I was considering upgrading my A109E to a Bell 429, one of the reasons being the complete rip-off and unethical costs of servicing just one small Rogerson Kratos display in the Agusta.
Rotorheads readers will probably remember the thread (see
HERE) where I mentioned that the price quoted by Rogerson Kratos was up to USD53,400 (current AUD71,800) to repair one of these display and the quote I ended up with was USD44,500. And remember, the problem could be as simple as a faulty ¼-watt resistor. Rogerson Kratos is so lacking in ethics that it won’t provide service information to anyone else and so it knows that it will most likely get away with rip-off charges for servicing equipment.
I will point out once again that the exchange overhaul cost for a Garmin IFR-approved 600 display is USD 1,200 and for the larger Garmin 1000 it is USD 1,500.
How could Rogerson Kratos possibly justify USD53,400? Well, of course, it’s not possible that this could ever be a reasonable figure.
A week ago I went for a demo flight in the Bell 429. What a fantastic aircraft! But I was absolutely staggered to find that Bell are using Rogerson Kratos displays in the 429 – in this case, they are larger units so no doubt the rip-off service cost after the unit is out of warranty will probably be something like USD 100,000!
On discovering that Bell are using the Rogerson Kratos units in their 429s, I instantly decided not to buy the aircraft and I am now starting a campaign to advise everyone I can in the helicopter industry throughout the world not to buy a Bell 429 using Rogerson Kratos displays until Rogerson Kratos agree to give reasonable and ethical overhaul costs for equipment they have already sold.
Or course, this cannot be Bell’s fault as I have found Bell to be a totally ethical company but somehow they haven’t been told what Rogerson Kratos do to people who have aircraft that are out of warranty and, as a result, they have no power in being able to get a competitive quote.
I am going to start a major campaign including media releases – any help I can obtain from anyone else would be greatly appreciated.