The Duncan Download Blog: Business Aviation Advice & Observations

On February 12, 2015, Gary Harpster, Duncan Aviation Avionics Sales Rep, suddenly fell back in his chair and died. 

In his own words, Gary tells how a day, much like any other, ends with getting a second chance. 

The day began much like any other work day, and I found myself going through my regular routines at Duncan Aviation- a few fire drills for customers who needed things right away, a couple of conference calls and the normal internal meetings.

After 5 p.m., the day was starting to wind down. It was cold outside, so I remotely started my car hoping it would be warm by the time I got in it. I was in the office shutting down my computer when I died. To say the least, it wasn't exactly what I had planned for the evening. But thankfully, there were still two people in the office with me.

While one called 911, the other person jumped up, checked my vitals and started CPR. They also called our company’s First Response Team. In less than five minutes (the typical response time), two individuals arrived and took control of the emergency situation. Both of these individuals previously received training in first aid and CPR from the American Heart Association as well as our local community college. With no pulse and the other symptoms, they made the decision to hook up the automated external defibrillator and push the button as prompted.

Thank goodness for their swiftness and advanced training or this article would certainly have been written by someone else. With the current Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in place, I'm not at liberty to expound on some of the other success stories the company’s First Response Team has encountered. But I can say that their involvement has made a world of difference in a lot of lives.

In 2012, they responded to 56 calls at our Lincoln, Nebraska, facility; 48 in 2013, and 33 in 2014. With more than 1,200 employees at this facility, this averages to approximately 3.8 percent of our employee count. As you can imagine, the company’s goal is to get this number down to zero.

By implementing safety seminars, enforcing safety procedures and wellness programs, we have all become more cognizant of our surroundings and well-being. But sometimes a little piece of plaque can just break loose and everything changes. The reason for this article, though, is to inform companies of the merits of having a First Response Team within your organization. My doctors unequivocally stated that without our team's involvement, I would not have survived this ordeal.

Developing A First Response Team

So what does it take to put together a First Response Team? Surprisingly, within your organization, you likely may already have what it takes with volunteer firemen or individuals with current first-aid training. These individuals are perfect for this role, as they've already been trained and have the right moral fiber to help others in need. Once you have your team assembled and enough people to cover your current shifts and weekends, you simply need a first-aid kit and, if possible, an AED and/or portable oxygen tank. A company-wide communication tool also is desirable, but a simple public address system is enough to get started.

Even though you may not initially be able to purchase the AED, put one in your budget and plan accordingly; you' II be glad you did if the need ever arises. The ideal situation would be to have one at each hangar to minimize delays in your team's response times.

More often, avionics shops see AEDs in the corporate jets they maintain. As valuable as they can be on the ground, their potential in the air cannot be overemphasized. If a person's heart goes into ventricular fibrillation, you have four minutes or less before you risk potential brain damage due to a lack of oxygen. After four minutes, your primary concern will be CPR.

Survival decreases rapidly with time. After seven to nine minutes, your survival rate is low. As you can imagine in an aircraft at cruise altitude, this isn't much time. Even though we all try to maintain our health, you never know when something like this can happen. When it does, you either concede to be at the mercy of the local emergency services, or you initiate some control of your own destiny and buy yourself some time by implementing a First Response Team.

Speaking from firsthand knowledge, I'm very grateful that 20 years ago our company saw the benefits of such a team and that these individuals gave me a second chance.

"Space and time—they're the top two reasons operators come to Duncan Aviation instead of trying to sell their excess parts on their own," says Parts Expert Susan Masek.

After all, how many operators have the extra square footage required to house all of their surplus parts? And who has the time and marketing resources to match these parts with potential customers?

Not many, which is why so many operators choose to pair up with Duncan Aviation's aircraft parts consignment program.

"Instead of an operator storing, cataloging, advertising, selling, invoicing, collecting payment, packaging and shipping parts on their own, we take care of it all for them," says Susan. "We buy parts. We buy avionics. But sometimes consigning is the best option."

For three decades, the consignment experts at Duncan Aviation have helped operators convert surplus parts to cash. They have it down to a science.

To read more about this process, view our Spring 2015 Duncan Debrief. 

Every minute of every day, Duncan Aviation Parts Sales is waiting for your call.

“Some of my customers say they feel bad calling at 1 a.m., or on a holiday, but I tell them these are normal hours for us. We’re here, waiting to help,” explains Shirley Crouch, team leader for Duncan Aviation Parts Sales. “And at the end of the day, I really love helping customers find a solution when they keep running into walls.”

Shirley’s years of experience combined with her team’s 24/7/365 availably means each customer who calls receives streamline, top-notch customer service.

Duncan Aviation Parts Sales in Action

Shirley recently answered a call from a customer in Spain who had to be up and running in less than 24 hours. Based on past experience, she feared customs might cause a delay.

So she opted to have a courier hand-carry the aircraft parts to ensure all customs requirements were addressed along the way, reducing the AOG time from days to just hours.

“We will go to the ends of the earth to get a part to a customer who is AOG,” says Shirley.

The customer was ecstatic, as he fully understood how difficult his request was to fulfill on a short timeline as well as adhere to all import and export regulations—a task Duncan Aviation team members continually educate themselves on.

His aircraft was up and running in more than enough time to make the trip to Singapore.

Contact Us Today

Duncan Aviation’s Parts Sales team provides customers with an experience, unlike any other. They use their imagination to creatively solve the issues their customers face, and Shirley says customers know they can depend on her and the rest of the Duncan Aviation team.

That's why customers call back—all hours of the day, 365 days a year.

The late Stephen R. Covey, author, motivational speaker and business professor, said: Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

Duncan Aviation connected with...

94 new customers in January 2015.
1,159 International customers from 2013-Present
6,190 Domestic customers from 2013-Present
7,696 unique aircraft between 2010-2015

Tha'ts a lot of trust.

The Golden Rule

Duncan Aviation Project Manager Tammie Burns knows that building relationships with customers is the best way to earn trust and confidence. Many of her customers are from Mexico and are not familiar with Lincoln, Nebraska, at all.

“I just put myself in my customers’ shoes,” says Tammie. “If I were to go to a country that I’d never visited before and didn’t speak the language, I’d welcome all of the help I could get. It’s all about treating our customers how we’d like to be treated.”

Often, too, the project manager is the only point of contact for many customers. One Saturday before Christmas, several of Tammie’s customers from Mexico had gone to the Nebraska outlet mall store located between Lincoln and Omaha. While there, they accidentally locked the keys in the trunk. The rental agreement and all of the insurance information were locked inside the car.

Tammie was one of a handful of people they knew in the area, so they called her. She made a few phone calls to find out which rental company they had gone through and what insurance coverage they had, and she called the car rental company. A representative for the rental company took the stranded shoppers a new car so they could drive back to Lincoln, and he waited at the mall for a locksmith.

People Are People

Lincoln Customer Service Manager Monte Reeves says there’s no magic formula for building trust and confidence.

“It comes from taking the time to get to know each customer as a person,” says Monte. “Once you find out about their hobbies outside of work, where they like to vacation or what their spouse and kids’ names are, you have a way to connect. Regardless of whether you’ve known someone for four or 40 years, the bonds grow and thrive.”

In 2006, Vice President of Marketing and New Business Development Steve Gade proposed having customer dinners every other week at local restaurants in Lincoln and Battle Creek as a way to relax with our customers outside of work and to let customers meet and visit with one another.

“The Wednesday night customer dinners were originally planned to simply allow us to show our appreciation for those customers who were in town overseeing projects.  They have since evolved to also facilitate the creation of a sense of community amongst our customers,” says Steve. “I think the rule of degrees of separation in the aviation industry could be reduced to two degrees instead of six; so many of our customers share common experiences and relationships. Another unexpected benefit for us is that it provides our customers the opportunity to give our senior leadership unsolicited, casual feedback on the industry, our competition and our company.”

Rich Boyadjian, director of maintenance for TWC Aviation in Van Nuys, California, says, “Duncan Aviation has the customer service side of its business down. Everyone is included in the customer lunches and dinners, regardless of the cost or scope of the project. I especially like the customer dinners because they provide a way to relax away from the work day, and I get to talk with other owners and operators I’d probably never otherwise have met.”

Carlos Martinez Canchola, powerplant engineer for Aerolineas Ejecutivas, in Toluca, Mexico, was at Duncan Aviation’s Lincoln facility with his company’s Learjet during a frigid February that produced a stretch of single-digit temperatures.

During introductions at one of the customer lunches, Carlos said, “This is my first time in Nebraska, and I do not like the cold at all. But everyone here at Duncan Aviation has made us feel warm and welcome. The people here are really very kind.”

Following Advice

In an effort to build relationships, encourage open communication and foster the trust and confidence of our customers, Duncan Aviation also established a Customer Advisory Board (CAB) in 2004.

“Listening to our customers is critical to our continued success. We convened the first Customer Advisory Board to help us accomplish our mission of continuous improvement and customer-centered innovation,” says Jeannine Falter, vice president of business development.

By working with boards in Europe, Latin America and the United States, Duncan Aviation hopes to tap into the insightful perspectives of the various members to gain a clearer understanding of business aviation and customers’ expectations around the world.

“Board meetings always involve lively, intelligent discussions about pressing business aviation challenges,” says Jeannine. “CAB recommendations have influenced company decisions on billing policies, customer service best practices, the use of technology and social media and many other important aspects of our business.”

Tim Ganse, aviation manager at Cimarex Energy Company in Englewood, Colorado, has been a member of the Duncan Aviation CAB for two years.

“The leadership at Duncan Aviation is open to the input and suggestions from CAB members. They encourage creative thinking,” says Tim. “Serving gives me the opportunity to discuss issues and items that affect operators who don’t have a seat on the CAB, too. Trying to solve problems and help Duncan Aviation evolve to become more successful is a goal that all CAB members take very seriously.”

By fostering opportunities to communicate with customers in as many settings as possible, Duncan Aviation hopes to keep the level of trust high. That, in turn, helps build the foundations of long-lasting business and personal relationships.

Read more Duncan Aviation customer stories in the Spring 2015 Duncan Debrief. 

In the April 2015 Duncan Intelligence, Dave Ungvarsky, Hawker tech rep, talked about how some of the information in Chapter 24 of the AMM goes unnoticed or unheeded.

During a recent project, the Duncan Aviation Hawker airframe team troubleshot an aircraft with intermittent static plate heat. Their investigation revealed a damaged terminal block which most likely resulted from improper torqueing of the terminal nut and improper orientation of the terminals themselves.

Most of us are familiar with the torqueing of fasteners as required in the AMM for the task being performed. If no specific torque value is noted, then we rely on Chapter 20 (Standard Practices) for determining the proper torque value. Unfortunately, sometimes the information on torque loading contained in Chapter 24 (Torque Loading of Electrical Connections) goes unnoticed or unheeded.

That appears to be the situation here with the damaged terminal block. Not only were the terminals not oriented correctly, it appears an improper torque was applied.

Chapter 24 contains essential information to assure that electrical connections are properly made to ensure that systems operate correctly and are safe.

Duncan Intelligence

Do you want to read more technical articles about the Hawker airframe? Go to the Hawker Duncan Intelligence archives  here.

For more than 18 years, Duncan Aviation has been producing the Duncan Intelligence, a free, technical newsletter for business aircraft owners and operators.

Written in-house by experienced technical reps, each edition includes technical tips and advice on topics and trends in business aviation.

It's free. Subscribe now and have it sent directly to your in-box every month. 

In the seven years Technical Manager (Director of Maintenance) Klaus Rasmussen has worked for Denmark-based Air Alsie, he’s traveled to Duncan Aviation in Battle Creek, Michigan, many times. 

Learn why he continues to fly the more than 6,500 kilometers for aircraft service.

Of the 20 aircraft Air Alsie manages, 15 of them are Falcons. Although Air Alsie is a factory authorized Dassault Line Center and performs smaller inspections, minor repairs and warranty claims, Klaus says he still sends the Falcon aircraft he manages to Battle Creek for major structural repairs and modifications and for C inspections because Duncan Aviation is a Dassault authorized heavy service center.

Starting the Relationship

In 2011, Klaus attended the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, where he met Duncan Aviation’s European Regional Manager Arjen Groeneveld. Klaus remembers wondering how Duncan Aviation’s prices compared to the European service centers.

Arjen quoted three C checks, some avionics installations and minor modifications. Klaus was impressed with the prices, and after taking those first Falcons to Battle Creek in 2011, he was also pleased with the workmanship.

“On that first trip to Battle Creek in 2011, we were checking out the quality. We’ve been to other facilities for inspections and interior work. In the end, our decision was based on the fact that we’ll get good quality at better prices at Duncan Aviation than at the other facilities,” says Klaus.

Another reason Klaus values Duncan Aviation is because of the transparent approval system. Duncan Aviation’s online project tracking system, myDuncan, lets him follow the check almost in real-time, and, when the work has been completed, all of the paperwork is finalized immediately.

“I appreciate it that we don’t have to wait. We get all of the paperwork, invoices and certification immediately,” says Klaus. “We check the invoice, and the prices are always pretty close to the figures that we had budgeted before going in. That’s extremely important to us because we don’t own the aircraft – we manage it – so all of the costs are passed along to our customers.”

Deepening the Relationship

L to R: Project Manager Shawn Busby, Technical Manager of Air Aisle Klaus Rasmussen and Airframe Service Rep Alan Monk.

Since that first trip, Klaus has been back to Battle Creek numerous times, and he’s developed close relationships with Senior Airframe Sales Representative Alan Monk and Project Manager Shawn Busby.

“The personal relationships make it easy to get in touch with the right people when there are issues. And, let’s face it, there are always going to be issues,” says Klaus. “It’s important to me to know Arjen, Alan and Shawn so well I can reach any of them at any time. I don’t want to have to go through a layer of people who don’t know me or care about me or my aircraft. I want to go to them directly, and I can and do.”

Often work relationships develop into close personal friendships, and Alan considers Klaus a friend as well as a customer.

“We both have families, and Klaus and I often talk about our kids. It’s interesting because parents seem to face similar issues no matter what part of the world they call home,” says Alan.

Shawn also values the close, personal relationship he has with Klaus.

“Personally, I consider Klaus as much of a friend as I do a customer. I enjoy hearing about his daughters, what they’re doing, and their horseback riding adventures,” says Shawn.

Read more Duncan Aviaton's customer in the latest issue of the Duncan Debrief.

During a reception at the European Businss Aviation Convention and Exhibtion in Geneva, Switzerland, Duncan Aviation and Safran Engineering Services announced a new Supplemental Type Certificate for FANS-1/A solution that will cover the Bombardier Challenger 601-3A/3R business aircraft.

Safran Engineering Services will be in charge of the design and certification while Duncan Aviation will be responsible for the installation of the avionics into the aircraft. Duncan Aviation will be the owner of the Supplemental Type Certificate and is also responsible for the sales and marketing of the solution.

In the photo L to R: John Slieter, Duncan Aviation Vice President of Service Sales,  Wolf-Godart von Drachenfels, Executive VP Business Strategy, Safran Engineering Services (Safran Group), Aaron Hilkemann, Duncan Aviation President / CEO. 

Read the full announcement here. 

Arjen Groeneveld has been the European Regional Manager for Duncan Aviation for five years. When he first started knocking on doors and talking about the company to European operators, he was met with… “What is it going to cost me?” This came as no surprise to him, because Europe was a relatively new market for Duncan Aviation.

They wanted to know why they should fly their aircraft to the other side of the pond to have service performed. In the beginning, Arjen admits that the euro to dollar exchange rate (near 1.5) in 2011 had a huge impact on getting business in the door.

Customers like Nataly and Ernst Langer, owners and pilots of a Bombardier Global 5000 out of Germany and Klaus Rasmussen, technical manager of Denmark-based Air Alsie, were among the many European operators who took advantage of this economic benefit and gave Duncan Aviation a try. What they found was a company that offered comprehensive airframe services at the highest quality and shortest downtime.

Arjen Groeneveld, European Regional Manager.

Now in 2015, euro to dollar exchange rate has dropped significantly. But that hasn’t stopped international operators from making the journey.

Business aviation operators in Europe are a small group and they talk to each other. As a result, Duncan Aviation’s reputation as a company that delivers top quality service at a great value, quick downtime and always worth the trip has spread.

“We have customers who fly from Europe to have maintenance completed at one of Duncan Aviation's United States locations,” says Arjen. “The fact that they're willing to make that trip tells us we're doing something right.

This is why they come: Worldwide Business Aircraft Operators Tell It Like It Is 

As the fourth generation of  the Duncan family joins the team, the company is focused squarely on the future. 

In this video, listen as Todd Duncan explains the strength of Duncan Aviation and what it means for the long-term.

“It's a long term prospect for my family. It's a long term prospect for our team members. And for the customers who use us, they understand it's a long-term prospect for our relationship."  

—Todd Duncan, Chairman. 

We can finally talk about this super secret project our Battle Creak, Michigan, paint team completed. ‪

The challenge: Paint Virgin's Galactic Girl.

The aircraft: Falcon 900EX.

The solution: Our team partnered with artist, John Stahr, to airbrush the well-known logo. When a customer comes to Duncan Aviation with a unique request, we make it happen. Watch the process in just a minute and a half.