Back Shop: Change Agent

Jerry Airola is president, founder and CEO of Silver State Helicopters. He has more than 17 years of law enforcement experience and 20 years of executive management experience. His law enforcement career included working as a police officer in California in the 1980s. He founded a water purification company in Las Vegas and later sold that business. With a fleet size of 262 aircraft (10 airplanes and approximately 250 helicopters with 40 on order), 700 employees with 108 openings and 20-30 hired per pay period, we wanted to learn how this fast-growing company is managing that fleet and promoting safety within the company.

AM: First, how did you get involved in aviation and helicopters?

Airola: I had always been intrigued by helicopters. When I sold my water purification business, I convinced my wife to buy a helicopter. I bought an R22. After 9/11, I bought an MD500 (Nov. 2001).

AM: How did you get involved with law enforcement?

Airola: I started doing contract work for the sheriff’s office. I am a reserve deputy. We were doing drug abatement work. Within a few months, we had 13 helicopters doing law enforcement air support. We have a program called S.A.B.L.E. (Special Airborne Law Enforcement Program). We provide affordable helicopter services for drug abatement, patrol, and firefighting for cities and counties that could not otherwise afford it. I have a huge passion for law enforcement.

AM: Tell us about your safety stand down.

Airola: For the past two years we have held a company-wide safety stand down. We have a commitment to training. The purpose of the safety stand down was to provide continuous education for our employees on the importance of safety when operating helicopters. We closed all of our operations, including our schools and our corporate offices, and flew in more than 460 employees from across the U.S. We said, "If we were involved in an accident, what would we pay to prevent that?" We fly more than the U.S. Army under conditions that have the highest amount of risk, summer, with hot, thin air.

AM: What is the result of the safety stand down?

Airola: The safety stand down has an amazing result. All the employees are exposed to all the company is doing to promote safety. We talk about goals and steps to take with regard to safety and we use a lot of personal experiences. We talk about our own mistakes. Scenario-based training, for me, has the most impact. Two insurance companies say that our safety record is "Four to six times better than the industry."

AM: You are flying a large fleet with different products and huge utilization. Tell us how you maintain your busy fleet.

Airola: A couple of years ago our maintenance processes were a nightmare. We didn’t have organizational flow or good management processes. Pac West Helicopters, a 145 repair station in Northern California, helped us develop our maintenance standards. Now our maintenance volume and variety of work gives us the experience to identify and resolve problems quickly. We have 160 mechanics. We are requiring a mandatory two mechanic sign off. We do 99 percent of our maintenance in house. We only go outside for really big jobs like a Huey engine swap. We offer airframe and engine services as well.

AM: You are doing some outside-the-box thinking when it comes to where you maintain your helicopters.

Airola: Scheduled, unscheduled and 2200 hour overhauls are completed on-premises but a lot of our maintenance is not done in a typical hangar environment. It’s done in the field, in the middle of nowhere. We have bought these guys nice $40,000 haulers, Ford diesel trucks with living facilities and it’s like it’s theirs. The aircraft land in view of the mechanic and we can complete the progressive maintenance. It’s a small investment with a huge return.

AM: What kind of maintenance software have you been using?

Airola: For maintenance software we have been using [a system] but we’ve outgrown it. We are shopping around for another software system. We are too big and have grown too fast so we haven’t been able to find the perfect program yet.

AM: With all the growth you’ve experienced have you had trouble keeping enough mechanics?

Airola: One issue with growth is that sometimes you see a sacrifice of safety. We don’t want that to happen and are taking a proactive approach not only with the safety stand down but with hiring. We don’t want a shortage of mechanics to be our Achilles’ heel. We’ve done whatever we had to do. We are recruiting, mentoring. We are also working with a school in Montana to hire their A&Ps.