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 31^st. 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.