When it comes to aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) support services, business aircraft operators seek the highest quality, capacity, efficiency, and options possible.
“More than 25% of our customers don’t live in the United States. It is important to us to provide premier aircraft services no matter where they live or where their aircraft are based,” said Ryan Huss, Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Duncan Aviation.
Based on requests for support from owners who want to utilize Duncan Aviation for their aircraft support services, Duncan Aviation’s three full-service MROs (located in Battle Creek, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Provo, Utah), hold 32 international certificates from the U.S., Argentina, Aruba, Bermuda, Brazil, Cayman Islands, China, Colombia, EASA, India, Mexico, Paraguay, and the United Arab Emirates. These certificates authorize Duncan Aviation to provide services for more than 90% of the world’s registered business aircraft.
The Path to Certification
Civil aviation oversight authorities require the facilities they certify to follow a variety of regulations that govern everything from the buildings and equipment to personnel, and materials and data to operating policies. In addition to reams of documentation shared during the application process, MROs are audited and often receive periodic, unannounced inspections from authority representatives. The investment involved in the certification process is significant.
“Every country has just enough unique requirements that each authorization process is different,” says Mike Brown, Duncan Aviation Enterprise Manager for Safety Management Systems. “Some countries are satisfied with the FAA Repair Station Authorization and will issue their authorization based on that. Others have significant differences with regards to repair station and quality manuals, safety procedures, training programs, among other things.” As a part of the authorization, most countries will conduct an on-site visit to confirm and verify all the documentation that has been received. No matter how easy or difficult the process, they all want to be reassured that Duncan Aviation can deliver safe maintenance services by highly skilled technicians with the most up-to-date data available.
Brown says Duncan Aviation achieves the high quality its customers except through many key activities, including the following:
Training
Duncan Aviation invests annually in many forms of both technical and non-technical training. In 2022, the company invested $6.8 million in team member training and has a budget in 2023 for $7.8 million. Training is accomplished at factory training facilities or in-house utilizing Duncan Aviation’s staff of professional technical trainers. All engine, airframe and avionics teams have factory-trained technicians performing or overseeing the work.
Safety Management System
Duncan Aviation has had a Safety Management System (SMS) in place since 2013, and is a participant in the FAA’s voluntary SMS program. All of the company’s safety procedures are SMS driven.
As part of this program, all Duncan Aviation Qualified Inspectors are highly experienced and receive current regulatory and Duncan Aviation quality system training. Inspectors completing return to service documentation are fluent with the regulations required by the various authorities over the aircraft represented in our hangars.
Tooling
Tooling for even the most basic work on a business aircraft is very expensive and many aircraft models often require the use of task-specific tooling during a maintenance event. Duncan Aviation has made significant investments into special tooling according to individual manufacturer service center requirements. This investment gives Duncan Aviation more control over expenses, tool use and availability. Tools required to be calibrated are done so in accordance with the Duncan Aviation Quality Control Manual.
Tool Calibrations
Duncan Aviation has instituted an aircraft tool calibration process to monitor calibration results and adjust calibration intervals to ensure all measuring and test equipment remains in tolerance throughout its calibration cycle. Standards used to calibrate production tools are traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). When equipment is approaching the end of its calibration cycle, Duncan Aviation schedules recalibration. All tools requiring calibration are calibrated and issued a Calibration Certificate before they are able to be used by technicians.
Calibration services are available to all aircraft owners and operators with measuring and test equipment that requires periodic calibration.
Current Maintenance Manuals
Duncan Aviation is a factory-authorized service facility for 18 airframe and engine OEMs, and has more than 70 OEM authorizations for avionics, instruments, accessories and propeller units. We maintain an up-to-date computer library of maintenance manuals easily accessed by the technicians on the hangar floor and at our benches.
Because Duncan Aviation is not authorized in all countries around the world, the company is sometimes called to provide aircraft inspections, maintenance and AOG services for operators from countries where we do not hold maintenance authorization. In these cases, a special dispensation is requested from that country’s aviation authority. Typically, this process takes several days.
International Engine Services
Over the last 10 years, Duncan Aviation’s Engine and Engine RRT teams have completed approximately 900 international engine work orders for more than 300 different customers with 380 different aircraft.
Nearly one-third of these work orders were for major engine events for Honeywell TFE731- or HTF7000-powered aircraft requiring TFE731 MPI, MPI/CZI, CZR, or major HTF7000 engine inspections, Service Bulletins, or repair.
Of these 245 engines requiring major events, 100 of them arrived at the company’s Turbine Engine Maintenance facility in Lincoln in shipping crates. After the work was completed, they were shipped back without the aircraft having to be on-site at our MRO.
Duncan Aviation’s International Engine Representatives
In 2023, Duncan Aviation began working with Erre-One, based between Amsterdam and Paris formed by long-time industry experts Eric Rosman and Regis Masson. They are now Duncan Aviation’s international engine representatives for customers in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region whose business aircraft require major engine events.
“Regis and I have lots of great industry contacts in the EMEA region, engine technical expertise, and the desire to ensure our customers have the best experience possible during an engine MRO event,” Rosman says. “We bring excellent communication skills along with the ability to communicate in customers’ local languages. We are thrilled to be working with Duncan Aviation. We know that Duncan Aviation is here for the long run, as is Erre-One.”
Regis agrees. “I believe Duncan Aviation provides excellent support for business aircraft operators and that the company has established its global presence as a leader in the business aviation industry. I want operators in the EMEA region to understand the value Duncan Aviation’s services can bring to their flight departments.”
Eric Rosman
Rosman has decades of experience in aviation spending 16 years as a Regional Consultant, an Engine Services Manager, and a Regional Manager. He is experienced with a variety of engines including the most-used business aircraft engines from Honeywell, GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls Royce.
Eric Rosman – [email protected] - +31 644 744 176
Regis Masson
Masson has more than 30 years of experience in business aviation, starting his aviation career in 1991 in customer support with a business aircraft OEM. He then worked as an Aftermarket Program Manager for an engine OEM and for more than 17 years was a Regional Sales Manager. In addition to his sales and management experience, Masson has his pilot’s license with a Cirrus jet type rating as well as an aircraft technician license, which allows him to maintain his own aircraft.
Regis Masson – [email protected] - +33 (0)6 07577109
