Flying tonight consisted of a series of calls to friends, arranging an evening with Charlotte while at 800 feet off the coast of Hayling Island. Facilitated by the installation of my new FlyCOM system ready for the French trip.
http://www.flycom.co.uk/
How I came to order the new helmets and headsets is a muse in itself, however before I tell you about that, I have to tell you about the sheer comfort and silence of the FlyCOM system. For the last three years friends have been telling me how good they are, but I was not listening......neither was the old fella on the MicroAvionics stand at Popham!
I had to pop onto the FlyCOM stand and pick up a visor for a friend at this years Popham Microlight Fair. The reception was light hearted with a bit of banter. They knocked off £3 quid of the list price of the visor too! It's not about how much that was it's about the spirit with which they did it.
I too needed a vizor for my all in one Micro Avionics system so I popped onto their stand and was told it' £xx for the visor, this is the interchange..
Me - "thats 5 quid more that FlyCOM list how about matching their price "Smile"?
Micro - "we can't discount because we will upset our dealers"
Me - "how about upsetting your customers?"
Micro -"if we discount our dealer will get upset"
Me - "where are the dealers? They are not here to help me, one of your customers, so why are you so
worried about what they think about you giving me £5 off the visor?"
Micro - "but my dealers won't like it?"
Me - "well I am one of your customers and I don't like it! The visor is a copy of the FlyCOM so I will simply buy it from them"
Micro - "Shrugges Sholders"
Me - "sigh"
I left walked back to FlyCOM I was so disappointed in MicroAvionics mean spirity & approach it seem they value dealers and not customers, how dumb is that? Especially when the dealers arent there to help...
So here I am back at the FlyCOM stand, and for the first time I was able to spend some time with Dave and his son, I tried at Popham last year, then at the Splash show but they had been so busy. It's 1630hrs and they must be tired and certainly must have demonstrated there systems 100's of times, but I got the full demo as if it were the first in the morning! It really felt like i mattered.
Head in a large helmet, and it was silent and so so comfortable, my MicroAvionics version was difficult to put on had several pressure point and left marks on my forehead. I spend some time understanding the technical differences of which there are many. The configurations and options considered, my order was placed. If I sell my headsets, radio interface, micro avionics helmet my old Lynx gear etc etc I could buy the FlyCOM system complete.
The difference was only £350 for the benefits of an all new system, COMFORT, Silence and an interface for my iPhone that worked, yes I sold my other headsets relativly speaking quickly over the next 10 days, so the numbers really worked! It was a "show offer" which made the pricing right for my toys budget, but there was no mention that I had to suffer a finaical penalty becuase a dealer who added no value to me, might be upset.
And so FlyCOM, the experts in Listening technology really did deliver, and I am delighted with the technology, the service approach and the price was right.
Thank you FlyCOM, may be now my listerning skills will improve ;-)
I suppose I need to say thankyou for the poor service to MicroAvionics, without which I may still be flying around in a helmet that felt like it was "clamped on" , and so Thank you for not listerning, as you will see else where on this blog manufactures are welcome to reply which will be posted verbatum.
