The two premier university-associated flight training schools, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and University of North Dakota (UND) with large diverse fleets, seem to have found the magic formula to keep their aircraft safe, efficient and where they belong--in the air.

Both schools have in-house maintenance teams dedicated to the goals of keeping the training fleets flying and safe. Both schools have maintenance tracking programs written in-house. Both operate as FAA Part 145 repair stations. And both consider support from the aircraft manufacturers to be crucial.

"In 1997 we brought our maintenance in house. There were several reasons; better quality, better control, and the cost. We were experiencing decreasing reliability and increasing cost with our contractor," said Jack Haun, director of maintenance at the university's Daytona Beach, Florida campus. The university maintains 40 Cessna 172s, 6 Piper Arrows, 9 Diamond DA40s, and 18 Piper Seminoles.

"Of the team that started in '97, we have 50-60 percent of those people still with us. We have 27 people total. All of our technicians have an Airframe and Powerplant (A & P) certificate and 10 of them have Inspection Authorization (IA). We have two avionics technicians (part of the 27) and a full avionics repair station we are revitalizing for more line support," said Haun.

With an A & P school at the university, there seems to be no shortage of help. "There is a tremendous amount of talent here. At this time we have six student technicians. Throughout the years we have implemented changes based on student suggestions. The last four technicians we hired came out of the A & P school and three of them I taught," said Haun, who teaches an occasional class in addition to his other duties.

At UND's Grand Forks, North Dakota main campus, the maintenance of 80 aircraft plus satellite operations at numerous two-year schools located in Spokane, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; Lumberton, North Carolina; and Crookston, Minnesota are tracked. The Grand Forks fleet is maintained by a technical maintenance department with 18 technicians, all A & Ps. Fourteen of those also hold an IA. There are four full time quality assurance inspectors and two avionics technicians.

There is no A & P program at UND, but there is a steady flow of technicians from Northland Community College at Thief River Falls Minnesota. "It's a two-year school. I'd say about 60 percent of our technicians come from there. They get 40 credits if they transfer here and continue their education. They have a good pool," said Dan Kasowski, director of maintenance for UND for the past 26 years. "But, since 1997 we've had very little turnover. I have a QA manager that has been here 20 years," he added. "We also have three full-time inventory control technicians."

Both schools feel that doing the maintenance themselves is the only way to go, saying that it gives better quality, and cost control. "We have found it to be cheaper to do the maintenance in house. We also have a pride in the quality of work we do," said Kasowski. "One unique advantage we have is that as a university, we are non-profit. We operate with a breakeven shop rate. The shop is not here to make a profit. This is unique, and allows us to do the work at reasonable rates." Haun said of bringing ERAU's maintenance in house, "Right out of the box we cut costs by $700,000."

Keeping track of these varied fleets requires technology and specifically a maintenance-tracking program. ERAU and UND both use custom-designed programs rather than off-the-shelf products.

"We are fortunate to have the luxury of an in-house computer program. We like it better than any off-the-shelf program," said Kasowski. The program was created in the 1980s and in 2000 it was redeveloped and updated. They also have the ability to update it as necessary. "The program was written with inspector's parameters," Kasowski added.

The maintenance program is interlinked with all departments including scheduling. When an aircraft is scheduled and flown, there is a book for the aircraft to log time in and out. When the student comes back, they drop off the book with discrepancies. Once invoiced, the interlinked program updates the times for the maintenance side. "Our program includes inspection module, phase inspections, hours due, reference work order number, who did last inspection, calendar items such as altimeter and transponder checks. We also use it to track trends," Kasowski said. If there is a noticeable trend the department issues an in house service bulletin (SB) that can be added to the program and it will also track that. "For example, several years ago we found minor cracks in a few rudder spars," said Kasowski. "We issued an in-house service bulletin, UNDSB-345, which outlines a special inspection of the rudder spar. The maintenance tracking program flags this SB as a recurring inspection, due at every Phase One inspection."

"The parts tracking module of our program is even more complex than maintenance tracking. We track serialized components. We also track things like where they came from and who did the incoming inspection," said Kasowki.

The program even has the flexibility to track items such as pilot operating handbook revisions with one entry that goes across the specific fleet, for example all Piper Warriors.

At ERAU a maintenance-tracking program was also designed just for them. "We have an in house program. I hired a programmer 12 years ago and taught him how to be a maintenance controller," said Haun. "Together we wrote the program. I had a vice president from a major airline look at the system and he said, `Man, I wish I had your system.'"

Another positive aspect of the program is that it is streamlined to the exact needs of the university. "Everything about the program is added as a direct result of a need. There is nothing extraneous in the program," said Lyle Sunderland, chief inspector.

Parts tracking is part of the maintenance program. Work orders are also in the computer system. "We use ATA coding to track for accounting purposes," Haun said. Looking up parts is easy. "For parts we put our initials in, look it up, and order. The system looks for the part, let's say tires, tells me there are 25 in stock. I click the quantity I need, and the system then removes them from inventory and places them on the work order with the price," he said. Then the program adds up all parts and time associated with that work order.

Keeping up with parts ordering is a major undertaking but made automatic with the program. "If we hit a certain level, reorder is automatic," Haun said. "In the hangars we have wireless Internet and by summer's end, we will have three computer workstations running in the maintenance hangar. The techs will be able to log in through the wireless, open a work order, order parts, access maintenance and parts manuals from these work stations.

In addition to that, ERAU has an Access program and a dedicated parts and warranty manager to track warranty items. "You just have to be diligent to get the money back," said Haun. There is an incentive program dealing with warranty to motivate technicians to follow through with warranty submission.

As is true in most areas of the aviation business, relationships are an integral part of the OEM/customer equation. Both schools feel that they get good support from the OEMs.

"I can't say enough about Piper, Cessna, and Diamond and the support they give us," said Haun, "Steve Charles [Cessna] runs an outstanding support organization."

Haun related a story about a freak storm that caused damage to their fleet's skylights. "The strangest thing happened. We had hailstorm and it broke out 33 skylights [in our 172s]. We needed parts and called Cessna. The next day we had 25 skylights. Two days later we had the rest and a field engineer [from Cessna] on site to verify the denting was minimal and that the aircraft were cleared to fly."

"We also have a great relationship with many other vendors that we deal with including Aviall, API, Champion, Tempest, and Goodyear among others," Haun added. "We get great support, helped by the fact that we are a fleet."

Primarily a Piper fleet, UND is slightly less enthusiastic. "We do get fairly good support from the OEMs but more frequent visits would provide product history they could use to improve their product," said Kasowski. He added that they have a database with a unique history of aircraft. "Piper make a couple of visits a year. We know the aircraft pretty well. We fly 1,300 hours a year per aircraft. We are changing engines every two years. We have Piper operators calling us for information and support!" he added.