it wasn't a problem to swap it out. We ended up with our *old* DG sigmatek
(EDO-AIR) that he'd overhauled and shelved in the meantime (1 week or so). Very
pleased.

-Cory


--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

  #8  
Old December 8th 05, 04:13 PM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Posts: n/a
Default The Gyro House

Over the weekend the DG in our Aztec turned TU. (or heading bug down)

I googled aircraft gyro repair and overhaul and an Avweb article came up
that mentioned The Gyro House. So I pulled their website up. It showed
that they had overhauled autopilot DG's so I emailed them for a quote on a
direct replacement for ours.

$625 plus $1200 core charge. The $625 was comparable to other overhaulers,
I have no idea if the $1200 core charge is reasonable but after reading this
thread I'm glad I sent ours out to a local shop for repair.

If they can't tell 6 months from 8 months or tell a Sigma Tek from an RC
Allen, I wonder if they know which man goes on which bills. With my luck,
I'd get $12 George Washingtons back instead of $12 Ben Franklins.

Jim


  #9  
Old December 8th 05, 04:13 PM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

When we bought our Aztec, the owner had made some comments about having all
the gyros overhauled before we picked it up. So we agreed to pay for it and
he reduced the purchase price by the cost of removing, overhauling, and
reinstalling all three gyros. This was in August 2004. The TC was sent to
Nu-Tec, the DG and the AI were sent to Aircraft Quality Instruments in
Wichita, KS. All returned with work orders saying something to the effect
of no damage found, replaced all bearings, complete overhaul.

The DG went out 18 months/400hrs after overhaul. AQI has a 12 month no
hassle warranty. As they say... timing is everything. We sent it to a
local shop with a faster turn around time.

Jim


  #10  
Old December 8th 05, 04:34 PM posted to rec.aviation.owning
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Default The Gyro House

On 12/8/2005 05:38, Nathan Young wrote:

On 8 Dec 2005 03:59:29 -0800, "Denny" wrote:

It wouldn't hurt to mention to them that the significant percentage of
active GA plane owners are following this story with interest...


Interesting comment, I have always wondered how many people are
involved with the rec.aviation NGs. I think we are a small subset
(maybe 1 or 2%) of active GA pilots.

WAGs folllow...
r.a.* has perhaps several hundred (regular) posters, and several
thousand lurkers? In contrast, there are something like 600k pilots
in the US... Maybe 100-150k of those are active GA pilots?

It would be interesting to see Google/dejanews statistics on how many
times archived threads are read.

-Nathan


Perhaps AOPA can help? Can they be petitioned to start a customer
comments section, where pilot/owners can air their horror stories
about problem vendors?

--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Sacramento, CA
 




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