The Duncan Download Blog: Business Aviation Advice & Observations

The aviation world is a pretty big place. Sometimes locating the aircraft part you need is like trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack, especially if it’s from a World War II fighter jet.

Darrold Comber suspected his search would not be an easy one. His needle? A joystick from a Grumman F6F Hellcat Fighter with working buttons. After an online search showed Duncan Aviation listing the part in stock, he picked up the phone and called Lance Tophoj, Duncan Aviation Parts & Rotables Sales Rep.

With several joysticks available, Darrold asked Lance if he would personally pick out the nicest one with working buttons, because he had something special in mind for his father-in-law’s 90th birthday.

Summit Lippincott, Darrold’s father-in-law, has been an aviation enthusiast for most of his life. To him the Hellcat joystick holds significant meaning because his older brother, Benjamin, a World War II Navy Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter pilot, tragically died during a training exercise in 1945 while assigned to the Naval Air Station at Boca Chica, Florida.

Because of his profound respect and admiration for his older brother’s courage and service to the United States, his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren have consistently heard his memories and stories about growing up with his brother.

In honor of Summit’s milestone birthday and in memory of Benjamin, Darrold, created a one-of-a-kind handmade cane that featured a Grumman F6F Hellcat joystick as its handle. Two custom-stamped dog tags were added as the finishing touch.

The team members with Duncan Aviation Parts & Rotables Sales never shy away from a challenge. With access to more than $500 million in parts inventory and worldwide industry contacts, they operate on the premise of “If we don’t have it, we’ll find it!”

The reason we are able to offer this level of service is because of the extensive network of aviation industry contacts we’ve built through the years and the fact that we are available on our customers’ schedules, 24/7/365. Our inventory is competitively priced and checked against the industry marketplace regularly. All this, on top of our multiple OEM relationships and multitude of service agreements, is how our wide base of capabilities keeps customers flying.

Our large and constantly growing rotable and exchange pool is never further than your telephone. And with a primary inventory of more than 485,000 line items, we’ll usually be able to handle your parts needs from stock. We like to say, we specialize in needles.

www.DuncanAviation.aero/parts/search

Be Kind. The person you help today may turn out to be the person you need tomorrow.

In 1997, Susan Masek was calling on aircraft parts brokers to locate parts in support of Duncan Aviation’s in-house aircraft maintenance customers. Every day she picked up her phone and attempted to locate the units on her list.

While searching, Susan often called the same brokers again and again. Over time, she learned who she could rely on to find what she needed. Susan’s first phone call was always to Meredith Daoud, who, at the time, worked for an aircraft parts broker in California.

"I knew Meredith had hundreds of customers, OEMs, FBOs, other MROs, and aircraft management companies. But when I called her, I always felt like I was the only one she was helping that day," says Susan. "She was the best at customer service and nearly always delivered what I needed."

Making Changes

 In 2005, Meredith and her husband Jerry stepped out on faith, moving to McKinney, Texas, and starting their own parts brokerage business—Trinity Aviation.

And because Susan wasn’t the only customer who thought Meredith was exceptional at her job, when Trinity opened for business, many of Meredith’s former customers became Trinity customers. "I work hard to build relationships," says Meredith. "I want to get to know clients beyond the transaction. People appreciate that and respond."

At about the same time, Susan was in the middle of her own transition at Duncan Aviation, leaving the maintenance side and joining Duncan Aviation’s Parts & Rotables Sales team. Instead of purchasing parts, it was now her responsibility to locate and sell aircraft parts, instruments, and components. Guess who called?

Meredith knew from the beginning that she would be relying heavily on Duncan Aviation to help her fulfill the needs of Trinity Aviation’s customers. On one of her first calls to Duncan Aviation, by chance, she was connected to a new Parts Sales Rep, and an old friend.

Thirteen years later, the relationship between Trinity Aviation and Duncan Aviation is a strong one, connected by a professional friendship between Meredith and Susan.

Susan Masek

"When we think of Duncan Aviation, we think of Susan. For us, she is Duncan Aviation."
–Meredith Daoud, Trinity Aviation

When Meredith Daoud has a customer in search of aircraft parts, her first phone call is to Susan Masek. "She is extremely knowledgeable," Meredith says. "I trust all the information she provides and if she doesn’t have the answers right away, she’ll research it and call us back. Her customer service is first-rate."

This story was recently published in the Spring 2017 Duncan Debrief magazine. Follow the link below to find more stories like this or subscribe to receive your own copy. 

In 1978, Phil Porter was hired as Duncan Aviation’s first logistics manager; although, at the time, he was called a parts runner. Nearing the completion of his fourth decade at Duncan Aviation, Phil took some time to reflect on his long tenure with the company.

“I was going to UNL when my girlfriend Cindy took me up in her Cessna 150,” says Phil. “We dropped in on the Duncan Aviation ramp, and I was enamored of the place. Right then, I decided I wanted to be a part of it, so I changed my plans to head home to the Chicago area. Cindy and I got married, and I applied here for a job.”

Phil was both the aircraft parts runner and the shipping department back then, and he had to physically search shelves for parts. There were no computers or inventory control back then.

“And I personally packed up and shipped everything that left the company,” says Phil. “I’d call Trailways bus to find out the schedule and then drive the packages to the depot.”

One time Phil was unable to find a way to ship the horizontal stabilizer to Wichita, Kansas, for singer Paul Anka’s Learjet, so he packed it into his car and drove it there himself. Leaving Lincoln at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, Phil arrived at the Learjet facility about five hours later. He drove up to the main hangar, parked in the late Harry B. Combs’ [President of Learjet from 1971 until 1982] parking space, and looked for someone to help unload the stabilizer.

Although driving a stabilizer from one state to the next was somewhat unusual for a parts runner, Phil’s story illustrates how Duncan Aviation and its team members literally go the extra mile for customers.

Shipping parts to Mexico, Canada or anywhere in the world in the late 1970s was fairly unusual, too, because most of Duncan Aviation’s parts business involved Learjet aircraft, and Phil remembers that those parts shipped primarily in the United States.

There were notable exceptions, however, and in 1966, 10 years after Donald Duncan founded Duncan Aviation, Donald and Harry Barr partnered with Danish Pilot Captain Per Alkaersig to supply radio packages for Cessna aircraft that flew in the Scandinavian countries.

“I looked for a supplier of King radios and found Duncan Aviation. They would pick up the aircraft in Wichita and have it ready to ferry to Europe on a firm date,” says Per. “When I’d pick up the aircraft in Lincoln, I’d meet Donald and Robert Duncan and Harry Barr. What a great team! A handshake would close a deal.”

When Duncan Aviation won the exclusive rights as master distributor for Piper (including Aztecs and Cubs) parts, Duncan Aviation began regularly shipping parts worldwide.

“Through our Piper parts agreement, I meet not only Piper dealers in Pennsylvania and Florida, but also made connections with companies in places like England, South Africa and Sweden,” says Phil. “We started dealing those parts in 1984, and we shipped quite a lot to Italy and Madagascar and to all of the little mom and pop shops around the world that needed parts for Pipers.”

Although Phil had been promoted from parts runner to sales around 1981, the worldwide parts distribution took off with the Piper deal, and in 1984, Duncan Aviation’s AvPac was born. Now known as Parts and Rotables, the annual sales of parts outside of the United States represents about 35 percent of all parts and rotables sales.

“Today, roughly one third of our team members work hours to accommodate our worldwide customers,” says Chris Gress, Manager of Parts and Rotables Sales.

Shirley Crouch and Tyler Stone work through the night so they can answer calls from customers in Australia and southeast Asia; Carol Hunt and Hannah Bodenstab support customers in South Africa; and Phil, Lance Tophoj, Jewell Chambers and Sandra Phelps support customers in Europe and South America. Sandra begins working at 4 a.m. so European customers can reach an actual person at the start of their business day.

In the early day, Phil sold Piper parts, and one of his first customers was Pilot John Egelykke who worked for a pump factory in Denmark called Grundfos. Per introduced John to Duncan Aviation in 1986, and John has been working with the company at its various locations ever since.

“The European aviation industry is a closely knit community. When you help customers locate parts or resolve problems, they remember you,” says Phil. “Over the years, in spite of the fact that some of my best customers have switched from one company to another, they remember that I helped, and they continue to call.”

John got to know Phil shortly after his first experience working with Duncan Aviation.

“Phil has been a great person to work with over the years. He has helped me a lot with AOG parts and a great number of quotes,” says John. “When Grundfos changed their aircraft management company to Air Alsie in 2011, I suggested taking the Falcon 2000 to Battle Creek for a C-check. I have always enjoyed working with Shawn Busby and Tom Burt, too.”

John stopped flying after 30 years and 14,000 hours as a pilot, and he now works as a Technical Advisor for Air Alsie. And he still recommends Duncan Aviation to his customers in large part because Phil took the time to forge a friendship on top of the business relationship the two men developed so many years ago.

2016 is a special year. It is Duncan Aviation’s 60th year of helping business aircraft operators be safe, efficient and productive. For six decades, customers have asked us for solutions and services. We are celebrating our 60 years by telling the stories about the people of Duncan Aviation who listened and took action.

Celebrate with us by subscribing to the Duncan Download blog, following us on Facebook and Twitter (@DuncanAviation) and visiting our anniversary website at www.DuncanAviation.aero/60.

Lori Johnson has been the Marketing Communications Manager for Duncan Aviation for more than 20 years. She enjoys working with the smart and passionate aviation experts at Duncan Aviation, helping them connect with and educate customers about important industry topics.  

“Duncan Aviation has excellent aircraft parts availability, good prices and great service. We regularly use their parts and rotables services because their quality is awesome.” –Francisco Carrillo Peralta, Purchase Agent for ALE Service Center in Mexico.

With more than 15 years of experience as a maintenance and repair organization working in the Mexican market, ALE Service Center has three locations in Mexico and provides service for about 100 clients who operate Hawker-Beechcraft, Agusta, HondaJet and Bombardier aircraft.

“I can trust what Duncan Aviation tells me,” Francisco says. “If they say they have a part available, they do. And their ship times are accurate and fast.” No other aviation parts company can compete when it comes to customer value.

Chris Gress, Duncan Aviation Parts and Rotables Sales manager says it comes as no surprise when customers like Francisco keep coming back. “Duncan Aviation’s reputation in providing quality aircraft parts is widely known throughout the aviation industry. Our repair capabilities are top-quality and our prices are always a fair value. Anyone who has ever purchased an aircraft part that is tagged with a Duncan Aviation 8130 knows that they are getting a part that will be reliable with no warranty or failure issues.” 

Chris will be at AeroExpo at the Toluca International Airport March 16-18. Stop by booth #20 to talk with him and other Duncan Aviation representatives.

Duncan Aviation’s international parts sales experience includes parts and rotables with completed and accurate 8130 paperwork, the management of repairs and overhauls sent to the U.S. to be serviced both by Duncan Aviation and other FAA approved U.S. Repair Stations; the consolidation of return shipments of freshly serviced components back to countries all over the world; and the safe shipment of hazardous material from the U.S. to countries around the world while meeting all regulatory compliance.

Just call +1 402.475.4125 to get instant service, 24/7/365, including holidays, nights and weekends. Or visit Duncan Aviation’s There’s no need to make dozens of calls and scour the internet looking for a part or service. Duncan Aviation has the component solutions you require and will quickly fulfill those needs.

To see more, check out our Parts Search at www.DuncanAviation.aero/parts. You can also download our mobile parts app to search from your phone. Just visit www.DuncanAviation.aero/apps.

On a Saturday…

A Flight Data Recorder that was on its way to an operator in Moanda, Gabon, Africa, from Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., by way of Boulazac, France, was stopped at the border of Gabon, tied up in the red tape of African Customs. The paperwork was denied by the Customs agency and the unit was not allowed to enter the country.

…do you wait until Monday to respond?

The business of business aviation does not sleep, especially when you consider the size of the industry and that all of the major players conduct business across several time zones, international borders and oceans.

It comes as no surprise to anyone at Duncan Aviation when a customer contacts us over a weekend with an urgent need; in the business of business aviation, there are no weekends.

Case in point: Jewell Chambers, a senior international parts sales rep for Duncan Aviation’s Parts and Rotables Sales, left work as normal on a Friday afternoon, looking forward to the weekend and her grandson’s fifth birthday.

She always enjoys her time away from work, but her customers are never far from her mind. Duncan Aviation Parts and Rotables Sales has 24/7/365 coverage, even on evenings and weekends. There is always someone available to answer the phones.

But when you’ve been doing this as long as Jewell has, you build relationships and long-time customers contact you directly. It has become part of her routine to check her email every Saturday and Sunday morning to make sure her customers in Europe don’t have pressing needs. On this particular Saturday, she received the urgent email above.

Jewell and her grandson, Riley, celebrating his fifth birthday.

Jewel doesn’t mind helping her customers on the weekends, because if it is critical to them, then it is critical to her. She responded back with, “I’m on my way to the office to get you what you need.”

Within an hour, the proper invoice was on its way to Gabon by way of her customer in France and the unit was allowed into the country.

The weekend is her time away from work, but her commitment to doing the right thing by her customers saved them more than 36 hours of waiting. In her line of work, that is too long.

Besides, she made it back home in plenty of time for the birthday party.

Read more from the Fall 2015 Duncan Debrief Magazine

“Customer service is key in my business and Duncan Aviation does it better than anyone.”
—Martha Everhart, owner Phast Parts Enterprise LLC

Phast Parts Enterprise Co-Founder Martha Everhart had a customer call her and say ‘“Cuida de mis negocios por favor.” That means “take care of my business please” in Spanish. He needed her assistance in getting the immediate repair of some aircraft avionics components on his Learjet that was soon to enter the market for sale.

Several of Martha’s customers are from Latin America and they seek her out to facilitate their aviation service needs in an English-speaking industry. It’s easy to understand why. As an American citizen originally hailing from Mexico with more than 20 years of experience working for aircraft manufacturers, Martha understands aviation and is able to overcome language and cultural barriers.

She feels this sector is sorely underserved and does anything and everything she can to meet their needs. She therefore called the only other company she knew that cared about customer service as much as she does.

She called Duncan Aviation. Tyler Lauer, customer account rep for Duncan Aviation’s avionics component repair services, answered her call.

Tyler listened to Martha’s needs and took immediate action by calling in Matthews Pastor, another customer account rep, to assist. They tag-teamed the project by having Tyler work directly with the OEMs on units sent out for repair while Matthews managed and coordinated all work performed internally at Duncan Aviation.

Martha was kept in the loop with daily emails, work orders and other progress reports. She was assured the units would be delivered when promised. “I had immediate communication,” says Martha. “They understood my urgency and responded with professionalism while under pressure. It didn’t matter if I talked to Tyler or Matthews, both answered my questions about the whole project. And I talked to them many times a day.”

Martha has been in this industry a long time and says the level of customer service that Tyler and Matthews provided her is unique. “My customer called me and said, ‘I don’t know where you sent my parts for overhaul, but I am getting them back already and it’s only been three days!” All remaining units, except for one due to a backordered part, were returned to the customer in Mexico within one week.

“When I send a quote to Duncan Aviation, I usually have my answer within 10 minutes. My customers are impressed that I am able to respond so quickly. My customers come back to me because I keep going to Duncan Aviation,” says Martha. “They make me look good.”

Read more from the Fall 2015 Duncan Debrief Magazine

Taking operator cost concerns to heart, Duncan Aviation and Honeywell Aerospace have worked together to develop efficiencies for Honeywell SPEX exchanges on the VG14A gyro that allow Honeywell to drop the exchange price of that unit by half.

"Operators prefer the value and quality of the Honeywell SPEX exchange for the VG14A gyro, but have provided feedback that they would like a lower exchange cost," says Kevin Miesbach, manager of Duncan Aviation's Avionics and Instrument Shop, which performs overhaul and recertification for all Honeywell SPEX VG14A exchanges. "Honeywell and Duncan Aviation collaborated and developed service efficiencies that allow for more value with the SPEX exchange on that unit."

Starting in April, operators will be able to receive the VG14A Honeywell SPEX exchange (part number PN7000622-901)for $5,500, half off the former rate of $11,000. However, customers who buy the exchange unit will still receive the same reliable, high-quality Honeywell unit backed by a full one-year unlimited warranty, Honeywell's liberal "no billback" guarantee and Duncan Aviation's excellent 24/7 customer service complete with same-day shipping and no AOG fees.

To purchase a Honeywell VG-14A SPEX exchange, call Duncan Aviation's Parts Sales at +1 402.475.4125 or 800.228.1836.