Skytech’s
Founder and Chairman, Frank Stephenson, recently celebrated a unique
milestone: Frank has had a personal presence at the Martin State
Airport for 50 years. Of course, it was simply The Martin Airport -
privately owned by the Martin Company – when he came to work here in
August of 1959.
Back then the
Martin Company’s Chief Pilot got all out of sorts trying to figure
out how to run the new maintenance system that accompanied their
ultra-modern Gulfstream G-I. The maintenance was “computerized” and
no one in the company had any idea how to use it. So they went
looking for someone with experience in automated aircraft
maintenance systems. Frank, a 23-year-old Pennsylvania native and
fresh out of the Air Force, had been running the Air Force version
for about 5 years.
What they did
not tell Frank was that their other Corporate aircraft were Martin
model 202 and 404 Airliners that had been converted from
Experimental Flight Test. As such, they had no Standard
Airworthiness Certificate and thus no formal maintenance plan. So
every time they needed a part Frank had to go into the factory and
“requisition” one for the Corporate Flight Department. His only
salvation was a badge that showed his Department as 0001 - because
there was no such thing as the Corporate Flight Department, only
some test pilots with converted airplanes that hauled the Execs
around. So resourcefulness at Skytech goes way, way back, and it was
a cornerstone of the business when Frank founded Skytech in 1976.
Skytech’s
business partners also display a great deal of resourcefulness and
we are fiercely loyal to them. When there is an exception to that
behavior it invariably comes down to the same issue: we outgrow a
partner and they aren’t willing or able to change to keep our
business. As cases in point, we spent 12 years with the same
insurance agent, 17 years with the same bank, and 10 years with the
same IT provider. And we’ve literally outgrown the capacity of all
three in the past 5 years.
And now we have
undertaken the most dramatic change in Skytech’s 33 years in
business. We’ve outgrown the Martin State Airport. Skytech moved to
Carroll County Regional Airport (KDMW) on August 31st.
Truth be told, we probably outgrew Martin a decade ago but did not
want to admit it. Plus, we wanted to be sure that we had
successfully learned how to build and operate a world-class,
full-service FBO complex that could concurrently support our
aircraft sales and service business. If you have ever visited our
Rock Hill, SC (Charlotte area) campus you know that we are off to a
great start. And there’s plenty more evidence if you read the
customer comments on Airvav.com.
So our next
objective is to duplicate – or amplify if we work hard enough - our
FBO success in Rock Hill. That effort is personified by our brand
new facilities at the Carroll County Regional Airport (KDMW) in the
Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area near Westminster, Maryland.
It’s 5,100’ runway with WAAS approaches brings you to a new, 22,000
sq. ft. Maintenance and FBO facility dedicated solely to Skytech’s
customers – both existing and not yet introduced to us. The
same great personalized service that we have
given our customers at the Martin State Maintenance facility will
now include your Line Service experience. In addition,
we will have one of the only dedicated Aircraft Sales showrooms east
of the Mississippi River. While we will keep an Administrative
presence at Martin State, Carroll County is – from a customer
perspective - our Baltimore-area home. So come see us! Literally and
figuratively, we’ll be waiting on you.