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www.national ightsimulator.com mailto: steve@national ightsimulator.com
our company holds FAA/PMA approv- als on more than 200 articles that sup- port our MRO activities and enables our rapid turn times and competitive flat rate pricing. We believe that lowering operating costs improves residual aircraft values, which in turn helps the original equipment manufacturer.
TWIN & TURBINE: Your engineering team has designed an entire family of PMA parts for the King Air?
SEAVEY: We had found it necessary to go out and approve a part that was either unaffordable or unavailable for us to use. For example, a ring used in all three of the struts of a King Air landing gear suddenly became a shortage item. So we reverse engineered it, developed a replacement, received FAA approval through the PMA process and had them built by a quality supplier. Today we exclusively use our PMA ring. Even though it was designed just to eliminate a gap in supply for a very important part, once designed it was a fraction of the OEM cost and it was reliable.
TWIN & TURBINE: And, your pool stock contributes to delivering fast turnarounds?
SEAVEY: If you look at a King Air in the 6-year landing gear inspection, the plating process typically takes a week to have cadmium plating restored, and it takes two weeks to have chrome plating restored. So, if you have a part where the upper half is chrome and the lower half is cad, it takes three weeks to go through the entire process. Most King Air operators would rather not ground their aircraft for three or four weeks to have their part reconditioned. Instead, they may opt for the $24,000 piston axle so they can fly. We have invested millions of dollars into the repairable parts that are part of the landing gear assemblies. There’s almost nothing that a customer needs on a land- ing gear that we can’t provide out of our pool stocks.
TWIN & TURBINE: What savings can an operator expect when choosing to repair or exchange versus replacing with new parts?
SEAVEY: Recently we had a call from an operator who had received a quotation from his maintenance provider for the overhaul of his nose landing gear. The quotation was for more than $70,000. The customer was rightly perplexed with the expense of the quotation but understood
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8 • TWIN & TURBINE
December 2018