Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

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jb642DA
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by jb642DA »

Looks like Scott's link to Summit's "Cancer Survivor Flight Camp" got corrupted. Here it is again -

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... gles-wings

Great story and pictures!! Way to go Ben Walton and Summit Aviation!!



Edit -
PS: If anyone would like to donate to their summer camp, here's the link -
https://www.gofundme.com/cancer-survivor-flight-camp
Looking!
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krellis
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by krellis »

Haven’t read all the posts but has anyone contacted MTSU? They have a large Diamond fleet. Or Utah State?
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TwinStarScott
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by TwinStarScott »

Hi Keith,

Not yet for either colleges, as until you mentioned them I wasn't aware aeronautical programs were offered at these two universities. After some internet research, both leads look promising.

Yet the truth is, living on the West Coast for the vast majority of my life, I had to look up MTSU. As first I thought it might be Montana State University. But after a google search, I believe you are likely referring to Middle Tennessee State University. Is this correct?

www.mtsu.edu/programs/aviation-management/courses

After a quick glance or two at the above link, I didn't see any Diamonds pictured on their website. Do know if in fact they do have DA in their training fleet?

Looking at Utah State's website, Diamond aircraft abound.

https://aste.usu.edu/aviation/

The bottom line question is - are there any readers of this forum currently enrolled in either program? Or are alumni?

If so, please let me know ASAP by posting to this thread or by sending me a PM. As someone with a prior connection is always very helpful in getting more aircraft to join. Otherwise I'll make some cold calls next week.
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Chris
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by Chris »

Middle Tennessee State has quite a few Diamonds, according to this link:
In 2002, MTSU purchased 25 planes from Diamond Aircraft and The New Piper Aircraft Inc. for $4.8 million. These new airplanes enabled the MTSU Aerospace department to incorporate the latest technology into their flight training program with the purchase of a state-of-the-art fleet of Diamond aircraft. The delivery of 8 new DA40 Diamond Star aircraft in 2008 took this technology to new heights with an advanced integrated autopilot.

Beginning in November of 2018, MTSU has begun a comprehensive upgrade to the fleet of DA40s. Thirteen DA40s will be rotated back to the manufacturer for a complete restoration to like-new condition. Additionally, the university has committed to purchasing four new Diamond Star DA40s and a new Piper Seminole.
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TwinStarScott
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by TwinStarScott »

Wow - thanks Chris!
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by DaveS1900 »

Scott,
I'd like to make a suggestion. Diamond will need to allocate financial capital to this. The Diamond owners must get to the person who approves CapEx projects, my guess is this is either Mr. Liqun Zhang CEO of Austria or Mr. Scott McFadzean CEO of Canada. Maybe it should be both.

A case has to be made that happy owners are better for future sales than unhappy ones. A meeting should to be set-up in at one of their facilities or event, possibly coordinating with the schedules of one or both of these company CEO's. The petition should be handed directly to one or both of them. I don't think handing the petition to a sales associate at Sun-N-Fun will move the needle. What this means is pestering the company until a meeting can be agreed to. To get a meeting you will have to contact the company and say something like:
"A petition with XX signatures of owners is XX percent of diamonds flying. Having a large successful owner base is critical to the future success of the company. A meeting is requested to discuss what is needed to get the software up to date."

Just my two cents
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Keith M
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by Keith M »

DaveS1900 wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:02 pmTo get a meeting you will have to contact the company and say something like:
"A petition with XX signatures of owners is XX percent of diamonds flying. Having a large successful owner base is critical to the future success of the company. A meeting is requested to discuss what is needed to get the software up to date."
Could also add that if Diamond had historically been concerned about customer aftercare, they would have directed their customers to this forum, so we would then have been able to inform far more of them about this petition. Of course, it might not then have been necessary!
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by Boatguy »

My correspondence with Diamond in Austria confirmed that they do read this forum; they are not oblivious. It kind of reminds me of the Telsa forums. Tesla does not comment, but they certainly "lurk" and know what's being discussed.

Diamond Canada is clearly struggling with the basics of production, not yet breaking through to address the pre/post customer experience. Not entirely unlike Tesla which also has a great product, but poor pre-post customer experience. It's not malicious, it's benign neglect as they struggle with the basics of making airplanes.

Scott - on a separate note, Oxford Aviation Academy in Phoenix has a medium sized Diamond fleet. And Republic clearly has an interest in ensuring that the 50 planes they've ordered stay current. Try reaching out to them. My sense is that Diamond as a whole is much more interested in fleet/academy customers than individuals. And to be fair, it's much easier to deal with one customer who buys 50 planes than 50 customers who buy one plane. If you get the fleet customers to raise this issue, Diamond may pay attention.
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by TwinStarScott »

Diamond Canada is clearly struggling with the basics of production, not yet breaking through to address the pre/post customer experience. Not entirely unlike Tesla which also has a great product, but poor pre-post customer experience. It's not malicious, it's benign neglect as they struggle with the basics of making airplanes. wrote:
First turning to Keith's second to last posting - I understand your cynicism, even anger, and a lot of us can relate. Yet after watching the recent factory tour video with CEO Scott McFadzean, I also believe the quote from Russ is spot on.

- - - - -

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your detailed suggestion. Plus expressing your views and rough draft (letter to DAI) is much appreciated - as I agree entirely with the point contained within the quotation marks of your last paragraph! Also, I may have stumbled across some sales figures tonight that might allow the DAI production figures to be accurately determined.

Your novel idea of requesting a meeting takes the forthcoming letter and goes a step further than I had originally contemplated. To do this, we will need some volunteers. So are there any owners who live reasonably close to either:

1) the London, Ontario Factory?
or
2) the headquarters at Wiener Neustadt, Austria?

If yes, and you are willing to represent the legacy owners, please send me a PM.

Back to whether or not to distribute the petition, I'm on the fence about how best to proceed. After the posting by Russ tonight, I called him and we kicked this idea around a bit, while having a genuinely enjoyable conversation. Your point Dave is a fork in the road, with pro's and con's to each path.

Spoiler alert, this last weekend, a testing of the waters took place to see if 141 total aircraft is enough to garner the attention of interested parties. While the more the better, the short answer is indicating yes - we appear to have reached a level of credibility in terms of numbers. As AOPA's offer to assist legacy owners was the first indication of this.

The second positive sign is. . . . .
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Re: Outdated Garmin G1000 software - petition sign-up

Post by TwinStarScott »

Here is the main highlight from last Saturday at the NW Aviation Conference:

• spoke with the Wayne McGhee, the NW Regional Sales Manager at Garmin - which is an understatement, as his territory also includes Alaska, Hawaii, and Asia. Luckily, I was eventually able to have a lengthy and mostly private conversation with Wayne during a rare lull in the action at the Garmin booth, as I raised the continued concerns of the legacy G1000 owners. This year, he took these issues even more to heart. As he seemed impressed when presented with the G1000 petition because of the large numbers of DA owners participating - and from around the globe! It was all the more satisfying when Wayne readily accepted the hard copy printout and said he would take it back to his office, for a future discussion with the OEM staff at headquarters in Olathe. The best news of all is, when I asked him for a high level contact at Garmin regarding our plight, without any hesitation whatsoever, Wayne reached for his cell phone and provided me with the name and email address of the person in charge of OEM sales to DAI! No more sending emails to the generic email address at Garmin customer support – whew. . .


In other news:

• attended Wayne's presentation “Modern Cockpit Displays and their use” - where at one point in his discussion, Wayne said that later this year Garmin will be releasing “technology that will blow your mind” or “blow you away”. Or something like that. When pressed by a few members in the audience, it was hardly surprising that he would not elaborate any further. My guess is that at some point Garmin will release their own HUD as part of their product evolution.

• the presentation also touched on how replacement parts for the 430/530 systems are becoming more and more difficult to source and in some cases have completely dried up entirely. He credited Garmin's buy-back programs for having greatly extended the life of these aging products and added to their once massive used parts inventory. But Wayne did state that at some point Garmin will no longer be able to support this technology that was first released in 1998. [How this applies to the legacy G1000 systems is subject to interpretation. Certainly there have never been any buy-back programs for the legacy G1000's (at least that I'm aware of). So does anyone have a good handle on Garmin's current status of their legacy used parts inventory?]

• as is typical for this event, Cirrus had an SR22 on display. Allowing attendees to climb into the cockpit and view the powered up Perspective displays. For the past seventeen years of attending this annual event, I don't ever recall Diamond Aircraft making an appearance.

• on a personal note, another big highlight for me was having the distinct pleasure of meeting fellow DA owner Brock (turbocharged DA40 - N8QQ) - towards the very end of a long day. As we had a most enjoyable conversation on a wide range of topics, which included comparing notes on our separate discussions at the Garmin booth. The day just went by much too quickly.

To add your DA40 or DA42, please click HERE



Picture from this year's NW Aviation Conference
https://imgur.com/a/7EFs91m
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