Is there such a thing as budget supplies..

[Robbo]

I am very happy with Ron @ Skylines.

 

Known him for nearly 20 years.

 

There is also Sky Supply in Gippsland.

 

 

[Robbo]

I am very happy with Ron @ Skylines.

 

Known him for nearly 20 years.

 

There is also Sky Supply in Gippsland.

 

 

[Kiwi303]

Does AusPost have a mail forwarding warehouse?

 

NZPost has a service set up where you send your US purchases to a US warehouse and they pack it all up and ship it to NZ bulk and then reship it domestically here.

 

Plus there are a number of private companies doing the same thing, but probably without the bulk economy of a major postal carrier.

 

 

[Kiwi303]

Does AusPost have a mail forwarding warehouse?

 

NZPost has a service set up where you send your US purchases to a US warehouse and they pack it all up and ship it to NZ bulk and then reship it domestically here.

 

Plus there are a number of private companies doing the same thing, but probably without the bulk economy of a major postal carrier.

 

 

[cscotthendry]

It's not only the "budget" suppliers that give lousy service either. Late last year, my wife and I travelled to Melbourne from Brisbane to do a pre-purchase test flight for a new aircraft purchase. We spent the best part of $1,000 travelling to and staying in Melbourne to do this. The airplane would have cost us around $140,000 to buy, but the dealer left us to find our own way from Melbourne airport to his airfield and didn't even offer to cover the $50 taxi fare. So we were off to a less than brilliant start. Then when we returned home, we tried to ask the dealer some more questions, but answer came there none! No response, nothing, nada. Soo, we went looking elsewhere. We eventually fetched up with Silent Wings who have treated us marvellously and have assisted us in the purchase of our new airplane. I had to fly to Europe to do the test flight and SW paid my airfare because they didn't have an airplane in country that I could see in the flesh. I know the economics of this and that ultimately, I paid my own airfare via the profit the dealer will make from my purchase, but it's the attitude of the dealer that counts. Where the first dealer wouldn't trouble himself to offer $50 for cabfare after I had spent $1,000 of my own money getting there, Greg from Silent Wings proposed and offered my airfare to Europe without hesitation or quibble. Guess who got the sale?

 

 

[cscotthendry]

It's not only the "budget" suppliers that give lousy service either. Late last year, my wife and I travelled to Melbourne from Brisbane to do a pre-purchase test flight for a new aircraft purchase. We spent the best part of $1,000 travelling to and staying in Melbourne to do this. The airplane would have cost us around $140,000 to buy, but the dealer left us to find our own way from Melbourne airport to his airfield and didn't even offer to cover the $50 taxi fare. So we were off to a less than brilliant start. Then when we returned home, we tried to ask the dealer some more questions, but answer came there none! No response, nothing, nada. Soo, we went looking elsewhere. We eventually fetched up with Silent Wings who have treated us marvellously and have assisted us in the purchase of our new airplane. I had to fly to Europe to do the test flight and SW paid my airfare because they didn't have an airplane in country that I could see in the flesh. I know the economics of this and that ultimately, I paid my own airfare via the profit the dealer will make from my purchase, but it's the attitude of the dealer that counts. Where the first dealer wouldn't trouble himself to offer $50 for cabfare after I had spent $1,000 of my own money getting there, Greg from Silent Wings proposed and offered my airfare to Europe without hesitation or quibble. Guess who got the sale?

 

 

[2tonne]

Bernie, If you haven't been refunded there are ways of getting your money back.Especially if you paid via CC or paypal.

I have been caught out even when paying by paypal. I lodged a dispute with paypal after an order through an Australian website didn't show after two weeks and I could get no response from the website's owner. Paypal apparently queried him and he replied to say that the items had been sent and produced a tracking order (placed after I had lodged the dispute). The order turned up a few days later but was missing most of what I ordered and the other stuff was not what I had ordered. At that point paypal said the dispute was closed because the order had shipped. Complete waste of time and I lost about $80 to a dodgy QLD business.

 

 

[2tonne]

Bernie, If you haven't been refunded there are ways of getting your money back.Especially if you paid via CC or paypal.

I have been caught out even when paying by paypal. I lodged a dispute with paypal after an order through an Australian website didn't show after two weeks and I could get no response from the website's owner. Paypal apparently queried him and he replied to say that the items had been sent and produced a tracking order (placed after I had lodged the dispute). The order turned up a few days later but was missing most of what I ordered and the other stuff was not what I had ordered. At that point paypal said the dispute was closed because the order had shipped. Complete waste of time and I lost about $80 to a dodgy QLD business.

 

 

[Admin]

Guys, please let me say that I am not perfect, but I will always try my best. In terms of communication here is my mobile number 0412 881108 just in case anyone misses that 0412 881108

 

However, please note that the Clear Prop Shop is not designed to be a business but a means to help recreational aviators to save some money and keeping recreational in their sport plus at the same time derive some income to pay the costs of running this site which is why the prices are cheap and that i do have to work a normal job from 8 to 6 to live. So please always feel free to ring me if you have any problem, any problem at all in the evenings, even for just a chat, i work in Canberra and only get home to Melbourne every 2nd weekend. If you need an update on an order during the day, Corrine (the trouble and strife) who is looking after the shop during the day can be contacted on 03 9444 8025, she is now handling the day to day bits and pieces of the shop.

 

I, and every user of this site, thank you for helping this site to stay as good as it is for everyone by purchasing from Clear Prop

 

 

[Admin]

Guys, please let me say that I am not perfect, but I will always try my best. In terms of communication here is my mobile number 0412 881108 just in case anyone misses that 0412 881108

 

However, please note that the Clear Prop Shop is not designed to be a business but a means to help recreational aviators to save some money and keeping recreational in their sport plus at the same time derive some income to pay the costs of running this site which is why the prices are cheap and that i do have to work a normal job from 8 to 6 to live. So please always feel free to ring me if you have any problem, any problem at all in the evenings, even for just a chat, i work in Canberra and only get home to Melbourne every 2nd weekend. If you need an update on an order during the day, Corrine (the trouble and strife) who is looking after the shop during the day can be contacted on 03 9444 8025, she is now handling the day to day bits and pieces of the shop.

 

I, and every user of this site, thank you for helping this site to stay as good as it is for everyone by purchasing from Clear Prop

 

 

[Admin]

Oh, incidentally we do have a lot of problems with suppliers because the only way we can keep things as cheap as possible for you is on a lot of things we deal direct with manufactures and our order quantities are small so we don't get the preference like the US does.

 

Yesterday we received orders for 3 of our headsets. We ordered 100 more recreational flying headsets direct from the manufacturer 1 month ago when we reached the minimum stock level. We still haven't received them and we have ran out of stock. An email to the manufacturer late this week resulted in being told they haven't even started to manufacture our order yet.

 

Yes we could have other headsets at the same specs as ours and order them only 2 at a time from a distributor but you would be paying twice the price for the same spec headset than what you normally would with ours. The same goes for our go pro style cameras, engine testers, some nav tools etc etc etc. We do our best but some times there is a trade off to get you the cheapest prices possible

 

Do you know that we have to order over $4,500 USD worth each time we run out ofstock of a particular instrument just so the cost of instruments to you is the cheapest possible

 

 

[Admin]

Oh, incidentally we do have a lot of problems with suppliers because the only way we can keep things as cheap as possible for you is on a lot of things we deal direct with manufactures and our order quantities are small so we don't get the preference like the US does.

 

Yesterday we received orders for 3 of our headsets. We ordered 100 more recreational flying headsets direct from the manufacturer 1 month ago when we reached the minimum stock level. We still haven't received them and we have ran out of stock. An email to the manufacturer late this week resulted in being told they haven't even started to manufacture our order yet.

 

Yes we could have other headsets at the same specs as ours and order them only 2 at a time from a distributor but you would be paying twice the price for the same spec headset than what you normally would with ours. The same goes for our go pro style cameras, engine testers, some nav tools etc etc etc. We do our best but some times there is a trade off to get you the cheapest prices possible

 

Do you know that we have to order over $4,500 USD worth each time we run out ofstock of a particular instrument just so the cost of instruments to you is the cheapest possible

 

 

[Oscar]

Does AusPost have a mail forwarding warehouse?NZPost has a service set up where you send your US purchases to a US warehouse and they pack it all up and ship it to NZ bulk and then reship it domestically here.

 

Plus there are a number of private companies doing the same thing, but probably without the bulk economy of a major postal carrier.

Yes, it does - called 'Shopmate'. I purchased an oil cooler and a locking fuel tank cap from A/S in the USA, to be sent via Shopmate. Extremely pleased with the service - damn site better than Auspost domestic!. Tracking was brilliant all the way from receipt at their warehouse. They emailed me to say 'on the way to your place' early in the morning, but I live on a farm near Mittagong (south of Sydney) that isn't easy to find so their delivery service took it to the nearest P.O. and emailed me it was ready for collection just after lunch. I hopped into the car and blasted in to the P.O, where the staff were surprised that there might have been a delivery at that time of the day but went and looked - and there it was!.

 

Saved over $100 on the Aus. delivered cost of the oil cooler, and it was delivered quicker than a length of aileron hinge I ordered from Skyshop - who did everything right, I must add, but Toll Ipec took 22 DAYS to get it to me, having failed to properly enter the delivery address that had been faithfully put on the package by Skyshop, and sent the thing to an address 300 km away and then spent 11 days chasing it down - during which time it travelled up and down a total of three times on the highway four km from my farm.. NOT Skyshop's fault, in any way.

 

 

[Oscar]

Does AusPost have a mail forwarding warehouse?NZPost has a service set up where you send your US purchases to a US warehouse and they pack it all up and ship it to NZ bulk and then reship it domestically here.

 

Plus there are a number of private companies doing the same thing, but probably without the bulk economy of a major postal carrier.

Yes, it does - called 'Shopmate'. I purchased an oil cooler and a locking fuel tank cap from A/S in the USA, to be sent via Shopmate. Extremely pleased with the service - damn site better than Auspost domestic!. Tracking was brilliant all the way from receipt at their warehouse. They emailed me to say 'on the way to your place' early in the morning, but I live on a farm near Mittagong (south of Sydney) that isn't easy to find so their delivery service took it to the nearest P.O. and emailed me it was ready for collection just after lunch. I hopped into the car and blasted in to the P.O, where the staff were surprised that there might have been a delivery at that time of the day but went and looked - and there it was!.

 

Saved over $100 on the Aus. delivered cost of the oil cooler, and it was delivered quicker than a length of aileron hinge I ordered from Skyshop - who did everything right, I must add, but Toll Ipec took 22 DAYS to get it to me, having failed to properly enter the delivery address that had been faithfully put on the package by Skyshop, and sent the thing to an address 300 km away and then spent 11 days chasing it down - during which time it travelled up and down a total of three times on the highway four km from my farm.. NOT Skyshop's fault, in any way.

 

 

[Oscar]

Addendum:

 

Postage from the USA is generally horrendously expensive; I've been looking for some nutplates. On eBay, 10 of from the USA, cost about $12, postage about $65. From Canada, a pack of 100 of, cost about $45, postage $14. I've also bought from the UK, and their Royal; Mail service is fast and hardly more expensive for small packages than Aus domestic. It can be considerably cheaper to buy a US-made item from a UK distributor and get it here faster to boot.

 

 

[Oscar]

Addendum:

 

Postage from the USA is generally horrendously expensive; I've been looking for some nutplates. On eBay, 10 of from the USA, cost about $12, postage about $65. From Canada, a pack of 100 of, cost about $45, postage $14. I've also bought from the UK, and their Royal; Mail service is fast and hardly more expensive for small packages than Aus domestic. It can be considerably cheaper to buy a US-made item from a UK distributor and get it here faster to boot.

 

 

[old man emu]

When I was running QED Hardware, our aim was to assist the homebuilder. With that in mind, I always tried to keep postage costs down. I figured, "Would I be happy forking out lots on postage if I didn't need to?" I always got good service from Austpost. In three or so years, I can only recall two problems. Once the package came open - I reckon I was to blame for packing nuts and bolts in a soft package, and another time Austpost sent the receiving post office did not let the recipient know that the parcel had arrived - small town post office.

 

I had frequent bitches to Spruce and Specialty about stupid packaging causing expensive postage costs. The Yanks pay bugger-all for shipping within their country, and the picker/packers in the mail rooms don't comprehend International postage rates.

 

OME

 

 

[old man emu]

When I was running QED Hardware, our aim was to assist the homebuilder. With that in mind, I always tried to keep postage costs down. I figured, "Would I be happy forking out lots on postage if I didn't need to?" I always got good service from Austpost. In three or so years, I can only recall two problems. Once the package came open - I reckon I was to blame for packing nuts and bolts in a soft package, and another time Austpost sent the receiving post office did not let the recipient know that the parcel had arrived - small town post office.

 

I had frequent bitches to Spruce and Specialty about stupid packaging causing expensive postage costs. The Yanks pay bugger-all for shipping within their country, and the picker/packers in the mail rooms don't comprehend International postage rates.

 

OME

 

 

[Oscar]

QED is excellent, and my first port of call for 'standard' hardware - especially as I visit Camden twice every week! (P.S. - what's the story with the blimp, OME - Yesterday it meandered up to almost overhead my place near Mittagong - it was over Razorback when I headed out of Camden and I beat it here by 10 minutes!)

 

As a side note re various suppliers: be aware that there is a very large 'dodgy spares' market in hardware in the USA, that sell, amongst other things, supposedly AN-spec bolts etc. that have been re-plated and DO NOT meet specs either for strength (because of the re-plating) and fit tolerance - same reason. George Markey returned from his 'bat-building days in the USA with cartons of the damn things, and they're useful for non-critical stuff but MUST NOT be used in stressed areas. If you know your AN hardware well, you can usually pick them by the colour of the plating, but don't count on it. Trusted suppliers like QED, Skyshop etc. won't touch them.

 

Humorous story - George was in one of those places, large warehouse in, I think, Arizona, filling his 'shopping basket', when he heard an almighty lot of row from outside. Wandered out to find Rare Bear taxying up; the owner had just nipped down in it on his own shopping trip to pick up a bunch of this and that. Now THAT's what I call a shopping trolley....

 

 

[Oscar]

QED is excellent, and my first port of call for 'standard' hardware - especially as I visit Camden twice every week! (P.S. - what's the story with the blimp, OME - Yesterday it meandered up to almost overhead my place near Mittagong - it was over Razorback when I headed out of Camden and I beat it here by 10 minutes!)

 

As a side note re various suppliers: be aware that there is a very large 'dodgy spares' market in hardware in the USA, that sell, amongst other things, supposedly AN-spec bolts etc. that have been re-plated and DO NOT meet specs either for strength (because of the re-plating) and fit tolerance - same reason. George Markey returned from his 'bat-building days in the USA with cartons of the damn things, and they're useful for non-critical stuff but MUST NOT be used in stressed areas. If you know your AN hardware well, you can usually pick them by the colour of the plating, but don't count on it. Trusted suppliers like QED, Skyshop etc. won't touch them.

 

Humorous story - George was in one of those places, large warehouse in, I think, Arizona, filling his 'shopping basket', when he heard an almighty lot of row from outside. Wandered out to find Rare Bear taxying up; the owner had just nipped down in it on his own shopping trip to pick up a bunch of this and that. Now THAT's what I call a shopping trolley....

 

 

[Oscar]

Re packing - A/S allow commentary on their orders, and I added a note that they would be on-sent to Australia and I needed the cubic dimensions to be kept to a minimum. They did a damn good job of that, as far as I am concerned.

 

Wherever reasonable, I personally believe that we need to support local good suppliers such as QED, Skyshop, Mendelsohns, Asia-Pacific and others, because they are often the place we need to go to get the bits we need to keep in the air - and when you are out the back of Bourke and stranded, these are the people who can help you expeditiously. I doubt there is any aviation supplier (in our market, anyway) that is making a glorious living out of their enterprise and anybody who has any experience of commerce will know that there is a real cost in having stock-in-hand. If we want access to service, there IS a cost involved - consider paying the additional charge by our local distributors to be and investment in having local back-up for your activities. For rare and extremely low-volume items, going to an overseas seller may be the only way to get hold of them - but I believe that on balance, supporting the guys who can come to your rescue quickly when you are stuck for something pretty basic is plain common sense.

 

I've had nothing but good relations with and service from just about every local supplier of aviation parts with which I have so far had dealings.

 

 

[Oscar]

Re packing - A/S allow commentary on their orders, and I added a note that they would be on-sent to Australia and I needed the cubic dimensions to be kept to a minimum. They did a damn good job of that, as far as I am concerned.

 

Wherever reasonable, I personally believe that we need to support local good suppliers such as QED, Skyshop, Mendelsohns, Asia-Pacific and others, because they are often the place we need to go to get the bits we need to keep in the air - and when you are out the back of Bourke and stranded, these are the people who can help you expeditiously. I doubt there is any aviation supplier (in our market, anyway) that is making a glorious living out of their enterprise and anybody who has any experience of commerce will know that there is a real cost in having stock-in-hand. If we want access to service, there IS a cost involved - consider paying the additional charge by our local distributors to be and investment in having local back-up for your activities. For rare and extremely low-volume items, going to an overseas seller may be the only way to get hold of them - but I believe that on balance, supporting the guys who can come to your rescue quickly when you are stuck for something pretty basic is plain common sense.

 

I've had nothing but good relations with and service from just about every local supplier of aviation parts with which I have so far had dealings.

 

 

[kgwilson]

Guys, please let me say that I am not perfect, but I will always try my best. In terms of communication here is my mobile number 0412 881108 just in case anyone misses that 0412 881108However, please note that the Clear Prop Shop is not designed to be a business but a means to help recreational aviators to save some money and keeping recreational in their sport plus at the same time derive some income to pay the costs of running this site which is why the prices are cheap and that i do have to work a normal job from 8 to 6 to live. So please always feel free to ring me if you have any problem, any problem at all in the evenings, even for just a chat, i work in Canberra and only get home to Melbourne every 2nd weekend. If you need an update on an order during the day, Corrine (the trouble and strife) who is looking after the shop during the day can be contacted on 03 9444 8025, she is now handling the day to day bits and pieces of the shop.

 

I, and every user of this site, thank you for helping this site to stay as good as it is for everyone by purchasing from Clear Prop

Check Ians prices against other Australian suppliers. My bet is you won't find anything cheaper unless it is old stock they are selling on special.

 

 

[kgwilson]

Guys, please let me say that I am not perfect, but I will always try my best. In terms of communication here is my mobile number 0412 881108 just in case anyone misses that 0412 881108However, please note that the Clear Prop Shop is not designed to be a business but a means to help recreational aviators to save some money and keeping recreational in their sport plus at the same time derive some income to pay the costs of running this site which is why the prices are cheap and that i do have to work a normal job from 8 to 6 to live. So please always feel free to ring me if you have any problem, any problem at all in the evenings, even for just a chat, i work in Canberra and only get home to Melbourne every 2nd weekend. If you need an update on an order during the day, Corrine (the trouble and strife) who is looking after the shop during the day can be contacted on 03 9444 8025, she is now handling the day to day bits and pieces of the shop.

 

I, and every user of this site, thank you for helping this site to stay as good as it is for everyone by purchasing from Clear Prop

Check Ians prices against other Australian suppliers. My bet is you won't find anything cheaper unless it is old stock they are selling on special.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Where the first dealer wouldn't trouble himself to offer $50 for cabfare after I had spent $1,000 of my own money getting there, Greg from Silent Wings proposed and offered my airfare to Europe without hesitation or quibble. Guess who got the sale?

The girl with the large assets?

 

Not sure why the Dealer should pay your cab fare, they don't know if you will purchase or not, but it is an often offered courtesy to remove your travel expenses from the purchase price.