Although virtually all business aviation operators essentially share the same mission – providing reliable air transportation when and where the principals require it – meeting that mission is often more challenging for smaller operations with limited staff. So, how are successful small operators maximizing their efforts to deliver excellence while maintaining the highest levels of safety?
Chief Pilot David Keys said the secret to a successful department is learning to prioritize and understand which issues demand immediate action. “When we have an upcoming trip, we focus on rental cars, catering, scheduling and whatever else has to happen,” said Keys, who, along with another pilot, flies an Embraer Praetor 500 business jet based in central Florida.
“Once we’re sure the trip is scheduled, we have time to look at other concerns like maintenance of the airplane,” Keys said. “We just keep working down that must-do list. We also go to outside vendors to take care of some of those things that we can’t take care of on our own.”
NBAA Resources
Pilot Dylan Miller is also a fan of utilizing outside help. Miller – a former Small Flight Department Subcommittee chair of NBAA’s Domestic Operations Committee – runs a Challenger 350 operation based in Scottsdale, AZ.
“We understand that everyone is wearing a lot of hats, so we produce a lot of articles and help with NBAA podcasts to highlight best practices and department benchmarks,” Miller said. These NBAA resources include Best Practices for Small Flight Department Maintenance, guidance on administration and the recent guide titled “Five Simple Steps to a Safer Small Flight Operation” focusing on safety.
Sharing Facilities
Sometimes sharing resources helps ease the burden. Miller – along with about 20 other operators – share resources at a facility called Scottsdale Hangar One, including a maintenance department, avionics tech, an engine specialist and even a tire shop.
Scottsdale Hangar One Chief Pilot Joe Statt said the concept has evolved over the past 23 years into a cafeteria-style organization where members can pick and choose services they need most. “For some high-end clients, we handle their accounts payable; maybe employ the flight crew or manage maintenance,” said Statt. “On the low end, we do maintenance management for everybody.”
Leveraging Technology
“When you’re a small flight department, you have to rely on people outside of your department,” said Mark Scheele, chief pilot for a Midwestern company operating an Embraer Phenom 300, a Citation Encore and a Cessna Caravan – each flying about 400 hours per year. “We rely heavily on technology as well.
“We started using VOCUS as our SMS software because it accepts feeds directly from our scheduling software,” Scheele said. “It runs safety calculations, pulls in weather and NOTAMs based on the destination and tracks crew duty hours. When the crew arrives, all the necessary information is already there for them to review.”
Miller pointed to a personal favorite scheduling software platform called Airplane Manager, noting that it’s no longer necessary for small operators to spend an exorbitant amount of money on software that was originally designed for larger fleets.
Double-Checking and Sharing Ownership
“Technology can’t solve everything, so don’t be afraid to double-check each other,” Scheele said. “If you have the right level of trust, it should be OK to say, ‘Hey, you said you’d do this. Did you get that done?’ When our maintainer works on the airplane, he lists each area of the airplane he worked on or where panels were removed, as well as how he put it all back together. Then the next crew double-checks everything. It’s not that we don’t trust our maintainer, but when there’s only one, you’ve got to double-check.”
Having a shared sense of ownership is something that Scheele believes is an intangible benefit that comes from being part of a small flight operation. “Everybody’s a part of keeping this thing working. That gives everybody a real sense of teamwork and ownership, which I love,” he said. “When there are unique situations, it’s easier as a small operation to sit down as a group and talk it through and decide what we’re going to do. How are we going to face this challenge? When we do come up with an idea as a group, you have everybody’s buy-in. That makes it easier to implement ideas and changes.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.