Vertical Power parent company

[Bsquared]

Starting to think about powering my panel. I am looking at Vertical Power but the corporation they are owned by stock had dropped 80% in the last year (mostly before Covid) and they recently announced some restructuring. Should I be worried about continued support of the product?

[bkervaski]

Yes is the answer that nobody wants to give. However, it's true for any vendor on an airplane that should be around 25+ years from now.

Really, anything you choose has this same risk. I didn't look at Garmin's stock performance before choosing their avionics.

By its reputation around town so to speak, VP sounds like a solid solution.

I didn't install VP but if I was back at that same decision point I would likely do it after talking at length with folks at fly-ins about their RVs.

[rocketman1988]

Good answer...

I wonder how the Mooney guys felt after buying a new one and the company folding up...

[penguin]

My view is that you need a really good reason to install VP, not just that it seems a neat piece of equipment or that a few others have one, but solid reasons where it gives you added useful functionality or saves $$ or both.

Although, if you are really concerned about the financial stability of vendors you wouldn't be in the experimental aviation game. There are many companies that produce neat stuff and then disappear. That even applies to 10 year old certified aircraft - you then get to buy the $5K SB that replaces the obsolete stuff with something different. At least with an experimental you get to choose the upgrade path...
Pete

[Hwood]

I am at the same crossroad in making a decision about VP... I was all for it, even looking at the costs which are pretty much a wash when added all up, but then the curveball. I just bought the Garmin suite and when talking to my avionics dealer (remain unnamed), I asked about his thoughts on Vertical Power. He said it was a solid piece of equipment, but there was virtually no support anymore. He recommended against it for the same reason.

I was going to wait and meet them at Sun n Fun...but we all know that outcome!

Anyway...still trying to decide!

[SmilingJack]

I have been flying behind my Vertical Power ?VP100? for 10 years now.

When the business was sold I was orphaned like many others with the earlier product line. It wasn?t a good feeling and one where I dread the fatal failure and having to rewire to C/B?s.

A few years ago there was a gentleman with the same concerns you have and he offered me a deal to buy his VP100 that he didn?t install. I was able to buy it for a very fair price.

I recommend you consider buying a a spare unit if you decide to go in that direction.

If I had to do it over again I think I would just go with C/B?s. But I do love the unit and the features.

[N546RV]

My super uneducated opinion is that the Vertical Power products are popular enough that I dunno about them ending up on the chopping block, unless Astronics really wanted to put an end to this product category entirely. Otherwise, it seems to me that some entrepreneur would be interested in purchasing the product line or rights thereto if Astronics was looking to divest itself of VP.

[Northernliving]

Originally Posted by Bsquared

Starting to think about powering my panel. I am looking at Vertical Power but the corporation they are owned by stock had dropped 80% in the last year (mostly before Covid) and they recently announced some restructuring. Should I be worried about continued support of the product?

If you are concerned about the company, read through the company's 10-k. https://investors.astronics.com/sec-...-20-000013.pdf
Lots of info there. Read the section on risk factors. Boeing and Panasonic are large, important customers. The Boeing woes probably started the stock decline and COVID (and the aviation/airline collapse) was the second punch. Astronics has tangible assets totaling over $500M. They purchased vertical Power in 2013 as I recall. Probably a good complement and test bed for some of their citified power systems. These guys aren't going anywhere soon, but COVID is going to test many balance sheets - especially any company tied to the airline industry.

[leok]

I have a VPX-pro in my RV-10.

I love the fact that I can bring on screen all of the circuits, see what the current draw is on each as well as the over all draw, and turn anything on/off with a touch of the G3X. I use that all of the time when powering the ship for maintenance. I love the ability to group functions to individual switches for example to turn all exterior or interior lights on/off with a single switch, or group avionics into groups of critical or secondary for quick on/off. I also like the idea of electronic circuit breakers. It does make the power distribution easier in my opinion.

Cost can be a wash depending on the comparison. It's hard to beat blade fuses for cost. But then we didn't get into this hobby to try to beat down to the lowest common denominator. If there ever comes a time when I have to pull the VPX out and replace with fuses, it will be a pain, but is doable in the location I have it installed.

What I would do differently is run my trim through the G3X instead of the VPX. The trim scheduling in the G3X is better with a gradual change instead of a step function at speed, and is accessible for programing right from the PFD. The VPX takes an ether net connection and separate PC to change.

Good luck, YMMV

[Mark Dickens]

I have the VPX Pro and I'd do it again. I do wish they would upgrade it with a wifi chip so you didn't have to plug a network cable in to change the config, but then again it's been tried and true. I've never had an issue with it. Wish I could say that with my Dynon suite