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AOPA
Cirrus annual gathering in Tennessee as the top global ASC. It is an incred- ible accomplishment, but one that only makes Gary want to improve and grow more.
These days, Woodland works on Cir- rus, Textron Aviation and Diamond aircraft. They service Garmin and Avidyne avionics. They employ nine mechanics, three avionics technicians, eleven support staff and speak six lan- guages. A quarter of the workforce are women, and they intend to continue to build diversity among their employees. Recently, when they outgrew their ser- vice scheduling system, Gary, seeing an opportunity to improve delivery times, co-wrote and coded his own MRO software system. With 25 to 30 aircraft in the shop at any given time, the new software gives pinpoint accu- racy in determining status in a mat- ter of seconds.
Continual improvement is impor- tant to Gary and his team. Currently, he is redesigning the hangar layout to reduce the number of employee steps
per day, from 13,000 to 8,000, as part of a lean manufacturing initiative. He will also be introducing a new website for the business this year.
Gary appreciates the history of Woodland Aviation and the true pio- neer nature of the Watts family and what they brought to aviation, not only in northern California but to the world. Milton Watts is 102 years old this year, and Bruce Watts is still flying airplanes and managing Watts- Woodland Airport (O41). If you hap- pen to be in Yolo County in the near future, whether you go to KDWA or O41, you can bet that someone or something special is going to greet you when you land.
Lance Phillips is an aviation profes- sional, writer, pilot and photographer. He is executive director for the Pinnacle Air Network and owns Phillips Aero Services, an aviation marketing ser- vices provider. You can contact Lance at lance@phillipsaeroservices.com.
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March 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 21