After considerable research, I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a Vertical Power VPX-Pro electrical management system at OSH from Tim Haas at Approach Fast Stack (a great guy and great company). One of the reasons I bought the VPX system was the reputation of Chad Jensen, the Vertical Pro guru who interfaces between the engineers and us builders. I had no idea how good a decision that turned out to be.
When I got home with that precious red brain box, I began planning my electrical system for my RV-8A. I had heard about the Vertical Power On Line Planning too, but actually starting to use it blew me away. I am an electrical idiot who doesn't know I from E or R. However, the Planning Tool was very intuitive. You can change components in a spreadsheet fashion and the tool automatically factors in loads and wire size. I then saw another tab titled "Elec. Diagram" and clicked on it. It blew me away. there was a detailed diagram of all the electrical components, switches, etc.
The icing on the cake came when I noticed that the list of available components in their drop down box did not contain the newest Garmin box for me to select. I dropped a quick email to Chad Jensen. Within two minutes (I swear) Chad emailed me back with a detailed message about his upgrade program on the component list. He even included some words of encouragement and an invitation to contact him any time.
DANG! I have seen pit stops at the Indy 500 take longer than that. It is great to know that the folks at Astronics have such a great product and that Chad Jensen is there to stand behind it and to help builders along the way.
As our sainted leader, Paul Poberezny, used to say, it's not about the airplanes, it's about the people. I am glad to know that Chad is looking after us.
When I got home with that precious red brain box, I began planning my electrical system for my RV-8A. I had heard about the Vertical Power On Line Planning too, but actually starting to use it blew me away. I am an electrical idiot who doesn't know I from E or R. However, the Planning Tool was very intuitive. You can change components in a spreadsheet fashion and the tool automatically factors in loads and wire size. I then saw another tab titled "Elec. Diagram" and clicked on it. It blew me away. there was a detailed diagram of all the electrical components, switches, etc.
The icing on the cake came when I noticed that the list of available components in their drop down box did not contain the newest Garmin box for me to select. I dropped a quick email to Chad Jensen. Within two minutes (I swear) Chad emailed me back with a detailed message about his upgrade program on the component list. He even included some words of encouragement and an invitation to contact him any time.
DANG! I have seen pit stops at the Indy 500 take longer than that. It is great to know that the folks at Astronics have such a great product and that Chad Jensen is there to stand behind it and to help builders along the way.
As our sainted leader, Paul Poberezny, used to say, it's not about the airplanes, it's about the people. I am glad to know that Chad is looking after us.