Sport Pilot Talk

grtbluyonder · Joined: 11 Mar 2010 Posts: 1 Location: AK

The recent departure of the REMOS VP was rumored to be caused in part by their failure to issue his paycheck. Apparently REMOS is living hand to mouth and is using each aircraft sale to extend its life. The private owners of REMOS would seem to prefer dancing with bankruptcy over additional partners and/or outside financing. Too bad. Nicely engineered aircraft but it wouldn't be the first time that good technology was ruined by bad business practices.

yozz25 · Joined: 18 Dec 2009 Posts: 185 Location: vegas

It's a bad economy out there.

In order to survive you need sales, and the financing to do so.

With banks being tight, money tight, unsure economic outlook in US and Europe, a good sound bus plan laid out say 5 years ago is easily doomed by current situation. That's a no brainer :roll:

Looks like they may be broke, perhaps we should pass de hat.

yozz
:oops:

rfane · Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 214 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

grtbluyonder wrote: The recent departure of the REMOS VP was rumored to be caused in part by their failure to issue his paycheck. Apparently REMOS is living hand to mouth and is using each aircraft sale to extend its life. The private owners of REMOS would seem to prefer dancing with bankruptcy over additional partners and/or outside financing. Too bad. Nicely engineered aircraft but it wouldn't be the first time that good technology was ruined by bad business practices.

Got a link to any news stories? The troubles they had back in the December time frame were supposedly put behind them with additional capital investment.

AZPilot · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 156

Which VP? How recent?

Pretty generic, low detail, hit piece for your first post.

Probably would be better to give some back up facts if you have them.

ETA:

Tue, 2009-07-28
Pasewalk, Germany – REMOS Aircraft has announced a significant infusion of new capital. The announcement was provided by Corvin Huber, CEO of REMOS.

“The new funding will allow us to continue and expand the programs that have propelled us to the top of the LSA market and progress into innovative marketing approaches”, said Huber. “Our new investors, Pall Mall Partners of London, UK, are technology focused investors who have successfully implemented innovative marketing ideas in the automotive industry. REMOS will benefit from this experience and apply it to the aviation realm. REMOS aims to introduce new entrants to the aviation world and expects a high level of success not only for itself, but for the whole LSA market segment.”

REMOS has had a steep growth curve over the last two years and has recently surpassed all other manufacturers in terms of number of aircraft shipped per quarter in the LSA market. “

Remos represent the success of excellent innovation together with a comprehensive understanding of the global General Aviation Business” remarked Michael Bauer, Founder & CEO of Pall Mall Partners Limited. “These are the reasons the company currently enjoys its top ranking in the Light Sports Aircraft marketplace and together with our resources and knowledge of marketing, we expect the company to attract an entirely new and unique customer base. All of the Pall Mall team are very excited by this investment and are looking forward to the expansion of the Remos brand throughout the world.”

For more information on REMOS visit www.remos.com <http> .

For more information on Pall Mall Partners visit: www.pallmallpartners.com
<http> .

REMOS Aircraft has received significant funding which will allow them to maintain their position as the leader of the Light Sport Aircraft movement.

AND

Thu, 2009-12-10
Pasewalk, Germany – REMOS Aircraft has received an additional significant investment and has broadened its capital base. This was announced today by the management of the German aircraft manufacturer. With this new capital injection, REMOS Aircraft goes strengthened into the year 2010.

REMOS Aircraft succeeded in strengthening its leadership in the LSA segment despite the challenges presented by slow demand in the aviation industry, particularly in the U.S. market. “With the highest growth rates in the industry, meanwhile dominating the LSA segment, and with significant progress in building our marketing and sales organization, we have reached the goals we had set ourselves for the year 2009”, said Michael Meirer, member of the executive board and responsible for the U.S. market.

The steps initiated by the two main shareholders, the Faerber Group of Munich, Germany, and the London investment house Pall Mall Partners, in cooperation with the REMOS management, secure the future of REMOS Aircraft and enable the introduction of new programs through which the company will be able to address new customer segments.

MacPara23 · Joined: 12 Nov 2009 Posts: 31 Location: Tucson, AZ

Hm, look at this one here: http://www.igolsa.com/
This might explain what is going on there...

chrisw · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 19 Location: San Jose, CA

AZPilot wrote:

REMOS Aircraft succeeded in strengthening its leadership in the LSA segment despite the challenges presented by slow demand in the aviation industry, particularly in the U.S. market.

I've seen references to Remos doing a better marketing job than Flight Design, leading some to believe that there are more Remos LSAs out there than CT's. But it does seem like more marketing than reality if this Google map is at all accurate:

http://www.communitywalk.com/FlightDesign_RemosLocations#0004CeeX

As much as I like a couple of other LSAs as well (the UL 3000 Sirius and possibly a Jabiru or a Lightning), I really want to see that there's some sort of established business in place before I plunk down my money. And right now that "established business" is striking me as being Flight Design.

Chris

Jim Stewart · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 259

I own a CTSW and I can only say good things about both the aircraft and the company. Flight Design and Flight Design USA in particular, are very responsive and knowledgeable. The few repair and modification parts I've needed have always been in stock in the US and available overnight. Of all the Light Sport companies, I suspect Flight Design will be the one still around in 10 years.

dstclair · Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 212 Location: Allen, TX

Quote: I really want to see that there's some sort of established business

This is true with any major purchase such as cars, planes and new homes. The problem is that, just like investments, past performance doesn't guarantee future success.

Most of the major players in the LSA arena have been around for awhile but not in the US. For example: Flight Design 25+ years, TL-Ultralight (Sting/Sirius) 20 years, Tecnam 60+ years and Remos ~13 years (can't really tell from the website).

From longevity, I'd say they are all established but are they all viable in the long run?

Then you have Piper and Cessna. Piper has been around for a LONG time and has been reorganized/bankrupt/bought at least twice in the recent past. Cessna has been selling off business units the last few years and have been owned by Textron for the last 18 years (General Dynamics before that). What if someone else decides to by the Cessna division -- the Skycatcher could go the way of Cirrus' LSA?

Are Cessna and Piper good bets for the LSA future?

Anyone going to buy a Chrysler anytime soon?

In short, what you want to look for is a company that is committed to forwarding their products (updated designs, new models, etc), invests in sustained growth, supports their existing customers and has a focus on client service. These traits are what keeps a company in business.

There a few LSA companies that fit the model. You just need to investigate before plunking your money down. This will lower your risk but there is no way in today's world to make the risk go away.

chrisw · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 19 Location: San Jose, CA

dstclair wrote:
In short, what you want to look for is a company that is committed to forwarding their products (updated designs, new models, etc), invests in sustained growth, supports their existing customers and has a focus on client service. These traits are what keeps a company in business.

There a few LSA companies that fit the model. You just need to investigate before plunking your money down. This will lower your risk but there is no way in today's world to make the risk go away.

No argument there. Heck, at the moment I own a Mooney and we pretty well don't know from one week to the next whether we'll have parts when they're needed -- the company has changed owners and declared bankruptcy more times than I change socks. But the interesting thing is that because the company has been around in one form or another so long, and has such a large base across the country, others have found a viable business market to enter into to continue supporting us when the factory can't, or won't.

I'm thinking the only two LSA manufacturers to come close to that in the US would be Flight Design and Remos, with Tecnam perhaps coming into play too. But again, look at that map I posted -- Flight Design would seem to blow away Remos.

Chris

chrisw · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 19 Location: San Jose, CA

Jim Stewart wrote: I own a CTSW and I can only say good things about both the aircraft and the company. Flight Design and Flight Design USA in particular, are very responsive and knowledgeable. The few repair and modification parts I've needed have always been in stock in the US and available overnight. Of all the Light Sport companies, I suspect Flight Design will be the one still around in 10 years.

Thanks Jim. That's exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

Chris