I was talking with an owner of a mid-size avionics shop recently and he was telling me how much his business has changed. Products have changed. Customers have changed. His whole way of doing business has changed. Oh, for the "good old" days...

That conversation got me thinking: has the maintenance side of general aviation undergone similar changes? Well, there’s only one way to find out, so I contacted three maintenance shops to ask if, and how their business has changed.

Airplanes Have Changed

When you start talking airplanes built from the "early days" of general aviation until ones built "BG" (before glass), not much had changed. Engines, avionics and manufacturing techniques were pretty much the same.

But when Avidyne and Garmin introduced glass panels and Diamond, Cirrus and Columbia (now Cessna) introduced composite airplanes, things began to change. (Well, if you maintained those types of aircraft).

"The biggest change we have seen has been in the avionics in today’s airplanes," explains Wes Dale, director of maintenance for Premier Aircraft Service in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "With the [Garmin] G1000 being so integrated with the airframes now, we have had to become an avionics shop ourselves just to handle the maintenance side, much less the avionics side."

"It’s all tied together — from oil pressure issues, to airspeeds not reading right, all the way up to the weather or traffic system not working right," he says. "It’s all integrated into the avionics system. When you do a G1000 radio change on a new Mooney you have to know which brand of engine transducers are installed — which brand. Now that’s pretty technical and a big change in the way we work on these airplanes."

Bruce Botterman, owner of NewView Technologies in Oshkosh, Wis., echoes Dale’s comments and adds, "The airplanes today are getting easier to maintain. The machines today are certainly much better airplanes than they were 30 or 40 years ago when I got in the business. I mean, the first couple of airplanes I worked on out of A&P school were (Piper) Comanches and Apaches — man there was a lot of labor in those."

"The early Mooneys, my gosh there must have been 5,000 screws on that airplane," Botterman continues. "I think the engineers have gotten rid of a lot of that today. You look at the new Diamond aircraft and there’s not much to do during an annual. There’s not much to wear out. The technology is allowing there to be less technicians in the field." A point, which Botterman says, may be a blessing in disguise. "There has to be a driving factor to get someone to want to open a shop and go through the insurance hassles and work with the FAA and all the other things that are going on in the business today. Not many young people want to do it."

Business Has Changed

Jim Celentano, director of maintenance and John "JT" Tentoni, service manager for Columbia Aircraft Services in Groton, Conn. says that the implementation of Part 145 regulations has had a positive impact on their business. "Part 145 implementation has been good for Columbia because it’s caused us to sharpen our repair station structure and formalize many of our procedures," Celentano said. "Before 145 everyone wanted to be a repair station. If you had time to read the advisory circulars and draft a manual you were done."

"The introduction of Part 145 caused a lot of smaller shops to abandon trying to maintain a repair station structure," he continues. "So the ones that chose to put in the time to comply with the new Part 145 requirements — rewriting their repair station manuals and identifying the training elements of it [Part 145] are better off. The business is better off and the customers are better off." Celentano also notes that the enhanced training aspects of Part 145 are particularly beneficial. "It’s a boost for the technicians credentials and capabilities," he says. "For example, if a lesser-experienced technician performs a job under the guidance of one with previous experience in the task, it is recognized as a training opportunity that helps enhance the training element of the repair station manual. The technician gets a training document added to their file within the manual, and as the practice spreads, the guys look out for new training opportunities to formalize this way."

Dale says that Premier also takes advantage of OJT opportunities: "The G1000 was brand new when we started so we sent one of our guys to get trained on it — his skills have grown as the system has grown. It’s the same with our training on the Thielert engines. Whether it is new engines, avionics or airframes, as we see the first one coming in, we get someone fully trained and they share that knowledge with other technicians on the staff."

This type of in-house training is often a precursor to a shop "specializing" in a particular type of aircraft or system. A trend that Botterman sees as key to success in today’s changing business climate is that "most aviation shops are going to be successful by specializing in something. The FBO where they do aircraft sales, had a radio shop, a fix-it shop and a flight school, and maybe an air taxi department. Well, that’s becoming a real hard road to run when you start adding up these things and trying to keep all the regulations in order."

The common consensus was that becoming specialized would not only benefit the shop, but also help the customer save money in the long run. For example, while they’ll work on any airplane a customer brings in, Premier Aircraft Service specializes in Mooney and Diamond aircraft.

"We know where some of the problematic areas are on different models and we take a concentrated look at them," Dale says. "Experience pays off quite a bit. When you work on early-1960s up to 2008 Mooneys you get to see it all."

"I used to be a tech rep for Mooney," he adds. "I can tell somebody in five minutes how to find something they would probably spend five hours looking for because they don’t know the airframe. We’ve already seen the problem. That expertise can be a real benefit to our customers."

Customers Have Changed

"Between the initial purchase price of aircraft today and the cost of fuel, the ‘mom-and-pop,’ small family owned airplane flown for weekend trips is pretty much gone up here," says Columbia’s services manager, JT Tentoni. "Most of our customers are individuals that are in business and can use their aircraft for their business. They’ll start with a Saratoga, then as their needs and experience grows, they’ll step-up to something larger and into a TBM or a Citation.

"Many of our customers say their businesses have actually grown because of aviation," he points out. "They can reach out farther and faster with their airplane."

While that’s the good news, Celentano adds that some of these new "non-aviation" airplane buyers present a bit of a challenge when it comes to maintenance practices. "Some of our customers try to start out believing it’s the same as their car. They can just drive it and disregard any periodic inspections. It’s a learning curve as we work to educate them on the actual FARs and the manufacturer’s requirements for inspections and maintenance — and the costs that go along with that. Sometimes it’s a bit of a shock to them."

"I deal mostly with piston aircraft owners," Tentoni says. "Most of them have bought new aircraft because they like the warranty coverage. With the new Pipers, the warranty is for the first two years so they are only sharing a portion of what it really costs to own an airplane. But again, it’s an education process as to what the manufacturer actually will warranty and what they don’t cover."

"That’s where the education starts — ‘They don’t cover troubleshooting?’ they’ll say — the customer just want us to start throwing parts at the problem," he adds. "I have to explain that Piper doesn’t cover that kind of thing in warranty."

Botterman says that while he does service some new Diamond aircraft in his shop, the majority of his customers are flying older airplanes, although their proprieties and goals for aircraft maintenance have also changed. "They’re more protective of the asset that they have now because of the higher dollar amounts they have invested. Somebody that has $100,000 invested in a 182 is more apt to take more care and listen to what the technician has to say to them. I think I see that a lot more than I did in the past."

Challenges and Opportunities

When asked about the biggest challenges facing the small airplane maintenance business today, the unanimous winner was "cost." Whether that was the rising cost of fuel keeping aircraft on the ground or the cost of insurance, training or finding and hiring talented technicians, money, or the lack thereof, is what’s got everyone’s attention.

Another challenge that comes to light is really quite interesting — the challenge that various owner/operator websites can present when it comes to aircraft maintenance. Let’s preface this by agreeing that the owner group’s websites are mostly beneficial. They are a great portal for sharing information and ideas on how to get the most safety, utility and value out of an airplane. But the dark cloud to that silver lining is the relative ease at which an individual owner/operator can position him or herself as a "knowledge expert" with little or no actual experience to back it up.

As one shop owner put it, "Trying to get an owner/operator to understand that even though there’s a bunch of scuttlebutt on the group’s website saying, ‘The only thing you have to do is an annual,’ there’s more to it. We have to continually remind them that following the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance program isn’t just a maintenance shop trying to sell them stuff. They don’t realize it’s preventative maintenance. They don’t understand the value."

"Unfortunately people gravitate towards doing less — they run for that door," he continues. "What further complicates things is according to the FAA, a single-engine turboprop can be treated like a Piper Cub — from a regulatory standpoint. Regs say all you have to do is an annual. It’s pretty sad. We can take the aircraft manufacturer’s elaborate and detailed inspection program and toss it in the garbage and still meet minimum FAA required standards."

But owner’s websites aren’t all bad. Do a good job for someone and they become your best friend, touting your abilities to everyone who will read their postings. Just another example of how doing business in the electronic age is much different than it was before the Internet.

Of course, while the maintenance world is bombarded by new challenges, there are also new opportunities. Take the high cost of fuel, for example. While he readily admits it is impacting their business, Dale says that Premier is actually using it as a tool to attract business. "Due to their ability to let Mooney owners throttle back without paying a speed penalty, the airframe speed mods for the older Mooneys are generating a lot of interest now," he says. "Guys are deciding now to upgrade their airplanes. They want to be proactive."

Another opportunity to increase business is to promote avionics upgrades. "Avionics technology is always changing," Dale adds. "The hottest things for us now are G1000 avionics upgrades on the Diamonds and Mooneys. WAAS, V-NAV, GDL 69 DataLink are big upgrade opportunities now for our shop. It’s a challenge, but there are opportunities out there for business."

Botterman says that whether it’s the growing price of fuel or parts, labor, insurance or regulations, "I’m probably complaining about the same things that my supervisor was complaining about when I started many years ago. These are the same battles that have been going on for years." Well, as the old saying goes: "The more things change, the more they stay the same."