Long-Simmering Issues Between Pipistrel-HQ and Various Dealer/Distributors Produce Battle

Though the situation was rumored to be in the offing for a fair number of months, Pipistrel Boss Ivo Boscarol, has pulled the plug on his long-time contract and distributorship agreement with Michael Coates' Pipistrel-USA organization. This happ[ened within days after Coates completed his participation in an extensive display at Oshkosh, which he has conducted and financed for a number of years, and allegedly refusing to credit orders taken by Coates at the show.

Both sides have stated reasons with which to dispute the other, and ANN has waded in to determine whatever truth can be derived from the facts that are slowly working their way through to us -- at the request of a number of parties... several of them US owners.

Pipistrel-USA was the master distributor for Pipistrel Aircraft for a number of years (over 20 years in all, we understand) and was reported to have been responsible for the sale of hundreds of aircraft over the years. However; the relationship between Australia's Coates and the somewhat mercurial Boscarol was known to have been a difficult one, especially since Boscarol had attempted to cut off Coates at least once before... while still reportedly owing Coates a considerable amount of money. That attempt fizzled within hours of our asking Boscarol about it... at the request of US owners and dealers who became concerned about the matter. Once the matter appeared about to go public, a new contract was reportedly reached between the two combative parties.

The most recent situation came to light with publications (both through social media and email) by Pipistrel Aircraft, in Slovenia, within hours of Coates' having been told that his contract was being cancelled. Coates was dealing with Australian quarantine issues throughout all this (having spent 14 days isolated and awaiting release upon Australian re-entry, after return from Oshkosh), and had virtually no time to react to the bad news before Pipistrel Aircraft had gone widely public and appeared to be undertaking a 'scorched earth' approach this time around.

What's this really all about?

Hard to say... there is a long history of bad blood between the two, along with Boscarol's rep for an occasionally bad temper... a situation we have experienced here at ANN when we attempted to ask the company to respect our Intellectual Property last year. The company's response was threatening, insulting, errant, and fairly rude. 

As far as our feedback on Coates' operation, over the course of several years, folks have related that Pipistrel-USA has made good on a number of customer service issues that the Pipistrel HQ would reportedly not cover and that with two exceptions, US owner satisfaction has been fairly good.

The exceptions?

One was a customer from hell that NO ONE seemed able to satisfy and the other comes, VERY recently, from a prominent American Pipistrel dealer that admits that they hope to take over Coates's distributor agreements--and was cited by Boscarol as a contributing factor for Coates termination despite the bewildering (and suspect) fact that the aforementioned letter seems to be dated AFTER Boscarol sent Coates (and much of the aviation world) the termination letter -- while simultaneously making wide-sweeping public announcements to that effect. Still; we are looking into the details in the most recent complaint.

So... our experience with Pipistrel-USA has been heretofore, positive. The same can not be said about Pipistrel Aircraft... who has most recently accused ANN of bias, bad judgement, false statements and other ills, within hours of our polite requests to get the Slovenian company's side of the story. Further; while Coates has been forthcoming, Boscarol's response has been limited and riddled with insult... or worse.

Each side has a serious list of grievances and we are looking into as many of them as evidence allows.

Again; there ARE a number of questions raised by all this... and while Boscarol has been limited in his responses, we have yet to have a question go unanswered by Coates... though the veracity of all the details is yet to be fully determined. Both sides indicate that legal action is underway.

OK; for the record, Pipistrel-USA has been a sponsor of ANN up to this point. To avoid the hint of bias, we have discontinued that relationship for the foreseeable future.

The situation, as it has been thus far related and researched, raises a number of concerns even though the data is trending strongly toward the side of Pipistrel-USA (i.e., by and large, we have not found that anything, significant, imparted to us by Pipistrel-USA to be untrue)...

Until we have enough detail to be comfortable with the matter, ANN has suspended all commercial business and sponsorship with any Pipistrel affiliate and will withhold our endorsements of any particular product--especially our most recent eval of the Pipistrel Panthera, until we can be sure that the companies involved live up to the promise presented by the products--which we still maintain to be some pretty decent airplanes. Yes, we have liked the products... but no product is worth a damn if the company that builds and/or distributes it is not working to best effect.

More info to come...

FMI: www.pipistrel-usa.com, www.pipistrel-aircraft.com