removing the thread

1. Jet Central would be my first choice
2. Jet Cat would be my second
3. I would not even consider EVO for personal reasons.

There are those that like their EVO Booster turbines, but from my personal exp. I was not impressed at all by them or the support. This is just my opinion.

Best thing is do a search and find out what is out there.

Lots of flyers fly Jet Cat and there is alot of experience out there on this brand of turbine.

Myself, I went with Jet Central as Eric is great to deal with, and they have a life time warranty. Plus, they have some of the fastest spooling turbines on the market.

..........................

only flown turbines for 2 years now, but have 700+ flights on my 3 Jetcats with no issues and no flameouts. reliability speaks volumes when considering a turbine. jet central has a good rep as well. only heard good things about the evos but have not seen one first hand.

Kevin

Hi,

It's a misconception (at best) to assume that you're going to get less biased, more reliable information from non-reps. In my experience, people who are brand-loyal (or even people who just like what they have) can chest-beat louder than any real product rep. The answers you get from non-reps aren't going to help you any more or any less than the answers you'd get from reps, IMHO...

I have only owned JetCats. I have a Titan, P-120 and an OLD P80. The P-80 is serial #101, first gen and it still runs great. I will probably only own JetCats. I have had the P-120 in for service and got it back in a timely matter. Nothing but good service with JetCat.

I will never own a JetCat due to their belligerent insistence of using poisonous turbine oil only. Other manufacturers have approved two stroke synthetic oil.
Flame on fanboys!

While I respect YellowAircrafts opinion I will have to disagree. My experience is that reps many times will down play or even not mention their products weakness's and build up their products strengths. Sometimes a strength or weakness weather percieved or not by the end user is not viewed as such by the manufactor or their reps. I'm not saying that this cannot happen with end user reports. My feeling is that when a large customer base gives an overall yay or a nay to a product then you can pretty much take that to the bank. For me personally the customer support from Eric at Jet Central has been stellar and he has done everything that he said that he would do. I cannot say that about the other turbines I own.
Luckyflyer

Popcorn is in the micro!!!!!


I think it's good to get an average from both Reps and the end user. John Doe can tell me Rep so and so will do this and do that but let the Rep speak for himself and his company.

Jet Central is an outstanding choice...I have had several including the Super Bee and the Rhino and fly one today. It doesn't get any better than Eric Clapp...a great guy to deal with. I can also tell you that EvoJet is an excellent product based on several flying at the field. Chad Russell and SinCityJets are first class people to deal with. He like Eric will go the extra mile to support customers. See what is flying at your field and make a choice based on that experience and what the local guys will tell you first hand. Reaching for some of Hooker's popcorn!!!!

Mike

Fair enough. What you say is true a lot of the time. I know some reps who switch from brand to brand and whenever they talk about their current flag, it always has "...This is by far the best blah blah I've ever seen/owned/flown..." I think people see through that crap pretty readily and can filter out the ad copy from the truthful commentary. Of course, there are exceptions. In most cases, though, the product reps are very experienced and knowledgeable about their product. Most will give you the straight shotespecially the 'old school' guys. These days, it seems like some companies only require a purchase for you to become a 'rep.'

I own Jetcat and Jet Central. This like comparing an A320 with a 737NG. Both perform really well, but Jet Central is where the latest Technology is. Im all for research and implementation of new Engine components. The compressor wheels of the newer Jet Central turbines is a work of art. Jetcat is kind of more of the same.

Another thing you might consider is location. Eric is about 100 miles from you give or take a few. If for some reason you did have to send turbine in, it would get to him within a day and your turn around would be even faster. I know Jet Cat makes an exellent turbine, but when i started researching the turn around times and the cost to repair turbines, the choice led me to Jet Central.

All turbines mfg. can have issues. How quickly the handle them and in the manner they handle them is important to me. I had messed up my hand data terminal (no fault of the mfg.) when the screen was pressed up against an item in my tx. box. I called Eric to see how much a replacement was, his response was "Just send me the hand data terminal and I will take care of it". That would have saved me over $50. I had an issue with one of their starters on the turbine, called Eric up and a new one was shipped out to me and on my door step the next day. They overnighted the part. No cost to me.

I am not familar enough with Jet Cat or the other turbines to tell you how they might handle part replacement by the customer. Others may chime in on this subject.

Jet Cat has been around for a long time, and I know that if they made a sub par turbine their sells would not be what they are now.

As for reps, yes they might be biased... but that is not just for the reps. I am biased towards Jet Central, and I am not a rep.

In response to reps...I had posted a question about which brand F-15 I should get. Two US reps responded. Yellowaircraft and GJC. This meant alot to me. Yes, if they make a sale they profit. However, out of all the mfg. and reps out there, these two are the only ones to have responded. This weighed heavily in my decision on which one to get. If I could had afforded the Yellow F-15, I would have gone that route as from my research, it's very scale looking and quality and support is top notch. However, being the cheap #$% I am I went with GJC F-15.

thanks, does Jet cat have a flat fee for the 25 hr service like Jet Central and Evo? If so, what is it?

deleted by owner

I appreciate your input. The reason I preferred not to hear from reps is you know a rep will say their product is best, regardless. I have been in turbines for 10 years and considering another purchase. Just looking for honest answers from end users; the customers.

That I am not sure of. I know jet central req. that you send it in every 25 hours and $250. However, they replace whatever if anything it needs and also during the 25 hour service interval. I think Jet Cat is once you are out of warranty, then you send it in on your descression.

That was my point exactly about the reps

As a rep myself I have to agree 100% with Shaun on this point. People will support the product they own most generally. Personally I have owned a few including- Ram, FTE, TJT, Wren, JetCat, EvoJet, Kingtech, Jets Munt, i-Jets, PST and operated AMT NL turbines extensively on UAV's, all have their pro's and cons of that there is absolutely no doubt. Bottom line is 'all' (99%) of brands currently on the market work as advertised and work very well.... It is indeed the people who have had fewer brand experiences that will often appear to be more biased or brand loyal from what I read and see on a daily basis. The more opinions the better from all sources and real world actual personal examples of why Brand A maybe better than Brand B and especially in different geographic regions where service and support may be a decision maker, this is probably the most important aspect when seriously considering purchasing any turbine and especially your first in my opinion.


Cheers- Marty ( A Rep) [X(]

For me it is a two fold deal. 1, The product has to be good and 2, the service model must be supportive of the customer. An example of this for me is Desert Aircraft. American made, great product, top notch service. Other guys make engines that are a lot cheaper but I will only use DA for my gas planes because their service is reliable. I have had this same experience with Jet Central as a company and Eric in particular has gone way out of his way to help with things that he didn't need to. So for me, Jet Central has a good product (3 turbines for me) and great service so they meet my need. Some of the guys I fly with use other brands and they work well for them. The real trick isn't so much what's good when it's working, it's who works for you when you have a problem or question.

Of the three options, I would own a Jetcat, consider an Evojet, and not own a Jet Central, personal reasons on the Jet Central issue.

However, I have owned 15 or so turbines, one was a Jetcat P120 which I sold before I ran it.
I have a G-Booster which is an unbelievable engine and I still have that engine. I have owned 1 AMT Mercury, 2 AMT AT280's, an AMT AT450, and an AMT NL Olympus. I have owned 2 RAM750's, and 4 PST's. I also have a Kingtech K80.

Depending on what size of engine you are looking for, I would look at the AMT NL engines, there is not a better engine on the market IMO. So far I am very impressed with what I've seen from Kingtech as well, I am very anxious to run a K170.

However, as I say, of the 3 you have listed, I would go with Jetcat. Bob Wilcox is a great guy to deal with (I dealt with him on my P120 which I purchased used) and the engines, while perhaps not the most state of the art, are probably one of the most reliable turbines out there.
Just my 2 cents.

Speaking as an enthusiast and not a rep:

After-sales support is really everything.... Also ask 'any' manufacturer at the considered time of purchase how much your projected long term turbine ownership is likely to cost beyond purchase??? @ 25/50/100 Hr service intervals and the predicted parts/labour costs involved under manufacturers general or normal operating conditions and even ask about some hypothetical crash component repair costs as well.... these costs are not often fully considered and an experienced dealer/rep etc. should be able to give you all these answers.

As an example when purchasing a new car one of the first things I look very closely at is the overall service, support, turn around time and associated ownership costs involved. For me these are as much of a deal maker or breaker as anything else. Again service and support for any brand turbine engine for that matter 'may' in the real world be effected by a customer or dealers geographic location, especially if high shipping charges are involved. Do your homework carefully and ask as many people as you can about ALL the brands and ALL the associated costs you may be faced with long term is the best advice I can offer...

Excellent advise and I agree. The support after the purchase is big.

Well said! And above all if you tell a man that you are going to do something DO it even if it causes discomfort. Your customer will have alot more respect for you regardless of any other issues that may exist between the customer and retailer. A persons word is the foundation that a continuing relationship is built on. If I renigg on my word then what do I really have to offer? And what will others think of me?
Luckyflyer