Richard Moore: A life of flight, awards and meeting famous folks

 

Susan Elzey/Register & Bee

  Richard Moore, a retired aviation mechanic, looks over the memorabilia he has collected over more than 65 years of work in the aviation field. He has put together what he calls an "aviation museum" in his garage.

 Susan Elzey/Register & Bee

Richard Moore’s garage has been turned into somewhat of an aviation museum to hold memorabilia from his years as an aviation mechanic.

Some people’s garages hold junk, some hold tools, and some even have room for cars. Richard Moore’s garage, however, has been turned into somewhat of an aviation museum to hold memorabilia from his years as an aviation mechanic.

Moore, 82, and his wife, Alice, moved to Danville 17 years ago to be near family and get out of the traffic of the Hampton Roads area. Before that Moore served first in the military and then in the Civil Service as an aircraft mechanic and inspector.

“I was authorized to work on the aircraft and authorized to sign off to let you fly,” Moore said.

He was so good at it that he was awarded the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award, named in honor of the first aviation mechanic in powered flight. Taylor was the mechanic for the Wright brothers and is credited with designing and building the engine for their first successful aircraft.

“You have to have worked for 50 years without any infractions on your record and you’re nominated by your peers,” Moore explained.

Meeting dignitaries
 
From 1966 to 1988 Moore worked at Langley Air Force Base with the Civil Service. He was in the Air Force for eight years before that.

As an aircraft mechanic at Langley he parked and positioned the planes of visiting dignitaries, many times having the honor of meeting and escorting the dignitaries as they disembarked the airplane.

“I got to meet Presidents Reagan, Johnson and Ford and I served in the honor guard for Eisenhower. I also met the Kennedy family — Ted, Robert, Jackie and Mama Rose when they launched the Kennedy aircraft carrier,” Moore remembered.

He also met Jimmy Stewart, Chuck Yeager and Chappy James, the first black American to reach the rank of four-star general in 1975 .

He also escorted French President Francois Mitterand off his plane.

His co-workers teased him that he wouldn’t be able to get Mitterand’s autograph, but he did.

“I told him I wanted it for my son who was studying French,” he said.

Moore and his wife have one son, Russell, who is a church organist and choir director in McLean and preaches in French.

Getting started

The first plane Moore ever worked on was a J-3 Cub in the Lawrenceville airport.

“I had a friend who worked there, and I’d hang out and get my hands greasy,” he remembered. “When I graduated from high school I joined the Air Force. I wanted to be an auto mechanic, but they needed aircraft mechanics. ‘That’s what you’ll be, boy,’ they said. ‘You’re going to Amarillo.’”

Moore said people have been real nice to him along the way, except for maybe a few.

“I started working for the Aero Club at Langley where they teach dependents to fly. I started with three airplanes and built it up to 17,” he said. “I started under a light pole, then a shed and then they built me a nice hangar.

“Someone made me a nice nameplate that said ‘Richard T. Moore Hangar.’ After three or four managers, a smart one said you have to be dead to have a hangar named after you and took the nameplate down, put it in his car and brought it to me.”

That nameplate now hangs over his memorabilia in his garage.

When Moore first moved back to the Danville area he freelanced as an airplane mechanic. That led to an interest in racing after he worked on the planes of race car drivers, such as Ward Burton at the Roxboro, N.C., airport. Now his garage museum also includes a corner for racing memorabilia.

Praying for a miracle

These days, however, it’s getting harder for Moore to do any work on airplanes because he has developed macular degeneration and his eyesight is failing.

“But we’re praying for a miracle,” his wife said. “I think daily he’s seeing better. We’re asking for it. It’s just sad; he’s worked all his life on airplanes — for 65 years.”

He was still working at the Danville Airport until his eyesight began to fail.

“They didn’t want anyone who was blind,” he said with a good-hearted chuckle.

He still can putter around in his museum, though, even if some days he has to squint a little bit to find what he wants.

“The museum is an ongoing process,” he said.

Story and Photos:   http://www.godanriver.com

Business boost for Rolls-Royce at Barnoldswick and Kelbrook firm Euravia

 West Craven’s aerospace firms have received a double boost.

Rolls-Royce at Barnoldswick is expected to benefit from a £6 billion order from Japan Airlines for more than 30 new Airbus wide-body jets.

They will be powered by Trent XWB engines and the blades are made at Rolls’ Skipton Road site, which employs 1,000 people.

Under the latest deal, the Far East airline has secured 31 A350s, which will enter service from 2019 onwards, as part of a six-year fleet replacement programme.

An option has been taken on a further 25 craft, which are believed to have been selected in preference to Boeing’s delayed 777X.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said: “This is yet more good news for the aerospace industry in Lancashire and the north-west.”

The group has secured more than 750 orders for the jets to date and aims to start delivering them to customers by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, another local aerospace firm has signed a major deal to repair jet engines for an American company.

Euravia Engineering, based on Colne Road, Kelbrook, will work with Greenwich AeroGroup, from Wichita, to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services for Pratt & Whitney’s PT6A and PT6T engines on fixed and rotor wing aircraft in the United States.

The firm, which won a Queen’s Award for International Trade in 2010, has a mobile repair team in America, and engines can also be brought to the UK.

Euravia managing director Dennis Mendoros said: “We are very excited to work with Greenwich AeroGroup to expand Euravia’s services into the United States. Our commitment to quality engineering, cost-effective services and personal service aligns well with Greenwich AeroGroup’s pledge to provide customers with optimal aviation solutions.”

Jeff Mihalic, senior vice-president of Greenwich AeroGroup, said: “Euravia has an outstanding international reputation for delivering cost-effective, high-quality gas turbine engine services with exceptional performance and reliability.”

Euravia was founded in 1988 by Sudanese-born Mr Mendoros and the company has grown to a £10m turnover business, specialising in repairing and overhauling US-made Pratt & Whitney jet engines. 

Source:  http://www.cravenherald.co.uk

Premier Aviation signs contract with Cape Air, creating dozens of jobs with hope of more in the future

Rome (WSYR-TV) - An airline has signed a contract with Premier Aviation in Rome, a deal that will create 15 jobs and hopefully more in the future.

Premier Aviation has been contracted on a three-year-deal to paint up to 70 of Cape Air's passenger aircraft.

The company is recruiting 15 people to work in the paint facility, but they're also looking to fill 50 other positions in the near future.

The Premier Aviation overhaul center deals with maintenance, repairs, and paint jobs.

“It's the only paint bay in the Northeast. We'll have 25 full-time dedicated employees. This is a stepping stone to this paint hanger," said Jennifer Rapson, Financial Controller with Premier Aviation.

Rapson says the 15 positions are entry level, but that there is potential for growth within the company.

"We need people to stay in the paint program, but we need them to excel further in to other areas possibly," Rapson said.

Rapson says major contracts are in the works, which could mean more jobs for the area. 


Source:  http://www.9wsyr.com

Career of Williamsburg female pilot & mechanic is taking off (With Video)

KING & QUEEN – No one knows the phrase, "This is a man's world," better than 24-year-old Anna Brown.

Brown, of Williamsburg, is one of only a handful of female airplane mechanics and licensed pilots in the country.  To top it off, she is the owner of her own business, RAB Aviation Services, LLC, in Petersburg, and often works at the Middle Peninsula Regional Airport (MPRA) in Mattaponi.

Women like Brown make up for less than two percent of the 329,000 airplane mechanics and only six percent of the 600,000 pilots nationwide, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Being a woman in aviation isn't without its issues," she said. "A lot of the older pilots and mechanics started when there were no women in the industry. Some still believe that women are going to steal their jobs." 

Brown knew that she would face these obstacles when she chose the profession of airplane mechanic, yet she was unfazed. Encouraged by her father, Richard, a NASA engineer and "aviation nut," she always felt comfortable in the aviation world.

"When I told my mom that I wanted to be an airplane mechanic, she encouraged me to get my pilot's license first, so I did," she said.

While in high school, Brown worked on getting her pilot's license, and always kept her sights set on the future.

"I didn't like high school very much," she said. "I always felt like I was marching to a different drummer. Aviation was my life and not everyone understood."

Brown first flew solo in 2007 and received her pilot's license two years later.

After graduating from high school in 2008, she studied airplane  mechanics at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) in Chesapeake. Though she was not a fan of high school instruction, she was a star in the aviation classroom. She only missed 12 days out of the two years it took to complete the curriculum at the school 75 miles away.

"My mom said, 'Wow, you must really like this'," she said.

During her time at AIM, Brown worked on a lot of extracurricular projects, including the Restoration Newport Project, which built from scratch a World War I fighter plane for Gerald Yagen, the owner of the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach.

She took her first aviation job in Georgia and after a layoff, then worked for commercial airlines for one month. It didn't take Brown long to realize she was not comfortable with the commercial airline world. "I'm detail oriented and I have to do things certain ways. Some individuals like to cut corners, and I get hung up on the corners," she said.

Brown returned to Virginia and worked in Hanover County until July 2011. In 2012, she decided to start her own business, RAB Aviation Services, LLC, which was first based at the MPRA in King & Queen.

"It was hard at first. I had to do a couple of non-aviation jobs," she said. "But this year has been a lot better."

Ever since a flying friend gave Brown her first "official job," the business has taken off.

"In a year, everything has gone from struggling to much better. I enjoy it and I'm learning a lot," she said.

Brown's business, RAB Aviation Services, LLC, which she co-owns with her parents, is now located in Petersburg, though she keeps her family's 1965 Piper Cherokee 180C "N8229W" at MPRA, and spends hours doing repairs at the airport for her clients.

Although a relatively new pilot and mechanic, Brown has already started getting noticed by her peers.

She was the sole female participant at the Wings, Wheels, and Keels flying competition on September 28 at Hummel Airfield in Topping, where she won first place in the first ever spot landing challenge.

According to Brown, it was a windy day, which influenced how many people entered the competition and how the planes flew, and high-speed cameras were used to capture the wheels' arrival over the line.

"The first round was great. A couple of people were disqualified because they landed short, and some landed very long because the winds were at 90 degrees, pushing at the aircraft," she said.

"The lighter aircrafts, which normally would excel at this competition, had to keep more power in and more speed because if they didn't, they would ground loop," which is a rapid rotation of the aircraft.

In the first round, Brown landed about 10 feet past the line and in the second round, she landed 100 feet past the line, clinching her first place position.

"There was another plane in the second round that stopped short 2 1/2 inches before the line, which disqualified it, so it was extremely close," she said. "When they gave out the award, I was so nervous. I went into the competition thinking, 'I'm not going to win this. I haven't flown in a long time.' I hadn't flown in a month."

"They gave it to me in this giant pink Barbie case and the bow was pink."

For winning first place in the spot landing challenge, Brown was awarded $2,000 in $2 bills.

"It was a really, really fun day," she said.

Brown has spent what little free time she has sharing her aviation knowledge and passion with the community.

She works with aviation centers, schools, and programs, including Denbigh High School's Aviation Academy, in Newport News.

"I couldn't imagine doing anything else besides aviation," she said.

"It's who I am."

RAB Aviation Services, LLC, offers:

• Aircraft maintenance

• Aircraft detailing

• Aircraft management

• Aircraft inspections

• Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR) and transponder certifications

• Professional photography

• Professional videography

• Aerial photography

• Flight training

• Sight-seeing flights

• Aircraft charters

• Importations and exportations

For more information on RAB Aviation Services, LLC, please visit: rabaviationservicesllc.vpweb.com or contact Brown at: (678) 340-6398.

- See more at: http://www.tidewaterreview.com

The hangar opens: Dean Baldwin paint shop employs 150, looking for additional hires

Two things about Dean Baldwin LP’s new facility at Grissom Aeroplex: it’s huge, as expected, and it doesn’t smell like there’s aircraft painting going on.

The giant aircraft parked inside, with paper and tape masking material draped all over, say otherwise, as do the 150 people already hard at work.

One would probably have to go back to the late 1990s to find a private sector company bringing so many jobs to Miami County, and the 200 or so dignitaries gathered Thursday for a ribbon cutting were a testimony to the company’s importance.

“It has been a dream to have a paint shop like this,” Dean Baldwin CEO Barbara Baldwin said. “The airlines were waiting for a facility like this.”

The $13.8-million project expanded one of Grissom’s old hangars, a structure built in the late 1950s, by 50,000 feet on the east and west sides so large airplanes could fit inside. There is 155,000 square feet inside, enough room to paint four of the largest airliners at once.

Baldwin was asked if there were any aircraft too large for the Grissom facility.

“Probably a [Lockheed] C-5 [Galaxy]. That’s about it,” she replied.

Teams of painters were lined up in front of aircraft as Baldwin led a tour Thursday. With massive ventilation systems and 1,400 separate filter panels in place, paint fumes clear out in a matter of a few minutes, she explained. The floors are washed frequently; no paint is allowed to build up.

“This facility is one-in-a-million,” Baldwin said in March. “It’s really state-of-the-art.”

Thursday, she said the company plans to paint and service more than 200 airplanes a year out of the new facility, which could attract other aviation businesses to the area.

The expansion nearly doubles the size of Dean Baldwin, which currently employees 240 people at its facilities in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.

It’s a godsend for Miami County, which lost a larger percentage of its residents between 1990 and 2000 than any other Indiana county. In the subsequent decade, only the addition of several thousand Miami Correctional Facility prisoners in 2010 stanched the downward trend.

Peru Mayor Jim Walker said Grissom’s transition from an active duty Air Force base to a reserve base cost 4,500 jobs and $105 million in economic activity.

Returning from that blow hasn’t been easy.

“In all honesty, when you’re handed a former Air Force base, the first question is, what are we going to do with it?” Walker said. “From the shock in 1994 to a celebration in 2013, this really is a success story.”

Baldwin called the hangar, which was gutted, retrofitted and painted bright blue, “the ugly duckling which turned into a swan,” and said the facility’s painting bays are already booked into next year.

They’ve hired 150, she said, “and we need 30 more right now.”

“I’m killing them, making them work six days a week to get all of these aircraft out of here,” she said.

Baldwin said the Grissom facility is probably the largest independent paint shop of its kind.

“The big thing I think it means for Grissom is that people know we’re open for business in the aviation industry,” Walker said.

The expansion project was funded by a $7.2-million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state loans totaling $5.1 million and more than $1 million in local funding from Miami County.

Dean Baldwin signed a 30-year lease agreement with Miami County to use the hangar. The yearly lease payments will go toward paying off the federal and state loans.

Jim Tidd, executive director of the Miami County Economic Development Authority, said studies estimate the facility will have an economic impact of $162 million in the area during its first five years of operation.

Original article  http://kokomotribune.com

Exec Jet Club expands to Ocala International Airport (KOCF)

OCALA - Gainesville-based Exec Jet Club recently opened an aircraft maintenance, management and charter operation at Ocala International Airport.

Ed Rennia, Exec Jet Club general manager, said the company is doing maintenance on general aviation craft at the airport with four full-time employees and two floating between Gainesville and Ocala.

Rennia said Exec Jet Club's coverage includes North, Central and South America, adding the company has its own jets as well as jets it manages for other people.

“We go wherever charters are, but we're trying to develop a charter market out of Ocala, as well,” he said.

“We've done a few trips out of there sporadically, but we want to try and build the business up to where local people who need a charter will call us direct.”

A key target market is Marion County's horse industry, Rennia said.

The move fills a need of aircraft maintenance in particular, according to Matt Grow, director of Ocala International Airport.

“We push the notion of a full-service facility, and to have a full-service facility, you need to have a full-service maintenance operation,” Grow said. “Exec Jet Club provides that.”

Rennia said Exec Jet Club is exploring the idea of adding service featuring smaller, turboprop planes, as soon as the new year.

“If someone wants to go to Orlando or Miami or Atlanta, that would be more competitive than a jet on a short trip like that,” he said. “That would be another service we would look to expand to Ocala.”

Original article:  http://www.gainesville.com

EVA Airways expands business with new manufacturing unit

EVA Airways, Taiwan's second largest airline, is developing its upstream aircraft maintenance and aircraft manufacturing businesses, with the latter seeing orders triple this year compared with last year, reports our sister paper Commercial Times, citing EVA chairman Chang Kuo-wei.

EVA's next step is to expand toward aerospace manufacturing, including aircraft maintenance and aircraft manufacturing. Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp, the group's maintenance unit, has been in stable growth, according to Chang. The group has recently founded a new unit to focus on manufacturing engines and parts, and will expand to include aircraft precision parts and components.

The group is building a new manufacturing factory in Taoyuan in northern Taiwan, scheduled for completion in May next year and will have a registered capital of as much as NT$7 billion (US$236.6 million). Chang said that the new manufacturing unit will have a revenue of about NT$1 billion (US$33.8 million) this year, and once its new factory is completed, its revenues will see explosive growth.

Currently, the unit gets orders of engine parts and components chiefly from General Motors. It is also negotiating with Boeing and Airbus for new orders, Chang added. Evergreen Aviation, after becoming a maintenance center in Asia, has not only cultivated networks but has also obtained technology transfers from Boeing.

It is now the perfect time to enter the aircraft manufacturing business, Chang said, adding that Evergreen Group, parent of EVA Airways, will accelerate its recruitment scheme in the aerospace manufacturing industry in the next two years. However, Chang admitted that it may be hard to find domestic talent, especially engineers.

In general, aerospace manufacturing companies can outsource other satellite plants to make parts and components, but Taiwan's related firms have faced difficulty in the past in seeking certification. Now that EVA can handle the certification, the prospects of Taiwan's aerospace manufacturing industry is good, Chang said.

Evergreen Aviation has an annual revenue of around NT$18 billion (US$608.4 million) and is seeing single-digit growth every year as its technological requirement is comparatively low, Chang said. Its major clients include Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, and Vietnam Airlines.

Original article:  http://www.wantchinatimes.com

Behind the C-17: Building the plane has been the work of families, friends

Posted: 09/07/13, 4:39 PM PDT 

 By Karen Robes Meeks, Long Beach Press Telegram

For those who don’t know Steve and Scott Hackman, it’s hard to tell who’s who unless you know who does what.

The longtime employees and identical twins work in the wing department, where Steve Hackman, a mechanic, drills thousands of rivets and fasteners into the plane and younger brother Scott Hackman — younger by five minutes — inspects that work.

“Everything has to be just right,” said Scott Hackman, lining up a small measuring tool against some of the 44,000 bolts, rivets and other parts on the plane.

“I don’t cut him any slack, and anything I find, he fixes, just like anybody else would,” the younger brother said. “He’s a really good mechanic. He’s one of my favorites. Not because he’s my identical twin brother, but I have a nice work ethic and so does he. It’s a genetic thing, you know.”

The Hackmans came to work for Boeing because their father worked here, as did their mother, aunt and uncle.

“Our dad gave us the applications, we both filled them out, we both handed them in, we both got called into the employment office together, we took the test and got hired on the same day,” Scott Hackman said. “My badge number was one different than his.”

Like the Hackmans, many graduates from Millikan High School came to work at the Long Beach plant.

“I think the reason why it’s close-knit is because every single day I come in — I’ve been here 33 years — and I see the same people every day,” Steve Hackman said. “The same guys go to the gym. I mean, you see them at the lunch truck, go in and out, it’s a family. You spend more time here than you do at home. ... When you work together like that you basically become like family.”

The twins are pretty inseparable. They are on the phone with each other on their way to work. (Before cellphones, they talked on two-way radios with linear amplifiers on their commute.) They walk in together, go to the gym at lunchtime together and chat during breaks.

“We’re best friends,” Scott Hackman said.

All in the family

Garrett Eddington, who works in fire services for Boeing, remembers being a 6-year-old sitting on the hood of a red 1965 Ford pickup at the end of the runway near his Long Beach home, watching the first C-17 Globemaster III fly out of the plant nearly 22 years ago.

“It’s something I’d never seen before,” said Eddington, 28, a third-generation Boeing employee. “It’s a C-17. It’s what my dad built.”

The three generations of Eddingtons tied to Long Beach and this company started with his grandfather, Robert Eddington, a machinist who worked on commercial planes for 39 years. His father, Gary Eddington, is a supervisor on the C-17 who started at the company on the commercial side in 1979.

“I’ve got friends here that I went to high school with,” said Gary Eddington, 55. “Some of us grew up on the same block, went to the same high school and we’re all still working here.”

He remembers when there was more than 40,000 people working there.

“When I was first hired here, we used to take trams … that pulled us all the way into the buildings because you couldn’t find a parking spot.”

He said working on the C-17 has been a blessing.

“It’s been fun. It’s been great for me, great for my family,” said Gary Eddington, adding that his job has afforded him the ability to put his three children through college. “They’ve all got college degrees and have full-time jobs. ...

“I’ll be here until they close the doors myself. I’m not quite old enough to retire yet.”

Star power

Over the years, customer relations manager Lynne Jungers has seen many high-ranking officials, presidents and dignitaries come to the Long Beach plant to see the military jet.

But perhaps the most celebrated visit was that of the late Bob Hope, who came to Long Beach in 1997 for the naming of C-17 Globemaster III No. 31, “The Spirit of Bob Hope.”

She remembered the legendary comedian sitting in a Jeep, wearing a C-17 jacket and hat.

“He was very frail until you put the microphone in his hand,” she said. “If you didn’t look at him to realize how elderly he was, you’d have thought this was Bob Hope in Vietnam talking to the troops. I mean, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness!’”

Jungers said it reminded her of being at a ballgame watching a player retire his number.

“It chokes you up,” she said. “He got a bigger reaction than any general. He got a bigger reception than President Clinton by far. This is a great American. I will always remember this day.”

Flying high

For seven of the 28 years he has worked at Boeing, aircraft mechanic Willie White commuted from Perris in Riverside County to Long Beach by plane.

He and eight others took two private airplanes they chartered themselves to and from Riverside and Long Beach, flying up and over the grueling rush hour traffic.

“That’s been the highlight, to be able to fly in an airplane into your work on an airplane and fly back home,” said White, who now lives in Anaheim and drives to Boeing in Long Beach. “We’d clock out of here at 2:30, get in the plane and fly 70 miles and get in our home by 3:25 on a Friday.”

He racked up more than 1,000 hours of flying during his seven-year commute to and from Long Beach.

“That’s love,” he said.

A life’s work

When Nancy Wrobleski was recruited out of college by McDonnell Douglas in 1985, she thought she’d spend a couple of years in Long Beach before moving back to her native Wisconsin.

That was 28 years ago.

“I’ve been on the C-17 program my whole career, and I absolutely love it,” she said.

She and her team provide field support for the C-17, ensuring that the more than 1,000 engines in the fleet are in good health.

The propulsion engineering manager spoke about the passion of longtime workers who mentored her.

“Everyone is so proud of this plane,” she said. “Every time it takes off, people get chills. After that many years, you still really feel this way.”

Original Article and Photo Gallery:  http://www.presstelegram.com

After early challenges, aircraft refinishing venture begins to soar: Sturgis Aviation Inc. at Kirsch Municipal Airport (KIRS), Sturgis, Michigan

Sturgis Aviation Inc., a custom aircraft refinishing company, has been in Sturgis since 1999, housed in several buildings at Kirsch Municipal Airport.


Sturgis  —

Sturgis Aviation Inc., a custom aircraft refinishing company, has been in Sturgis since 1999, housed in  several buildings at Kirsch Municipal Airport.

The business started in the 1990s when co-owners Danny King and Dave LaPorte worked at a Kalamazoo and Battle Creek area company that paints jets. The company was purchased by a larger corporation, so the two decided to begin pursuing other opportunities.

They started to look for airports with a runway long enough  to meet their needs and with buildings large enough for a painting business. They found that Kirsch Municipal Airport in Sturgis suited their requirements.

Initially, they needed to invest some major money to get everything up and running. They got help from a local bank, then for the next six months they kept their regular jobs, traveling to Sturgis after work and on weekends to get everything ready.

In October 1999, they painted their first airplane, King said.

By the end of the year, both had quit their jobs and were on their own in Sturgis.

“Things were going pretty well, and then 9-11,” King said. “We almost didn’t survive.”

One airplane was in the shop that day and could not fly for weeks. The rest of their orders for the year were canceled.

“We painted a motor home and a boat — anything to survive,” LaPorte said.

The bank once again was accommodating, and by the start of 2022, business picked up and the venture has grown ever since.

Currently, Sturgis Aviation is booked until March 2014, King said. They typically paint two or three planes a month, depending on size of the aircraft.

One of the company’s largest accounts is Travel Management of Elkhart, Ind., a privately owned luxury charter jet company. It typically has one of its 69 jets at the paint shop at a given time.

King and LaPorte fill different roles in their business.

“Danny is the up-front guy,” LaPorte said. “I’m out in the shop. This is more of a hobby for me. Painting airplanes is what I do best.”

King said, “I like the business part of it. Making it all happen — the success.”

Six people in addition to the co-owners now work for Sturgis Aviation.

Despite a bump in the road in 2001, the company has experienced steady growth. Was it a good business venture?

“Oh yeah,” LaPorte said.  “Terrific.”

FACT BOX

Details

Steps involved in the custom aircraft refinishing business: 

• Create a conceptual design

• Mask off windows in preparation for chemical stripping

• Chemical stripping

• Treat bare metal in preparation for epoxy primer

• Remove flight controls for painting

• Apply anti-static primer

• Mask for stripes/designs

• Other services include work on all types of aircrafts, small jobs and touch-up projects.

Original Article: http://www.sturgisjournal.com

Cryodon, Pennsylvania: Helicopter shop helps its clients reach for the sky

Between the Delaware River and River Road in Croydon sits a nondescript building surrounded by a carpet of grass and bordered by a strip of woodland.

The building is unlikely to catch a motorist’s eye, with no sign indicating its purpose.

It’s a different story when you look at it from the rear. Wide open garage-type doors reveal a 25,000-square-foot hangar filled with about a dozen stripped-down helicopters of all sizes and colors, all undergoing maintenance or repair.

The site belongs to Sterling Helicopter, a company that has kept its clients flying high for the past 30 years. The Bristol Township location was established about seven years ago and caters to customers ranging from corporate executives to law enforcement agencies, said Mike Anzelone, Sterling’s executive consultant.

Sterling employees work on everything from bubble-front small copters to massive search and rescue “birds,” all sitting on steel pallets designed to put every part within easy reach of workers.

There’s no copter worth less than $1 million in the hangar, and a few are worth upward of $20 million, Anzelone said. Maintenance bills can run into the seven figures.

“For a helicopter that costs $15 million, paying $1 million is a drop (in the bucket),” Anzelone said as he ducked around a tan copter being overhauled for a corporate client. “An engine overhaul alone can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, that takes the ‘odometer’ reading back to zero.”

Sterling also continues to operate from its original location at Pier 36 at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. That’s a fixed-base operation, meaning that pilots can fly in to refuel, park their helicopters, or store them in the hangar. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s MedEvac and NBC 10’s new SKYFORCE are parked there, for example. The Croydon site is private and strictly for repair and maintenance.

Sterling’s Croydon plant employs 22 FAA-certified aviation technicians. The law also requires service centers like Sterling to have an FAA inspector as part of its workforce.

“Maintaining safety is a matter of checks and balances. If we’ve worked on a helicopter, our inspector checks it out before it leaves,” Anzelone said.

Anzelone showed a visitor the range of aircraft being worked on. The largest was a shiny red AW 139 whose interior will be fitted out as a flying emergency room. Ordered by the government of Canada, the helicopter will be used for rescue and trauma cases in the vast remote areas of that country.

Next on Sterling’s to-do list is to make more room for its Croydon service center. Plans include construction of an additional 15,000-square-foot workshop.

“Whether you are someone whose time is valuable and needs to make it from Philadelphia to Manhattan in 25 minutes, or struggling to meet that 15-minute window of life for a trauma patient, helicopters are reliable and safe ways to do so,” said Anzelone, a pilot who learned his skills from Ernie Buehl, who ran a small airfield in Middletown.

Original Article and Photo Gallery:  http://www.phillyburbs.com

Federal Aviation Administration approves aircraft maintenance facility at Chennault International Airport (KCWF) in Lake Charles, Louisiana

 

 LAKE CHARLES — AAR Corp. has received Federal Aviation Administration approval to begin operating a previously announced aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Lake Charles.

Chicago-based AAR initially will employ 250 people at the facility, located at the Chennault International Airport. It expects to employ an additional 500 by 2017 as it ramps up operations across about 520,000 square feet of service and administrative space. The facility can accommodate up to seven wide-body or 10 narrow-body aircraft. Construction is underway for an additional 118,000 square feet of hangar space.

AAR also operates a parts logistics and distribution center at Chennault airport in support of the U.S. Air Force’s KC-10 program as part of a team led by Northrop Grumman.

The new facility, which expands AAR’s capabilities for servicing wide-body aircraft, becomes the sixth hub in the company’s network of maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities. The others are in Indianapolis; Miami; Oklahoma City; Duluth, Minn.; and Hot Springs, Ark. The company employs more than 6,000 people in 17 countries.

Louisiana committed $17.5 million toward construction of the $21.5 million hangar.

The state’s incentive package also included a performance-based grant of $2 million to reimburse capital investments in tooling and other equipment at Chennault and access to the state’s workforce training program. AAR also is expected to use the state’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs.

The state also will partner with the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance to establish a national Aircraft MRO Center of Excellence to train employees for AAR and other aviation service providers in the region, such as Northrop Grumman.

The state will provide $3.7 million for mostly basic instructional equipment and the curriculum.

Original Article:  http://theadvocate.com

Yampa Valley Airport (KHDN) to pause air service in 2014 for repairs

Steamboat Springs — The runway at Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden will be closed for about 60 days during spring 2014.

After ski season flights stop in April, the asphalt surface will undergo resurfacing that is required about every 10 years.

“It’s a couple of years past the 10-year mark,” said Airport Manager Dave Ruppel. “We took really good care of it.”

Just like with roadways, Ruppel said, sometimes runway closures are necessary to repair asphalt surfaces.

The closure means all air services will be suspended for the duration of the work on the runway. Ruppel said there is other asphalt work that needs to be done, but the hope is to have the runway operational again for the June uptick in flight traffic.

This past shoulder season, there only was one flight to Denver per day from YVRA. Traditionally, Ruppel said, there have been two flights out of YVRA per day during the same time period.

The airport will remain open during the runway closure.

“We’ll continue to administratively operate.” Ruppel said. “There’s still other things we need to work on as an airport.”

The airport discovered last month that the Federal Aviation Administration had found the discretionary funds to complete the project, he said.

Now begins the task of communicating with those who use the airport about the need to make alternative plans. That includes those who have private aircraft at YVRA.

In addition to the runway, Ruppel said, asphalt work will be done on connectors and a section of aircraft parking ramp, and a new vehicle service road will be constructed, which the FAA wants airports to have to keep vehicles out of the aircraft movement area.

“We’re trying to get them all done at the same time,” he said. “You get some economies of scale.”

Aircraft traffic only will cease during the runway resurfacing but can continue through the other repairs and construction.

“We of course regret the inconvenience, but the reality is it’s something we have to do to maintain that runway in a good condition,” Ruppel said.

Source:   http://www.steamboattoday.com

Constant Aviation in line for state tax credit for big expansion

 

 Constant Aviation LLC, a Cleveland company that repairs and maintains jets, is in line to receive a state tax credit for a big expansion project.

The company “expects to create 300 full-time positions, generating $13.8 million in additional annual payroll and retaining $8.7 million in existing payroll as a result of (an) expansion project in the city of Cleveland,” according to a news release from Gov. John Kasich's office. The release stated that the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a seven-year, 60% Job Creation Tax Credit for Constant Aviation.

A project document provided by the state indicated that Constant Aviation “is considering local and national consolidation and expansion of HQ and servicing functions, which will create many high-paying jobs and a high investment. Assistance is needed to help offset these high costs and to ensure a win against competing states.”

The proposed project “involves building a new, state-of-the-art facility to house all of the company's functions and employees,” according to the state document. “The company's fixed-asset investment would be toward constructing a new building.”

A Constant Aviation spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email sent around 1 p.m. seeking comment about the project. A voicemail left around 1:35 p.m. for president Stephen Maiden also was not immediately returned.

Constant Aviation has operations at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Birmingham International Airport in Alabama and in Las Vegas, according to its website.

In a Nov. 7, 2011, Crain's profile of the company, Mr. Maiden said a drawback to operating at Hopkins — as opposed to Burke Lakefront Airport or Cuyahoga County Airport, where many aircraft-servicing companies operate — is that Hopkins doesn't have much available space.

“If I could add another 25,000-square-foot facility here, I'd do it tomorrow,” Mr. Maiden said in the 2011 story. “But there is literally no space available.”

At the time, Constant Aviation had 170 employees, including about 35 added in the previous 12 months.

Constant Aviation specializes in airframe maintenance, engine repair maintenance, major repairs, avionics, interior refurbishment and modification, parts distribution, and accessory and composite services. 

Source:  http://www.crainscleveland.com

Gulfstream Beijing earns maintenance OKs

A joint maintenance management agreement among civil aviation authorities will allow Gulfstream Beijing to service its aircraft registered in Hong Kong and Macau — the two special administrative regions of the People’s Republic of China — as well as China proper, the company announced Monday.

The approval was granted through an agreement among the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the Civil Aviation Department of Hong Kong and the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau SAR.

Under the agreement, Gulfstream Beijing can perform maintenance and upgrades on airframes, avionics, power plants and interiors on Gulfstream G550, G450 and G200 aircraft registered in Hong Kong and Macau. Gulfstream earned approval last year to work on those models registered in China.

“The joint maintenance approval is welcome news for many of our Hong Kong and Macau operators who travel frequently to Beijing and nearby cities,” said Mark Burns, president of Gulfstream Product Support.

“As Gulfstream Beijing grows, our goal is to add authorizations to give our customers more options for maintenance,” Burns said.

More than 200 Gulfstream aircraft are based in the Asia-Pacific region, including nearly 50 in Hong Kong and Macau.

The Gulfstream Beijing service center is a joint venture between Gulfstream and Hainan Airlines Group subsidiaries Hainan Aviation Technik and Beijing Capital Airlines Co. Ltd.

Gulfstream Beijing is located at Beijing Capital International Airport. The facility features about 82,000 square feet of hangar space and 22,000 square feet of offices and back shops.

Source:   http://savannahnow.com

Corporate Jet Solutions moving to Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport

BROOKSVILLE — After a turbulent ride, a Clearwater-based airplane maintenance company is set to be the newest tenant at the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport.

Representatives with Corporate Jet Solutions on Tuesday signed a 10-year lease for the former Brooksville Air Center site.

The company plans a flight school, expanded maintenance operations, a separate hangar for painting airplanes and customer services such as rental cars and hotel deals.

"We're very happy we've come to an agreement," said company vice president Bradley Dye. "Nothing worthwhile comes without effort."

The county-owned site includes a 20,000-square-foot hangar, an office building and a fuel depot. The deal also includes use of a 6,000-foot hangar in another part of the airport. The lease starts at $120,000 for the first year and increases annually with the Consumer Price Index, typically between 2 and 3 percent.

The lease deal has been controversial from the beginning because currently the airport has only one fixed-base operator, American Aviation, which has a monopoly on fuel sales.

Criticisms of Corporate Jet Solutions, American Aviation and the appointed Hernando County Aviation Authority have been flying throughout the discussion.

Both the authority and the commission approved the Corporate Jet Solutions lease last month and gave the company until July 5 to finalize the deal by providing several financial documents.

"They submitted the materials to meet the minimum standards we've all talked about," said county administrator Len Sossamon.

Bradley Dye said the company should be up and running next month. Within three years, he said, the center will employ between 40 and 50 people. 

Source:  http://www.tampabay.com

Van Nuys aircraft mechanics school to receive $25,000 donation

 

Students check out landing gear recently at the aviation mechanics schools operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District at Van Nuys Airport. The vocational program was saved from closure in May. 

Recently spared from closure, the popular aircraft mechanics school at Van Nuys Airport will receive a $25,000 donation this weekend to establish a scholarship fund for low-income students.

The University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation will present the donation during ceremonies Saturday evening at Clay Lacy Aviation, which is near the North Valley Occupational Center-Aviation Center.

North Dakota "is home to one of the nation's top collegiate flight training programs and we're honored to show our support for one of the nation's top aircraft mechanics schools," said Larry Martin, board chairman of the foundation.

The aviation center off Hayvenhurst Avenue was saved from closure or relocation to smaller facilities earlier this year when it received a $100,000 private donation and the Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles World Airports, the operator of Van Nuys, agreed to a $1-a-year lease.

During the mayoral race, Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti called for measures to keep the highly regarded school from shutting down or being moved to smaller facilities elsewhere.

The program, which opened in 1971, offers a two-year program that prepares students for certification by the Federal Aviation Administration as airframe and power plant mechanics. About 100 people attend classes per semester.

Saturday night's event also will honor Clay Lacy, a legendary aviation figure and University of North Dakota board member.

Source:  http://www.latimes.com

Air-Mods Flight and Service Center at the Trenton-Robbinsville Airport (N87) services airplanes from Maine to Alabama

HAMILTON — Dave Mathiesen and Lisa Campbell first met because their daughters had become best friends.

They soon found they shared another passion: aviation.

From those shared interests have grown a business that has become a one-stop shop for pilots, Air-Mods Flight and Service Center at the Trenton-Robbinsville Airport on Sharon Road. It has led to a shared life as well: Mathiesen and Campbell, his fiancé, co-own the company, which offers a broad range of aircraft services, from airplane repairs to flight instruction to all ages in the Robbinsville area and beyond.

“We all go home to the same place at night, but I run the flight school, and he runs the maintenance shop,” Campbell said.

“A lot of people that have flight schools don’t have on-site maintenance. I don’t know how anybody would do it,” Mathiesen said. “If anyone sees something before they start flying that they’re unsure about, they can just walk in here.”

Mathiesen grew up working on mechanics, tinkering with a minibike when he was 6 years old. He studied mechanics in vocational high school and was recruited by Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology for aircraft maintenance in 1980. He started at the airplane maintenance shop working for a previous owner in 1983, then opened Air-Mods himself in Old Bridge in 1991. Eventually he outgrew that space, he said, which pushed him to open Air-Mods in Robbinsville in 2003.

“I love turning wrenches, and this is the cleanest way to do it,” said Mathiesen, who has been in aviation mechanics for 33 years. “I did cars and motorcycles and all that stuff for a long time. It’s messy. This is a lot cleaner.”

Mathiesen and Campbell, both from Jackson, met when Mathiesen’s daughter Melissa and Campbell’s daughter Ilissa Skinner, became best friends in elementary school. Mathiesen had been divorced for many years; Campbell was widowed, and each has four children from previous marriages ranging in age from 13 to 34.

Campbell, whose parents served in the Air Force, was a lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol when Mathiesen asked her if she wanted to work in the maintenance shop. That led to her opening her own flight school, Campbell said.

“When I was working in the maintenance shop, there was a flight school already here, but the owner retired and they closed,” Campbell said. “Finally my kids were old enough to the point where I could be out more, so I decided to open up my own school.”

At the same time, the friendship was growing between Mathiesen and Campbell, and when Melissa and Ilissa graduated from Jackson Memorial High School in 2007, their parents began dating, Skinner said.

The maintenance shop offers customers everything from annual airplane inspections to upholstery and carpet refurbishment, and customers come from as far north as Maine and as far south as Alabama to have their aircraft serviced there, Mathiesen said.

Accredited by the Flight School Association of North America, the flight school opened its doors in 2008 with no airplanes, and they did a lot of ground school the first couple of weeks, Campbell said.

“I went from zero to 14 aircraft,” she said. “I have five smaller aircraft now, all the way up to a 10-passenger airplane, which is my personal station wagon, and even in that, we can’t fit all of our kids.”

The flight school employs certified instructors who assist students in getting their pilot’s license. It also offers AeroCamp, a three-year-old program geared toward middle and high school students to allow them to explore aviation and aerospace for a week during the summer.

The first day begins with educating the students about the airplane’s instruments and teaching them the aviation phonetic alphabet, ending with a discovery flight where the children are at the controls with an instructor, Campbell said. By the end of the program, students fly with an instructor an hour each way to the naval aviation museum in Cape May.

Skinner, 25, who manages the flight center, said they also did relief flights after Hurricane Sandy to donate supplies to those in need of assistance.

“It was crazy. I had people coming from everywhere in town,” she said.

Campbell said when customers came in to get an oil change, she loaded their airplanes with donated supplies and told them to drop them off in Tuckerton and Staten Island. One Saturday morning, she returned to Air-Mods from a relief flight she made to find a huge horse trailer in their parking lot.

“Three men from Ridge Spring, South Carolina, parked a trailer in the middle of their small town on a Wednesday and by Friday, it was filled,” she recalled. “They said they had been through it and the whole nation helped them, so they wanted to help here. One of my customers took them on a flight to the shore to see where their stuff was going.”

Skinner said the men probably heard about their efforts on the 101.5 radio station or knew someone from the area.

Being in the aviation industry has its advantages, especially when planning vacations, the family said. Mathiesen said they rarely fly commercially, and as long as the seats are full, it is about the same price.

When planning a recent trip, Campbell said they just headed south until they found palm trees, and they decided to land on a small island in the Bahamas.

“When you have an airplane, the world gets a lot smaller,” Mathiesen said.

Story and Photo Gallery:   http://www.nj.com

Aircraft mechanic taking off ... Ready to conquer the world

JESSICA BURTNICK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Aircraft maintenance apprentice Dylan Pereira will represent Canada at the World Skills competition. 

Brandon Sun
By: Murray McNeill

Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 8:06 AM

Aircraft maintenance apprentice Dylan Pereira will represent Canada at the World Skills competition.

About 18 months ago, Winnipegger Dylan Pereira turned his back on a potential career as a dentist after discovering what he really wanted to do was fix airplanes, not teeth.

And it's looking more and more like he made the right decision.

Not only did Pereira excel in the first year of Red River College's 18-month diploma course for aircraft maintenance engineers, he won a gold medal at a provincial and national Skills Canada competition in his trade category.

And in about two weeks, the newly minted graduate will be off to Europe to represent Canada in the 42nd biennial WorldSkills Competition in Leipzig, Germany.

Skills Canada and it's provincial arms, which include Skills Canada Manitoba, are not-for-profit, charitable, organizations that work with employers, educators and governments to educate youth on the benefits of working in the skilled trades and technology sectors.

Gold-medal winners from the national competition go on to represent Canada at the WorldSkills Competition. Pereira will be among more than 1,000 young people from about 50 countries who will be competing at this year's Olympic-style event.

This is the first time Manitoba has had an aircraft maintenance engineer competing at the world level. And while he's a little biased, Pereira's RRC instructor believes his prize student has a good shot at winning a gold, silver or bronze medal.

"Each country is sending their best," Dennis Turney said of the 12 others Pereira will be competing against during the four-day competition. "But he's given it everything he's got (in training for the competition)... and I'd bet money on him."

He noted that every weekday for the last year, Pereira has been arriving at RRC's Stevenson Campus at 6:15 a.m. to squeeze in a couple of extra hours of practice before starting his classes. And for the last few weeks, he's also been going in for a few hours during the evenings and on weekends.

Pereira had to beat out three other students to win the Manitoba competition in his category, and five others to take home gold in the Canadian competition.

"Then you get a year to train and prepare for it (the World Skills Competition)," he said. "I wouldn't say I'm nervous yet. I try to focus instead on what I have to do to win the competition."

The Sisler High School graduate said his parents wanted him to go into dentistry, so after high school he enrolled in physics and science courses at the University of Manitoba.

"But I didn't really care for the courses much. I've always been a hands-on kind of guy. I like ripping things apart and fixing cars and stuff like that."

So he talked to a university counsellor, took an aptitude test, and the results indicated he'd be better suited to a career in avionics. So he left the U of M, enrolled in the aircraft maintenance engineer's program at RRC and quickly discovered that's his true calling.

While Pereira said Turney has played a big roll in his success, Turney said skill and hard work are why Pereira has excelled so far. Now the next step in his career is to land a job as an apprentice and complete 29 months of on-the-job training to earn his aircraft maintenance engineer's licence.

Turney is confident Pereira will have no trouble finding a company to apprentice with when he returns home.

"I'm sure when this competition is over, he'll have more job offers than he can handle. Employers are looking for people who have something more than average, and Dylan does have something more than average to offer." 

Story and Photo:  http://www.brandonsun.com

Rock Valley College to tackle aviation mechanic shortage: School announcing program expansion Wednesday

Posted Jun 03, 2013 @ 05:18 PM 
Last update Jun 03, 2013 @ 06:22 PM 

SCOTT MORGAN | RRSTAR.COM

ROCKFORD —

Rock Valley College President Jack Becherer will announce plans to expand the school’s aviation maintenance program Wednesday to support a potentially far-reaching economic development project at the Chicago Rockford International Airport.

The airport has long sought a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul operation, essentially a jumbo hangar to accommodate jet service and repairs. Such a facility could create hundreds of jobs and make the airport attractive as an international cargo hub.

Dunn said Monday he did not know any specifics regarding Rock Valley College’s expansion plans.

"News to me," said Dunn, the airport’s executive director. "I don't know where they're expanding, but they're not going into any facility on the airport that I know of.”

College, airport and economic development leaders have strategized behind the scenes for more than a year on landing an MRO operator.

Tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer investment from the airport, RVC, the state and federal government may be necessary to close the deal. The return on that investment could invigorate the regional economy, which for more than four years suffered double-digit unemployment. The jobless rate finally fell below 10 percent in April.

Job creation is central to the economic agenda of the region, and for aerospace it means seeking new training opportunities.

There’s a shortage of qualified aviation mechanics around the country so local officials have been looking for ways to fill that gap with local and outside training programs where graduates earn Federal Aviation Administration certificates to work on aircraft.

For more than a year the region courted Florida-based Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which said it wanted to establish a four-year college in either Rockford or Houston. Instead, Embry-Riddle expanded programs in Rockford to provide advanced degrees for workers at companies such as United Technologies Aerospace Systems, Woodward and other manufacturers.

Embry-Riddle Worldwide will officially open its new classrooms at 7479 Walton St., on Rockford’s east side later Wednesday.

Read more later at rrstar.com or in Tuesday's newspaper.

Read more: http://www.rrstar.com

Aviation company expanding at St Louis Regional Airport (KALN), Alton/St Louis, Illinois

Posted: Sunday, May 26, 2013 10:00 am

By SANFORD J. SCHMIDT
The Telegraph
 
EAST ALTON - A fixed-base operator at St. Louis Regional Airport is planning an expansion to its facility, where the firm will add a wood shop and accessory repair shop, bringing 34 new jobs.

The expansion with bring West Star Aviation's operation from 250,000 square feet up to 317,300 square feet. Employment will grow from 266 to 300.

West Star supplies maintenance, painting, remodeling, fuel and other supplies to corporate and private aircraft from across the country. The company refurbishes interiors and repairs aircraft, including radios and avionics.

The expansion will include a wood shop, a spokeswoman said. The existing shop, which builds cabinets and other interior niceties, is near capacity, she said.

The accessory repair shop will address everything from wheels to starters.

The company will break ground for the expansion to its existing building in the third quarter of this year. The company still is in the process of choosing a contractor.

Airport Manager Dave Miller said the St. Louis Regional Airport Authority has been in negotiations with West Star over land leases and purchases.

The company said it has experienced solid growth, which has led to the expansion plans.

"While the industry as a whole continues to rebound from the largest aviation downturn since the Great Depression, West Star is outperforming the industry," Chief Executive Officer Robert Rasberry said.

He said the firm is spending a total of $15 million on its facilities here and in Grand Junction, Colo., and Columbia, S.C. The company declined to give the amount to be spent in each location.

"At West Star Aviation, we believe in doing the right thing, whatever the cost," Rasberry said. "We're essentially investing in our customers, growing strategically in those areas that allow us to do more for them in an extremely efficient manner."

West Star's location in Chesterfield, Mo., will continue to provide avionics and line service, such as fuel and supplies, but other services will move to St. Louis Regional.

The authorized service center designation for King Air, Premier and Hawker will transfer to St. Louis Regional.

"All Beechcraft aircraft operators will now have complete one-stop convenience," Rasberry said.

The company plans to open a new paint facility in the summer of 2014 in Grand Junction.

"This further enhances West Star Grand Junction's stature as one of the nation's premier paint facilities," Rasberry said.

Also at Grand Junction, a maintenance facility and shop will be added this year. Another 10,000 square feet will be added to the Columbia operation.

Source:   http://www.thetelegraph.com