As a Winter Dealer I also do send Winter Instruments in for repair and
overhaul for customers......Having German Bank accounts makes it quite easy
for me, not maybe so easy for others without commercial US and foreign
accounts...
if you have repairable Winter instruments you can send them to me and
they'll go with the next batch. I just sent one box and I try to send
several at a time to help keep shipping and customs costs down...
BTW Winter is in the small town of Jungingen and was recently
flooded...nearly the whole town was underwater and there was much damage,
fortunately the Winter company sits on somewhat higher ground and was not
part of the major damage but many of homes of the workers there were badly
damaged including the home of Achim Winter, the owner of Winter instruments.
Most of the workers needed some time away to salvage and repair their homes
from flood damage but hopefully all are back to more normal.
There is a video on YouTube and in this an interview with Achim's wife,
Gabby Winter at their home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tegoCITArbQ
tim

"Todd" wrote in message
...
Over the winter, I sent mine back top Winter (No US repair
facilities). Got it back in a
reasonable time (I told them no rush to return) for a fair repair cost
(way less than half the cost of my generic spare). If it had not had
my address label on the case, I would swear that they just sent me a
new unit. Big PLUS...The repaired ASI now matches the speed of our
tow plane leading me to think it had been failing for a while.

Tips for others:

1. I sent my ASI to Germany via US Postal Service (Yea, the snail
mail people who loose everything). Got there safe and sound for one
third the cost of (Fedex, USP, DHL...). They return shipped by the
German Postal Service. Looks like just over a week for return
shipping.

2. Very trusting folks over there. Sent ASI back with an invoice in
EUROS! Winter does not take MasterCard/Visa. After lots of head
scratching and obscene rates to get bank draft in Euros, I stumbled
upon PayPal as a method. PayPal took my Visa, converted it to Euros
and sent them for no fees other than the currency exchange rate.
Fast, Easy, Safe.