Maintenance Beyond the Wrench

It wasn’t long ago that the priority of directors of maintenance (DOM) was assuring that “their” aircraft was in top condition. Now, DOMs also have a wide variety of other responsibilities, including recruiting, training, and retaining A&Ps, managing budgets, and keeping up with new technologies—the list goes on and on.

Among them all, the CALS attendees identified four critical areas that flight department leaders should concentrate on today: maintaining older aircraft, staffing, budgeting, and keeping up with technological innovations.

Maintaining Older Aircraft

With the rapid post-pandemic growth of corporate aviation, DOMs are having to deal with keeping legacy aircraft flying longer while facing shortages of key parts and components. And with most of these aircraft no longer being supported by their manufacturers, it’s up to aircraft owners and third-party suppliers to provide the parts required for continued airworthiness.

“The focus should be on suppliers, especially on obsolescence parts,” one OEM representative said. “If we suppliers take it upon ourselves, companies can provide obsolete parts and lengthen the life of older aircraft.”

It’s not that the airframe OEMs don’t want to support these older aircraft, but in many cases, due to supply-chain or personnel issues, they’re stretched just trying to fill the needs of the new aircraft in production.

While the availability of OEM replacement parts is undoubtedly a challenge that’s not going away, the cost for a third-party provider to create and certify FAA PMA (Parts Manufacturer Approval) parts requires a significant commitment. Only some suppliers want to take on the risk. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of options.
Business aircraft MRO Duncan Aviation has invested heavily in the tooling and engineering to “reverse-engineer” PMA replacement parts for individual owners. Currently, the company can create composite, sheet metal, cast, milled, and machined parts.

And it’s not only operators of older aircraft that are feeling the spare-parts squeeze. One DOM for a fleet of Citation Latitudes said his fleet is competing with NetJets and its Latitude fleet for spares, especially regarding those required for hot-section inspections.

Of course, even if you have all the parts, operations still face the challenge of finding and keeping qualified technicians to do the work.

Recruiting, Training, and Retaining A&Ps

While there are several reasons why corporate operators are finding it increasingly hard to hire qualified A&Ps, the CALS attendees were unanimous in their views that the aviation industry needs to do a better job of attracting young people.

“We need to go outside the bubble to recruit people,” one DOM said. “We’re competing with a lot of other industries for mechanics and technical people.”

And it’s not just the new hires that are getting harder to find and keep. There’s a lot of talent poaching going on inside aviation itself. “We lose most of our experienced mechanics to our customers,” the DOM at a major MRO said.

But, while corporate aviation is having trouble finding new talent, the ones we can attract are well prepared to use technologies to troubleshoot and maintain today’s aircraft.

“Our whole industry has flipped,” a DOM for a corporate flight department said. “You have to be computer and electronics savvy today. Now kids are growing up with this tech. We must teach them the mechanical side, and the physical troubleshooting skills are a challenge.”

“There is no technical training required by the FAA,” another DOM said. “We require all our techs to get training once a year, but the industry is not there. The good flight departments have to do it themselves.”

But even when you recruit and train the technicians you need, there’s still the issue of keeping them, and the associated costs are higher now than ever.

The Budget Side of Maintenance

Yes, maintenance and qualified maintainers cost money. And just as with other facets of their business, corporate aircraft operators keep a close eye on their flight department’s budget. That can lead to undue pressure on everyone involved.

“As an operator, we project cash flows five to 10 years ahead,” a director of aviation said. “Last year to this year, holy cow—it’s traditionally been 4 percent higher each year—now it’s 17.

“It’s educating the people that write the checks,” the director of aviation continued. “It’s explaining that our technicians can save money. It’s our job to save money, but we need to highlight someone who made the extra effort to run the extra diagnostic to find a frayed wire and not have to replace the part.”

Speaking of education, another proactive approach you can take is to make sure the boss understands the roles well-trained technicians and preventative maintenance play in lowering overall costs. For example, ensuring the airplane is ready when needed, and not AOG, and thus avoiding the added cost of chartering.

Another way that flight departments can help oversee and control costs is to have a dedicated person to oversee it. Yes, that costs money, but it provides greater visibility to a flight department’s overall spending. Some owners may see value in that.

Smarter Maintenance Requires Smarter Technology

It’s clear that today’s flight departments are faced with providing safe and efficient transportation while at the same time keeping the budget well in hand. The good news is that several emerging technologies can help managers do just that.

Aircraft health monitoring systems offer a case in point. “They are targeted to resolving and avoiding AOGs,” a DOM explained. “Some have capabilities with our latest aircraft. There is a huge data transfer from our aircraft and engines. Controlling maintenance and AOG costs—we see this as an opportunity we can sell as a benefit.”

“I find it interesting how you can look at predictive and preventive maintenance,” an aviation division manager said. “When we bring the right data together and a vision on costs, we can introduce new behaviors like doing a tech stop at a certain place to prevent a problem later.

“Ultimately, it comes down to a technician sitting there and figuring it out,” the manager continued. “That’s where data and software are going; linking datasets where we can put that knowledge and then share it.”

The bottom line is that today’s corporate aircraft operators and maintainers need to be able to do more than ever before with, in many cases, fewer people. The good news is, if we continue to work together to share ideas and information, that’s just what we will be able to do.