Story ID: 018a
Spectra Jet Still Growing After 25 Years
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: After launching Learjet maintenance company Spectra Jet 25 years ago, the MRO is expanding into supporting new aircraft types.
Word Count: 903
Twenty-five years ago, three mechanics took a leap of faith and opened a maintenance shop near Dayton, Ohio, specializing in Learjets—because that was what they had been working on—and potential customers were lining up to give them business. As it turned out, they had planned to open and do the work under their individual A&P mechanic licenses but realized that most customers would prefer doing business with an FAA-approved Part 145 repair station, so they took the time to obtain that approval and opened Spectra Jet the day after the November Thanksgiving holiday in 1998. Since then, business has exploded.
“Our only down year was after 9-11,” said John Yegerlehner, company president and chief inspector. He founded the company along with Mike Catherwood, who retired in 2020, and another mechanic who sold his share early on so he could spend more time with his growing family. Since opening its doors in the FBO’s hangar at Springfield/Beckley Airport, Spectra Jet has grown from the three founding mechanics to 30 people.
In 2007, having outgrown the space it shared with the FBO, Spectra Jet built its own 18,000-sq-ft facility with 6,000 sq ft of shop space. Now the company is bursting at the seams, and technicians sometimes have to work on airplanes outside, with customers having to schedule work months ahead of time.
“We’re trying to build a second hangar,” Yegerlehner said. The company had plans in place when the Covid pandemic hit, he said, “so we decided to hold off. We didn’t know what was going to happen.” Unfortunately, the cost of materials and labor has skyrocketed since then, and the cost of a new hangar has climbed by about 20 percent.
Starting as an FAA-approved repair station for 30-series Learjets, Spectra Jet added all Learjet models soon after opening, then in 2007, became approved for Bombardier Challengers. In those early days, Flexjet sent a lot of work to Spectra Jet, but since then, the fractional-share operator has developed its own in-house MRO capability. Spectra Jet also was an early adopter of mobile maintenance and now has four fully-equipped vans. “We started [mobile maintenance],” he said. “I find it funny that now all maintenance companies are doing mobile service work.”
With deep expertise in Learjet and Challenger maintenance, Spectra Jet’s technicians are eager to dig into tough jobs, rebuilding wrecked airplanes, and performing 12-year inspections and major avionics upgrades. Paint and interior work is outsourced, although Spectra Jet can do touch-up painting.
What sets Spectra Jet apart, however, is not just the willingness to take on challenging workscopes but its ability to get large jobs done on time without promising unreasonably short turn times. In a recent example, a factory facility promised the customer a 4,800-hour inspection would be done in five weeks, while Spectra Jet quoted eight weeks. The owner insisted on sending it to the factory shop and was disappointed when the job wasn’t even done at 10 weeks. In most cases, Yegerlehner said, Spectra Jet can turn around a Learjet 12-year inspection with paint and interior refurbishment in eight weeks. Last year, a customer flew his Learjet 60 from New Zealand to Ohio for a 12-year inspection.
The ability to get work done, however, is tempered by the supply-chain problems that still affect all segments of aviation. “In the last four years, parts have become a big issue for older airplanes,” he said. Landing gear overhauls for a Learjet 45 or 75 now take six to eight weeks, up from two to three weeks. A starter-generator that used to cost $3,000 is now $12,000. A Learjet stabilizer actuator that was $15,000 to overhaul is now $35,000. “We just shake our heads,” he said. “It’s like that with everything.”
One strategy that Spectra Jet is having success with is buying airframes to part out. “When Bombardier is quoting 120 days for a part, we’re going to have to figure out something,” Yegerlehner said. Spectra Jet ended up buying three model 60s without engines. “We paid them off in four months and started making money,” he said. “Now we have tons of 60 parts.”
Spectra Jet used to work on older Learjets but now it focuses on 45s and 60s as older ones, even 35s, just aren’t flying that much. But even so, the phone rings with requests for maintenance on 20-series Learjets. “Routinely there’s 200 airplanes we take care of,” he said, including many from large fleet operators that use the company for backup.
Now Spectra Jet is preparing to add other airframes to its repair station list, he said, "because Learjet stopped production and older ones are starting to fade out.” Some customers that brought Learjets for maintenance and own Falcons are asking for maintenance, so Spectra Jet has sent a technician to Falcon school and is preparing to add those to its repair station certificate.
For Yegerlehner, who still works 50 to 60 hours a week, the past 25 years “have been amazing,” he said. “It’s been a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work.”