Don Holley: Maintenance, Texas Style

Texas is a land of contrasts. The weather can change in five minutes. The landscape runs from piney woods to deserts to mountains. A command center in Houston runs the most complex flight operation ever, the international space station and the space shuttle missions that support it. But a man can still make a living tending to general aviation.

Just ask Don Holley, who has built a thriving maintenance and FBO facility at the Montgomery County Airport in Conroe despite an economy based on oil, banking, and real estate that can be as twitchy as a teenager at that first prom. Not to mention, of course, September 11.

"I think 9/11 probably hurt us the most," said Holley, who’s been working on airplanes since he was a nine-year-old kid in his dad’s shop. "We’re just now starting to recover."

It wasn’t just the attacks that hurt. The airport in Conroe is just under the floor of Houston’s Class B airspace, one of many chunks of sky that got shut down for about 60 days after the attacks. That meant no airplanes could come or go.

"But you have to plan for business," he said. "You know the aviation industry is cyclical and you just have to always keep that in mind and prepare for it. If you don’t, well, you’re out of business.

Holley never really considered not working on airplanes.

His father had a civil service job with the U.S. Air Force down at Houston’s Ellington Field, but he also always had a shop where he worked on general aviation airplanes. "I spent a lot of time after school and during the summers working in that shop." As he got older, Holley earned his A&P certificates. IA got tacked on right behind them.

"Dad wanted me to go to work for one of the big oil companies so I would have some job security and retirement, and I actually went to work for a while for one of the airlines," Holley said. "I figured out right quick that being on the night shift for 30 years just wasn’t something I wanted to do, so I came back to general aviation."

Slowly, his business grew from its start in some 1960s-era T-hangars at the local flying field, where Tri-Pacers, 172s, and an occasional twin stopped by for some work.

"I never planned to stay small, not if I was going to make a career in this business," said Holley. When a 17,000-square-foot, former FBO facility became available at the airport about 10 years ago, he moved there and set up Holley’s Jet Center. "I think once we had this place, it attracted business for us because it was the kind of facility people felt comfortable bringing their airplanes to be worked on," he said. "It’s kind of funny how that works sometimes."

When Holley traded in the T-hangars, he turned most of the wrenches himself. As business increased and the demand for more mechanics with broader expertise grew, he hired maintenance technicians and marched off with them to FlightSafety and other schools for training on the more complex powerplants and aircraft that, through word of mouth, began pulling up outside.

Holley hasn’t strayed far from the front lines. "I still like to go out in the hangar and work on the airplanes," he said. "Actually doing the work keeps my skills up. It gives me a better insight in how we can best serve our customers, and it keeps me up on what’s going on in the shop." While he wanted his own FBO operation, he said, "it was never my intention to quit actually working on airplanes."

But much of his time is spent in the front office. There are downsides to being the boss, like having to worry about keeping all the things going that are needed to run a successful business. But the challenges posed by sick airplanes, as well as the people who own and fly them, bring him out to the airport in the morning and often keep him there late in the evening.

"I have always enjoyed the job of figuring out what’s wrong with an airplane, fixing the problem, and sending the airplane back out flying," Holley said. "I’ve always enjoyed doing whatever was necessary to keep the customers happy, and that’s one of the most enjoyable parts of this job."

Sometimes the job takes away from family time, but he’s got a business now that his children may one day be interested in taking over.

"Maybe my kids will be interested in the business, but, for now, I have one of those jobs I really enjoy,’" Holley said. "I don’t have to look back when it’s all over and say ‘Gee, I wish I had tried to do something like that."–By Bob Howie