Customer Service Manager Discusses What Lancair Customers Are
Building And How (Part Three of Three)
Aero-News:
Well, I think that pretty much covers the program. Is there
anything else you want to send out there to the readers?
KL: Well, in addition to the program, we have
fastbuild options. We have engine fastbuilds, we do firewall
fastbuilds, so when they come in and do four weeks, their firewall
will be done, so when they're ready for their engine, then they
send their engine mount back, and we fastbuild the engine.
It can, if they're using our avionics shop, move from the engine
shop into avionics, and they'll do a complete engine harness. We
have one in the tent -- it's just beautiful workmanship. And then
of course, you know, our avionics shop offers prewired panels.
Aero-News: I imagine, though, people really
want to put their mark on a panel. Isn't that something that's
highly customized?
KL: Yeah. Several years ago -- trying to make
it easier -- we tried to come up with Panel A, B and C on each of
our airplanes. That didn't work! Everybody wanted something just a
little bit different.
Aero-News: "I want Panel A but with THIS from
Panel C..."
KL: Exactly! They're all custom. Similar
equipment, just a little different in the layout, or colors are
different. Some customers go with the leather, we offer a very nice
leather-wrapped panel now.
Aero-News: Are more of them choosing a glass
panel, or is it steam gages?
KL: Glass. I would guess that in our panels
that we're putting together, eighty percent have been glass of some
sort -- either the Avidyne, Chelton, and we have our first OP
Technologies panel that's going to be going together.
Aero-News: I didn't even know they existed -- I
just saw an ad for them in a magazine I was reading yesterday! You
can't keep up...
KL: Yeah, I wanted to go over there [OP Tech
booth], one of their sales reps is a Lancair IV builder out of
Chicago. And I ran into him yesterday, and said, "You're going to
have to show me your equipment."
I flew cross-country in the Propjet -- there were three of us --
and it was my first cross-country with a Chelton.
Aero-News: Isn't that thing the cat's pajamas?
To me, that's the class of the market right now.
KL (reverently): For anyone, if you aren't sure
what you want, go on a cross-country trip with the Chelton. It was
just awesome.
Aero-News: I mean, the Avidyne's very nice,
I've flown that in the Cirrus, but the Chelton is something, with
the terrain and obstructions and everything... I want that. And I
don't fly in weather. I imagine most of the Lancairs will be
operated in weather at some point.
KL: I don't know that a lot of people intend to
fly hard IFR, they don't fly hard IFR. But these are all IFR
airplanes. Coming out, we ended up going up to Indy for a demo
ride, and had to file IFR, just to get through some stuff, and of
course we got weathered in for a day.
Aero-News: Has anyone built a Legacy or a
fixed-gear with a VFR panel? Never?
KL: I don't know of any off the top of my head.
But there's a guy we;re working on a Legacy fixed-gear with right
now, who's just going to do just a basic VFR panel. He says that he
can always upgrade later. I told him, "The trouble is, once you're
done with this, all you're going to want to do is fly it. So I'd do
what you finally want now, but it's probably never going to be
retro'd."
You could. But when you have that kind of time into a project --
you know, just do it right.
And then we just had a Legacy Fixed-Gear customer put $120,000
panel in.
Aero-News: WOW. What did he put to run the
meter up that high?!?
KL: Chelton, Chelton screens... weather...
traffic...
Aero-News: Ryan traffic?
KL: Yeah.
Aero-News: Well, you could do it. You could
probably specify Honeywell if you really wanted to. Any other
customers doing something unusual?
KL: This is a good story -- and we're going to
do a release on him as soon as he flies, but this customer bought
the Legacy fixed-gear kit last summer, and did not have a pilot's
license. And he was going to learn to fly while he was building it.
And he just took his checkride maybe six weeks ago. And he's coming
out the last week of April to fly his airplane. He went through the
ten-week completion program.
Aero-News: So how do we transition him to the
Legacy FG from whatever he's been flying -- which is probably
something considerably lower-performance?
KL: Mel [Hill, Lancair Sales] flew with him.
His insurance company required him to fly, I don't know, fifteen
hours [with a CFI]. Just his last visit out, which was maybe
a month ago. He was just training that week. He'd work on his
airplane a little bit, but he was getting his time in.
Aero-News: And Mel's going to be satisfied with
him or...
KL: Or he won't sign him off. He's planning to
be flying this back to Virginia, as soon as the time's flown
off.
We have a flight training program. High Performance Flight
Training operates our flight training now, it was started through
Lancair, and we support it, and they've got qualified pilots. Our
focus is safety. Everybody knows what's happening, with the
insurance industry, and how hard and how expensive it's getting. So
our goal is to prove to them that we're making our pilots as safe
as possible.