Exactly. while in warranty, nobody cares what the background costs are. But when out of warranty.....
I hear that AW, at best, offers about US$17k in core credit when going through them to RK, but RK are still the problem with the pricing.
I would imagine that Bell, like other OEM's, has signed a supply contract for a specific amount of aircraft units. Maybe 500 aircraft units (wild guess!).
So to change avionic suppliers before that is financially not adviseable as you still have to pay RK for the remainder of those 500 aircraft units.
And avionic OEM's don't want to develop a new unit or use for their unit if their aren't enough aircraft units sold to recoup their development costs.
All the Avionic OEM's have these costs, but some give low margin markets (like helicopters) a bit of a break and use money from higher margin markets (like airline/corporate) to offset.
Dick, no progress on changing out your screens to another OEM?
If I was purchasing a new helicopter these days, I'd be seriously looking at the OEM power by the hour deals so that the cost of these things is not my worry anymore. Although then you have to fly a certain number of hours/year, or at least, pay for a certain number of hours per year.