ahicks

My Feedback: (2)

X2 on the 35RA, especially those having already paid their dues/having been through the "gas" learning curve already. I like my electrics, but that's because I can run them into the ground without hurting them much (they're all EPP foamies/3D). Something this size, that's not going to be an advantage at all!

Gungadin

I sent one more e-mail today to the 3rd contact name at Syssa. This one went to Tony in the Engineering dept.. Perhaps he will help me out. The last contact I had was on 5-29-15 from Todd saying he had my engine and they were going thru the repairs that week. Since then I've sent 6 e-mails to 3 different contact people at the company, and I've not heard back from anyone so far about updating my engine and getting the new muffler.

spaceworm

Has anyone tried telephoning them? Do they have a telephone number? Some companies do not "do" emails and respond only to telephone messages/calls. Just a thought, I am not involved in any way with SYSSA.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Thanks, Steve.

I've weighed out the options, and I'm going with an electric setup instead. An AXI PM 532524 motor with their 125SB ESC.

I realized that I don't want to deal with the many hassles of making a gasser, a gasser mount, and a gas tank fit inside the S-Stearman. I did it once already, and just want to go a different route this time. I may be reacting to the bad taste of my dealings with Syssa, but I also haven't got anything set up electric yet, and I think the Super Stearman is a good choice for it. Lots of wing, and room for everything. I have to learn about it sometime, might as well do it right.

Jim

Joystick TX

Contact them by telephone? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That's really a good one. I'm glad I'm wearing my Depends, I would have soiled my new shorts.

Joystick TX

Jim, I hope you have time to make a building video.

Gungadin

Yes I have tried calling them on the phone ! Probably 5-6 times in the last 5 weeks. The problem is the recording tells you that you can't leave a message cause the voice mail box is full. And it's been that way at least for the last 5 weeks, that I know about. So the message they are sending is clear, that is "we don't wan't to do customer service issues with you silly toy airplane people".

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Steve, I think that my days of making the "Building with Jim" videos are gone. Besides, I tossed the backdrop before making the move here. Sorry.

I will, however, see if I have enough energy to keep my camera handy and document the build with a build thread here in RCU. I think that some of the guys who are considering doing an electric build on a larger plane will find it interesting, and hopefully enlightening. I've learned a lot about electric motors in the past week. I started out hoping I was getting the right motor for the Super Stearman - and was considering several of these "for sale" motors that wouldn't have been ideal - and ended up knowing which motor was just right for the Bipe, and what features of that particular motor model made it so. I have to say, the AXI website, combined with some other research and some common-sense, helped me a lot.


So, without further ado, let me get out of here, where I'm not really on-topic - more like anti-topic - and I'll get a thread started. Do I do it in Giant Scale, or ARFs, or ??? We'll see.

Jim

Joystick TX

I'm amazed that a voice mailbox for a company can be "full" with the technology that we have today, or for at least the last 20 years. I think it is just their outgoing message and there is no voice mailbox.

My son's company has a neat customer service, it is fully integrated with phone, customer accounts, and email. If you call in, the person (any one of five people) who answers the phone will see your account, any open orders, and your account history all automatically. They don't need to key in any numbers and you don't need to tell them all of the information about your order. If the world is about to end and no-one answers the phone, the answering machine will take over so you can leave a voice message, in addition, a ticket will be created and an email will be sent to customer service. When the email is viewed, all your account info, open orders and order history will be visible, your phone is also dialed to return your call. A clock starts when a customer calls in and ends when the problem is resolved and that time is used as one of the metrics to evaluate customer service performance quality. We think the system pays for itself by saving a lot of time for our employees and frustration for our customers.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

Some small phone systems only have a limited amount of voice storage time. I sense Syssa has one of these systems. It could just be a matter of programming though as storage time can be limited on certain accounts, extensions, etc. Regardless, there is really no excuse for a mailbox to be full in this day and age. Just sloppy business practices in my opinion which is nothing new for this company. Has been that way since day one. I drank the kool-aid too but survived to live another day and with different engines.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

It's their voicemail. I waited many times to leave a message, and got that same announcement. That was probably nine months ago, maybe more. That was why I sold the (incorrect) engine they had sent me; I couldn't get them to answer so I could return it. Let's face it; we're all just speculating on what's going on at Syssa Aircraft, and it's highly unlikely that we'll get any sort of satisfactory response to our queries after all this time.

Mostly, I'm disappointed. The engines have great potential, but without a sound business structure and practices, no company can go far.

I'm down to one engine, so I don't face too many hassles. If things get bad, I can just replace it and keep walking. I did do one smart thing, I bought a couple of carb kits and a few extra gaskets. I found them in a parts drawer the other day. I said, "Geee, I'm smarter than I thought!"

Jim

Gungadin

Just an update. I still have not received any response from Joe, Tony, or Todd at Syssa for any of the 5-6 e-mails sent during the last five or six weeks. Miserable situation !

Red Raider

My Feedback: (86)

I've had decent success getting in touch with Todd in the past. Let me try and see if I can get hold of him. I used to have his cell phone number, but that was before he left Connecticut.
SS

Joystick TX

That will be interesting. He used to post on here once in a while and clear up things. I had so much trouble contacting him, I thought he was dead, he may be.

Hog78

My Feedback: (36)

my engine has been in the shop since feb 2015.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

These are the two emails I had the best luck with, particularly the gmail account.

[email protected]

[email protected]

good luck! I hope it helps.

Jim

Hog78

My Feedback: (36)

tried all emails and called many times over the months and nothing at least we have DA!!! I was really hoping Todd would do well. I have some AF buds in Charleston maybe will get them to pay a visit and see whats up?

Red Raider

My Feedback: (86)

I just got an email back from Todd. He said he is extremely busy, but was working on getting everything caught up. Since I got hold of him, I'm assuming others can as well. If there something I can do (specifically) to help, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Hog78

My Feedback: (36)

well that is a positive sign!! will keep fingers crossed I miss that engine, had to buy a Chinese one to fly my plane this summer as it has been since feb that my engine has been in the shop,

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

It would be nice if he got caught up and stayed ahead of things, but I have to say, I've heard it all before, from the same source, and it never happened. Who knows? It could happen, I guess. It needs to happen if he's ever going to create a shift in our perception of how the company performs.

I'm pulling for him, mostly out of selfishness, since I still have one of the V1's on the nose of my Giant Super Sportster, which I plan to keep forever. The Syssa is a friggin' powerhouse, and the plane literally LEAPS into the air with it. And it does run great. You can see it for yourself in this video that was taken of it flying in Blanco, Texas, when Hurricane Isaac was rolling through the Gulf of Mexico. SUPER high winds that day, and anybody with a lick of sense (that lets me out) would've never put a plane in the air that day, but like my friends Cuban Eight and Bandito always like to say, wind is our friend! And Jimbo likes a lot of wind. In fact, I hate flying in calm air. What's the challenge there?

The video was loaded onto Youtube wrong, and the plane got a little squeezed, and the guy didn't really know how to follow a planes through the air, and you might say I got what I paid for, hehehe. Even so, you can clearly see just how much power the Syssa has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJs-K4HvyjY

Hope it comes out so you can see it.

A quick footnote; After flying it many times that morning, in every kind of wind and gust and downdraft, I never had any issues. Then, on my final approach, I flew it straight into a powerline when a silver-grey cloud rolled through and made the powerline invisible. I busted the !@#$%^&* out of it, and carried home dozens of pieces and bits of it. It's all rebuilt now, and back in action, and the Syssa came through without any damage.

The Santa-looking guy is really old Saint Nick. Or, maybe he's my dear friend Shandy Hale, from Blanco, TX.

Jim

Gungadin

So far, I still have no response to my many e-mails over the last 7 weeks.

Gungadin

Well, it has been 2 months now since Syssa has received my engine for update. Of course the voice mail box is still full, so nobody can leave a voice mail message, and I have not received any kind of acknowledgement or response from the many e-mails I have sent during the month of June & July. What a bad deal I'm getting from Todd Syssa. Never would have thought in my wildest dreams.

PacificNWSkyPilot

My Feedback: (19)

Yes; easy to see why I opted to go electric in my present project. Most of the electric motor supply places have been in business longer than most of these small gas engine companies. I probably spend more time than I should fretting about what I'll do if my Syssa 30 has problems. If it happens, I'll yank it off and move on if I find I can't get parts or service in a timely fashion. All the fussing and worrying isn't worth expending all the emotion and effort chasing an absentee or spotty company around.

Take a breath, Gungadin, and find something else to do until the engine comes back to you. Maybe find a replacement? and install it? There's really no good answer,unless it involves alternative engine replacements, or him getting your engine back to you suddenly. By the way, that has happened with me; I wait until I'm kind of P.O.'d at him, and getting no answer, and the repaired engine arrives without warning, with my emails never answered and my phone calls never returned. Like I mentioned, with a government contract, you have to assume that if he has five minutes and two phone calls to return, he'll return the call to a government entity and leave us hanging. He has too much on the line not to do so; he won't risk the bread and butter US government contract. The repaired engine always worked really well, but I guess my feelings were a little hurt that I wasn't important enough to deserve a real-person contact from them.

By the way, here's a thought. Before I needed them, I placed an order for a few carburetor rebuild kits and some other gaskets and engine parts and bolts/nuts that might break, and I put them in a parts drawer, just in case. They arrived not too long after I placed the order, and it's comforting to have them handy, just in case. I didn't sweat the time they took to come, because I didn't need them at the time. I think that's the only way to really deal with this kind of company, except for the most obvious method, which is walking away. I think fitting a new engine and cutting a new cowl isn't that much extra work, once you factor in the peace of mind. I don't have any planes that I can't live without for a while; life's too short for that.

On the upside, because I made the choice to build my current project electric (GP Super Stearman), I looked around and found a great little field where they only fly electrics, and it's not even fifteen minutes from my house. The power field took a few minutes short of an hour commute, and always over an hour in any sort of traffic.

Jim

Gungadin

SkyPilot----I appreciate your empathy. I sent Todd another e-mail today. Perhaps he will respond to this one. Yes electrics certainly do have some advantages. For the last 4 years I have been flying electric C/L Stunt ariplanes, and for the few years that I flew RC Pattern airplanes, I was seeing many guys convert from 4 stroke glow to electric. But gas engines have the advantage of being very economical to operate. That is untill you send one back to the MFG. for update and a new muffler and have to wait more than two months to get it back while all the nice flying weather is passing by. So the saga continues. Stay tuned !

Gungadin

Not good news ! My last e-mail came up as "recipient not found", and that this is a permanent error. So I tried sending an e-mail to Joe at Syssa, and got the same error message. Seems that not only is there no way to reach anyone there by phone, but now the e-mail addresses are no longer valid. Went to the web site and looked to see if perhaps they changed the e-mail address, but no such luck. It appears Syssa Aircraft Performance can't be contacted any longer. A fine kettle of fish !