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UNBELIEVABLE


Tad Olmsted

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Unfortuneately I will no longer be posting any advise or tips on this or any other forum. It only took one persons actions to screw up a very good thing.

 

 

I received a call from a well respected competitor telling me that a customer of theirs called and complained about work they performed on his CT was done incorrectly according to one of my posts. Fortuneately my competitor called me out of respect and actually sided with me on what I had posted. The customer was wrong the whole time and it took 2 hours explaining to that customer that he was indeed wrong. What a waste of time!!!

 

I will never be put in that ackward position again and I am glad I have such great people as competitors who take the time out of their busy schedule to call me and talk about things civilly.

 

I will still be here and wish you all the best of luck.

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Tad,

 

 

I hope you take the weekend to consider your involvement in this forum, which I have found to be invaluable. From a selfish perspective, it is good to have a number of competent mechanics posting their observations. Not all mechanics see the same problems, so having many posters means the rest of us get a chance to see a wider range of experiences, one of which might help us specifically. If we have only one or two mechanics, no matter how good they are, doing all the posting, we lose the richness of that broader view.

 

I know some of your comments have specifically helped me in considering some options.

 

Sadly, these forums lack a lot of the wider range of communications we have when we meet face-to-face. We don't get the background, the facial expression, tone of voice and so forth that add so much meaning to the exchange. Sometimes I don't say what I mean in the same way others take it, and sometimes people take something one says and run with a portion of it for their own ends - taking it out of context, even. I've cut down my posting here because of that. So, I guess I can't complain too much about being overly sensitive.

 

It's a price that we pay and I don't know any way around it. Adding a disclaimer to the end of each post would make the lawyers happy but doesn't do much to real people.

 

I know you wrote that you'd stick around and I appreciate that. Please feel free to post your tips, insights and observations for the benefit of the vast majority of us who appreciate what you are doing.

 

Jim

 

 

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Hi Tad,

 

I agree with Jim and probably many others that will chime in here. Please don't be too hasty. No two shops or mechanics will always do the same thing or say the same thing and that's okay because so long as it is within the specs or the maint manual it is right.

Remember there is more than one way to skin a cat! I never worry about one person or even a single shop and every one is entitled to their opinion. If all a shop or owner had to complain about was they thought something should have been different because the other guy said so then it is only personal preference and I would take it with a grain of salt. So long as we don't personally slam individuals or dealers here on the forum then there is no issue with the admin. We have on the right side of all post emotion icons to attach to post if we need to show an emotion that doesn't show up in black and white.

Many forums aren't very good because of lack of dealership or Tech help on their planes. WE ARE DIFFERENT.

On this forum we have lots of experience and Techs that make it what it is today. If you had dozens of complaints then it might be a concern, but misrepresentation from and individual to a dealer is absolutely not a concern since the dealer knows you anyway.

You are entitled to your own opinion regardless of what any dealer or individual thinks I just had one of this dealer's clients here and he mentioned my name and I don't think this dealer particularly loves me. rolleyes.gif

So long as you do what's right, do it for the right reason, with due diligence, from the manual and for the customer then your opinion counts and if some one doesn't agree then they can take the hike. We will never please every one in life and I have never worried about the one person or shop because I have all these great friends right here to talk to.

The community needs you so don't sweat the small stuff.

 

 

 

As a member of our forum I would encourage other members when addressing issues to a mechanic or shop to not be overtly accusatory when talking to a dealer or mechanic telling them they should have done something different. Remember you need to have all the facts and sometimes we may not have them all before we go off the deep end. So temper your thoughts when asking dealers and mechanics if something can be changed or even if it was right. It may have been within spec, but maybe not quite where you wanted it or maybe not where another Tech thought it might be. There are ranges in certain spec.

 

 

 

Bottom line here guys.

Everyone here please make an effort to let Tad know we want to keep him here as a Tech. Give him a hug and ask him to keep being one of our Techs. smile.gif

 

 

 

p.s.

Tad if you don't I'll come and haunt you. laugh.gif

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I appreciate your input on this forum and look forward to your continued support. An airplane is a complicated machine and everyone is not going to agree on every issue that comes up. Stick around Tad.

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Tad,

 

I for one sure hope you reconsider. I'm new to the maintenace end of flying and it's guys like you and Roger that are my source of information. I have greatly appreciated your contributions and hope you don't let one person screw it all up. Stay with us please.

 

al meyer

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Seems to me it's the CUSTOMER you ought to fire, not the forum Tad. :lol:

 

Think about it. If it wasn't for your participation here, I never would have found the guy I happily fly 10 hours round trip to do my annual with.

 

Hang in here. We're worth it ;)

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Tad,

Gotta agree with NC Bill... Tad, your help on this forum is appreciated and needed... everyone's is. Sometimes there are gray areas and we don't all agree on everything. I know you felt uncomfortable in your situation, but it will go away quickly. Please reconsider...

Tim

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Continue to post Tad! We need input from everyone to continue making LSA a safe and viable part of general aviation. I think of this forum as a way of "policing" ourselves as owners, pilots and maintaners of LSA's and the best way of "policing" ourselves is to communicate our experiences and learn from each other. We may not always agree with someones way of doing something but I think we can all agree information sharing is good for everyone! Remember learning is defined as a change in behavior as a result of an experience. That experience could come from any us so if we share it with others learning is occuring.

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Tad,

You have been an invaluable source of information for me both online and in person. I know you will continue to be a resource for me and my CT, when I can get her to agree to fly down to Sebring but your input online helps me to be proactive and eliminate problems while they are still small or nonexistent. I join the others in hoping you will reconsider and continue to be an active part of this forum.

 

David Dorso

N40HA

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There will always be jerks out there who only lift a finger to point it. That said, you don't have much to worry about legally. I've bumped into this in my many years consulting and working as an applications Engineer for a chip company, telling others what to do as an EE. In legal terms, we're talking about a tort of negligence and in particular, the duty of care owed by professionals to the claimant (the guy complaining). While in theory you can be held liable for free advice, in practice you would have had to been extremely negligent to be held accountable for free online advice. You are only obliged to excercise reasonable duty in these circumstances because your relationship to the claimant is not 'proximate'. The duty is much higher if he pays for your advice, of course. So even if you had made a minor mistake, you still are very unlikely to be held liable and it is doubtful he could even find a lawyer to go after you. Whiney customers with crappy engiuneering have threatened me and my company like this but none ever did sue. It has to be egregious errors for free advice to strangers. If you tell people to run 87oct and use just water for coolant, something like that, you could be held accountable. So please stick around. Use something like this if you want a bit more CYA:

 

Forum posts are not legal advice, are for educational purposes only & are not substitutes for proper consultation with legal counsel.

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I don't think he is as much worried about the individual, but more about what the dealer thinks of him and smoothing things over. It was a snowball effect. I believe the customer read something here from Tad and I and then called the dealer to complain that they did something wrong, but wasn't armed with all the info. 2 hours later the customer was settled, but then they called Tad which may have put him on the spot a little. I don't know much of the conversation, but maybe the dealer took it a little too serious. I don't really know.

I told him to drink a few more beers, but he didn't drink enough. I thought a case would do it. biggrin.giflaugh.gifwink.gif

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In today's business economy it's not uncommon to hear a competitor throw another competitor under the bus to make themselves look better in the customers eyes. Doesn't sound like this is the case. Whatever the case Tad, we need your input on this forum. As suscribers to this forum, use caution when using two different repair shops againsed each other. Absorb the advise then make a decision. I once heard "A good judge has to know both sides of the story before he can make a decision"!

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Tad, I've never met you but you come across as someone who has a passion for doing what's right and for helping people. I don't know what technical training you have had but I suspect that this has been significant because you never lack the ability to provide up to the minute accurate information when you respond to our questions. I believe you to be an expert in your profession based on the technical information you provide this forum. You are in the group of experts who are on this forum who unselfishly supply us technical information which whould be impossible for us to get otherwise. With the advice we get here, we can be involved and can understand the proper way to maintain our CT's due to the "checks and balances" that is generated when you and the other experts discuss issues. After reading these many notes showing support for you, I hope that are can reconsider your decision to remain in the background here and will decide to again share your valuabe thoughts and expertise with us.

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