Hello!

Last year I purchased a S-TEC System 60-2 & ST-360 installation into my Piper Arrow thru a Danish company "Air Alpha A/S" (Piper's and S-TEC's authorised dealer in Europe).

There were numerous problems in the ordering process; the installation work started several weeks too late; S-TEC had (accoring to the dealer) lost the purchase order and did not respond to numerous inquiries (until I personally approached the company).

Previous year, when I ordered the autotrim, S-TEC had lost (this is what Air Apha told me) the order in the same manner. Strange ...


Furthermore, when the A/P parts eventually arrived it came up that the pitch computer was NOT compatible with the already existing S-TEC autotrim. So the trim did not work at all after the installaion until S-TEC sent another computer one month later ...

The approval issue was another trouble. S-TEC had not done the required paperwork for the European approval in time (although the order had been made 4 months prir to the inteneded installaion time, in order to avoid delays on the approval area...). Therefore the start of the installation work was postponed because the dealer denied to do anything "physical" in the airplane before the EASA approval would be in hand.

So again I had to spend numerous hours in telephone, calling EASA, local CAA, Air Alpha, S-TEC back and forth, trying to solve the mess.

The final delivery took place almost one month later than promised.

Last October I observed some faults in the A/P, most likely the reason is in pitch computer.

I thought "no problem", because the parts and installation are covered by S-TEC warranty. (this was a totally wrong conclusion)

I reported the fault to Air Alpha via email (first time) in October last year, Since then I have repeated the written fault report at least 6 times and made numerous phone calls to the chief of their avionics department. They have done NOTHING to fix my problem.

Air Alpha has given me numerous excuses blaming S-TEC for missing or lousy service. They have repeatedly told me that "S-TEC does NOT answer calls nor emails" and that "their CEO has written an angry letter to S-TEC" ... Hmmm..

Now it is May, 7 months have passed by and I have NOT received ANY help whatsoever neither from S-TEC or Air Alpha.

What should I do next ? Any suggestions ??

Please tell me your experiences with S-Tec (and their warranty repairs).

In case You are an European a/c owner and you are planning to order some avionics please FORGET Air Alpha, located in Odense, Denmark.

That company has NO idea about customer service.

Also remember that there are many other A/P vendors than S-TEC.

Yours,

Peter Tähtinen
Finland

Peter and Courtman, I cannot comment on S-Tec's customer service, but I can say that I believe that the Avionic shop has much to do with the level of service provided to us airplane owners. I had an S-Tec 30ALT w/GPSS plus a Garmin 430 installed about 3.5 years ago. The equipment has only needed minor adjustment during these 3.5 years so support from S-Tec has not been needed. But in my discussions with the Avionics shop on other matters indicates that S-Tec is neither the worst nor the best in terms of delivering on commitments and responsiveness. They feel that regardless of the mfg, they must be an expert in operations, installation and certification and they must have the inventory to support the installed equipment. Admittedly, this small avionics shop in Batesville, Arkansas is the best I have ever used and work on everything from jets to PA140's. I believe they are one of the top "dealers" of many of the typical avionics being uses in our GA aircraft, so I believe they may have a special relationship with their suppliers. Again, I believe that the local shop can be a signficant help or significant hiderence in supporting our avionics installations.

Peter, I need to tell you that last year I went on a self directed cycling tour from Hamburg to Copenhagen then across to Helsigor (or Helisnor - sorry I forget which is Danish and which is Swedish). I traveled through Odense, but alas did not get near the airport!

Bill
Memphis, TN

I thought S-TEC was bought by Meggitt who'd much rather worry about bigger stuff than GA. Perhaps that is the issue.

Hello

In January 2008 I bought a System 55X plus altitude preselect and anunciator for my Aztec F. The equipment arrived on the due date, was installed and works perfectly. My avionics shop did al the interface with S-Tec.

No complaints.

I have to agree about the poor service from S-Tec. I was a dealer for S-Tec for 20 years and can speak with authority. The original company was a pioneer in the autopilot business wining many awards from their piers.

The problems began when Meggitt bought S-Tec. Meggitts aim was to acquire the vast amount of STC's that S-Tec had acquired, integrate it with it's high end line and port it to larger aircraft. This they did and support for small GA aircraft vanished as well as support for the local small avionic shop. The numbers did not wok out for most shops. A system at 20,000 marked up 5% is $1000 profit. If there was a problem that profit drop very quickly and labor costs go up as the work stops and re-scheduling has to be done. This was one of the reason we dropped then and so did many other shops.

During this period, when you called S-Tec, you could feel the tension from the folks you talked to. They were afraid of loosing their jobs. In fact after the dust settled everyone that was with the company in the old days had been replaced. Will Colbram make a difference....no!