PL Products now Aeroslave

Fri Jan 7 10:12:38 AKST 2005

Gray sums it up well.  Bottom line is that we are both modelers first and businessmen second.  We're local and only a phone call or email away.  Our products are only introduced because we think they have serious advantages and are superior.  We don't charge a high price and I love talking planes and engines and do so extensively with many people.  We are both constrained with time so we do our best to be predictable with deliverys.  If you need a spare part it will be supplied asap.  Yes, we stand behind our products, take feedback to heart, and do what's necessary to make things right.  Each situation is a bit different but I think most would agree that our effort to understand problems and fix them is reasonable and fair.  We are less behind now than before and soon will be ahead, so asap may be tomorrow's mail in the not too distant future.  Certainly the shipping, communication on status, and turnaround, even with our constraints, seems better than what people are getting from some other sources.  And we are always improving the product and our process.
--Lance

--
District 6 AVP 
www.aeroslave.com

-------------- Original message -------------- 

I am sure Lance will reply later, but me first. I would to say that Amir is the second funniest guy on the list. When I saw his post I first thought that Lance had gone beserk......giving answers to questions that are typically my type answers...thats when I realized it was Amir's post. Amir is now in official Aeroslave "Timeout"  and on double secret probation for bad behaviour. I will call you Amir when you can get out.....it may be a while.

Seriously....The questions are easy to answer, but the real answer is what happens when the real problems arrive. We are a garage shop, actually a FOUR (big time expansion) garage shop, depending on which parts you are talking about. As a  result we make kits in our FREE time. I have three kids and a wifey, all three play soccer which means 3 games on Saturday, two are in Basketball right now, and then there is this job here at the Salt Mine that kinda pays my real bills. Lance has a similar situation. We fly in as many contests as we can....how much free time do think we have? 
Because of this, we usually have a 2-3 month backlog (right now it is 1 month for the Symphony). We do not accept any money as a down payment. We saw this as a sore point with many flyers. We keep a list, and when Your plane is about ready to ship we then ask for payment. You can back out if the time frame was too long or you got something from someone else. We hate holding peoples money, which seems to be a standard practice. 
On shipping, we tried to keep the costs as low as possible. We came up with packing scheme that was low cost and shipped about 50 planes without incident.  Then we ship a Symphony to GA and the crush the crap outta the box. Man, that puts our deliveries behind! At that point we had to bump the time frame back on the next guy on the list and make a replacement plane. We made the replacement, shipped it to GA again and guess what! they crunched that one too! We made a third, put it in a kevelar box (actually I BLESSED that plane), switched from Fed EX to UPS, and it made it!  So when people wonder why we got behind, that was a major reason. The other guys on the Symphony list had to suffer because of the FedEx trash compactor truck, and our inability to manufacture planes by the hundreds.   

When someone loses a canopy or more likely crushes a chin cowl we have to take the canopy or chin cowl molds off line for kit production and make a replacement. What we try to do is find a good time to do this. Right now, since they crushed those two fuses, but not the other parts we have a spare, but you can see how hard it is just to have spares. If we ever get ahead of teh deliveries then we can make and stock spares. 
On shipping we are going to a more expensive BOX to stop the gorillas. This cost we must pass on, but still, it is no where near the cost of getting a plane from our wonderful "allies" (sorry-thats a personal dislike and not an official Aeroslave policy). 
Our kits are also shipped with probably the most extensive instruction booklet in the industry. When people run into problems building either real or perceived they can call us. Lance especially spends alot of time on the phone talking people though the steps to build the kits. Most problems are perceived, some are not and the ones that are real we try our best to correct. 
The complaint that showed up on the list about us just prior to Christmas was a guy who bought a plane had a real problem, which we fixed. He then says he had other problems, but failed to ever notify us. He saw us at several contests and never said anything. About a year and some months after getting the kit, and starting to build it, he posted his version of a flame email. I surmise that he expected us to take back his partially built kit because his "filler" did not stick. In this case, even though he still has NEVER asked for his money back, I would have to say no. This is our only case where we have someone who is obviously totally unsatisfied, that I am aware of. 

Lance's earlier post stated our problems really well. The planes are expensive, and as a result, people expect the world, because they ARE paying a significant amount of money. People do expect the same type of service from Aeroslave that they get from some huge corporation. We really try to do the right things when problems arise. Lance and I are obvious idiots for doing this business. Pattern flyers are the toughest customers in the world. Just look at the majority of peoples gorgeous finshed airplanes. Do you think that they got that pretty and are so well taken care of by NOT being anal? Of course we know this going in. Think about it this way, the typical business will sell product at 3X their cost. This means a Symphony should cost $1500, which of course it does not. 
Lance and I make enough money to pay for our personal pattern addiction, which is nice, but trust me I could make more money as a Butcher or mowing grass. 

AND by the way....We have AIRES kits IN STOCK, sheeted and un sheeted wings. This is an excellent flying plane for any class. 

So Mike...Did you lose a canopy? Use a spring loaded mechanism and do not fly over swamps......

Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering 

"Mike Hester" <kerlock at comcast.net> 
Sent by: discussion-request at nsrca.org 
01/06/2005 10:38 PM 
Please respond to discussion 

        To:        <discussion at nsrca.org> 
        cc:         
        Subject:        Re: PL Products now Aeroslave

Ok, but here's a good question or two Lance. 

Let's say I have a Symphony. Oh crap I was doing knife edges over swampy Ga, forgot to tighten my canopy bolts (or whatever) and I lost the canopy! It's my only pattern plane, and the season is only 2 months from now. I call you. What response do I get? 

That answer alone could be the difference between "Aeroslave is awesome" and "Aeroslave sucks". If the quality is there, that's great. From what I've seen it looks  like it is. But it doesn't end there. It only begins there. 

If you sold a guy a wing panel sheeted, and it had the tube sockets installed, and god forbid it snapped a wing panel because....whatever reason, but lets say it's a very rare case of "oops". What is the response? 

I know how you operate, because I have dealt with you personally before. You did the right things, even went above and beyond. THAT I can get behind and respect. I know that you've had good and bad experiences and reviews, it's part of it. But it's how you handle it that makes you or breaks you. 

So answer the questions, enquiring minds want to know. You have the mic. 

-Mike 

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