Update on Fulcrum

[tutmeister 718]

This isn't an easy post to write even though I am excited about being able to share some good news with you. It is actually really intimidating to publicly post things when you have faced public criticism and abuse after messing up as badly as I did with Fulcrum. Initially I just wanted to hide away from everything.

As most people who are reading this section of the forum know, Fulcrum Simulator Controls ran into difficulty and ceased trading. They should also know that all customers at that time were written to explaining the situation. In that email I went through some of the reasons why the company went down and left us all out of work and left some customers with outstanding orders.

One of the complaints I have seen here is that I am a crook and ran the company into the ground knowing it was going down. This is simply not true. At the time that orders were being taken, we were expecting a start up company assistance loan from the Government to help with costs etc that we had faced and to allow us to jump to higher production throughput. At the time this was applied for things were going well. 6 months later we were still waiting for this. I did close new orders and issued some refunds that were placed at the end. I did not take peoples money and run. However, I know that many people were angry and felt cheated or scammed.

During all this there were things outside of the company to deal with and that were of a personal nature and made life very difficult, including facing the criticism here. No excuses for that but sometimes life is what it is and things don’t always go as you wanted.

Now, as stated in the email to customers, I aim to stand by outstanding orders, even though Fulcrum was a limited company, and I could walk away from it. It would not be right to do anything else as I am a longstanding member of the flight sim community and not just a faceless company in China.

I also don’t want to walk away because I believe in my designs, my principles in delivering what I promised and the tens of thousands of pounds of my own money I started the company with. That investment in product design, development and knowledge allows me to start production and deliver the same quality and future products.

The way this will work is this. I am currently working another job to pay my wages. I will not be taking wagers from Fulcrum until it is built back up.

Throttles are being produced first. This is because there are some parts already available to me. Orders have been placed for the remaining parts. Over the coming weeks throttles will be assembled and once ready, customers who ordered a throttle and were not able to claim a refund will have their orders fulfilled and remaining throttles will be available for purchase via the website.

This is not an ideal approach and involves even more long waits. I understand the frustration in that but there is no alternative. I do not have a large cash pool I can issue refunds from, All I have is the ability to work and build up what is needed to start producing again. Also there will no longer be any pre-orders. Orders will only be taken when stock is on the shelf ready to go. If we are out of stock then it will show out of stock. Any other way just leads to too much risk. I am sure lots of companies thought otherwise until it all goes wrong!

For clarity, all profits from sales will be going back into buying more parts to produce more products. This means that customers who lost out will get their order eventually and there will be off the shelf Fulcrum products for new customers. I will not be taking a wage from Fulcrum until this point is reached and everything owed is repaid.

I hope this shows that I am trying to do the right thing and Fulcrum will be run in a customer focused way.

There will be changes to the forum to clean up a lot of ‘where are you?’ threads. User to user support threads may get edited and moved around to make it less of a mess. I will not be deleting any threads – even those that make me feel bad. I will move them into an archive folder, but I do not wish to delete history.

Thanks again for the hundreds of messages and emails of support, it is quite honestly staggering to me.

Chris

Edited April 23 by tutmeister

[kevinfirth 1,443]

Awesome Chris, good to see you back in the game 🙂  Look forward to buying from you again!

[buzzbee 53]

I am very satisfied with my Fulcrum yoke.  I will be watching to see what happens.  My old CH Products Throttle quadrant in worn out and I was never a fan of the Bravo.  There is a need for something good.  

[Snowy55 4]

Good to read this Chris. A good way forward. 

[mrcultureshock 75]

Thanks for the update, Chris! 

[Ron Attwood 3,542]

Put me down for a throttle mate. I see that prices now reflect the quality. I've always maintained that Yoko charge double for half as good. I think you've priced it/them just about right.

More power to your elbow!

[ark 1,296]

Chris,

Great to hear things are moving in the right direction for all concerned!

I am also ready to reorder the throttle quadrant when it becomes available.

Al

[Ivor 0]

Excellent news well done Chris looking forward to the throttle , I have the yoke fantastic product, now your in control step by step you will grow .

Ivor

[Donka 664]

If I lived closer,  I would volunteer to assist with building, testing or packing them up. Good to hear from you and looking forward to a quality throttle. 

[Epgd 147]

Hello Chris,
great news, as a super satisfied Fulcrum user, I'm looking forward to the throttle. Personally, I really appreciate your professionalism and contact with me when I had "problems" with Yoke. For me this is not a new chapter - you just came back from a long trip and are back in the game. Good luck !

[jamesb 7]

This is great news. I have the yoke (bought second hand off of ebay!) and it is superb. I am in the market for the throttle and no question, once in stock later in the year I'll be ordering!

[Ray Proudfoot 9,048]

I can now reveal that Chris brought me his single pre-production model and I’ve been using it for the last couple of months.

I fly a single engine PC12, twin-engine Vertx DA-62, Xtreme Prototypes Lear 25, PMDG737 and finally, Concorde.

What a difference a quality TQ makes. Friction can be adjusted so you get just the right amount for you. The size mirrors that of two Saitek / Logitech TQs so the footprint is very small. Considerably smaller than another I could mention which is important if space is at a premium.

It’s so easy to make small adjustments to power because of the Hall-Effect sensors. So different to the pots on the Saitek which eventually wear causing spiking.

The switches are robust with a very positive action. I couldn’t be happier. Patience will be rewarded and you’ll love it. It exudes quality which is standard for Chris. 

[Donka 664]

Sounds promising. 

[ark 1,296]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I can now reveal that Chris brought me his single pre-production model and I’ve been using it for the last couple of months.

I fly a single engine PC12, twin-engine Vertx DA-62, Xtreme Prototypes Lear 25, PMDG737 and finally, Concorde.

What a difference a quality TQ makes. Friction can be adjusted so you get just the right amount for you. The size mirrors that of two Saitek / Logitech TQs so the footprint is very small. Considerably smaller than another I could mention which is important if space is at a premium.

It’s so easy to make small adjustments to power because of the Hall-Effect sensors. So different to the pots on the Saitek which eventually wear causing spiking.

The switches are robust with a very positive action. I couldn’t be happier. Patience will be rewarded and you’ll love it. It exudes quality which is standard for Chris. 

Thanks for the report Ray. I really have enjoyed using the Fulcrum yoke, and I'm looking forward to reordering the TQ when it is available!

Al

[Ron Attwood 3,542]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I can now reveal that Chris brought me his single pre-production model

Huh! He said I could have it. 😒