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Jim and the Irwin boys receive the Freedom of Flight Award from Jack Pelton at the 2023 EAA AirVenture.
Mike Irwin, the oldest son, is vice president of procurement; Jeff, in the middle, is vice president of operations; and Rob, the youngest, is now the vice president of marketing. They all ad- here to and maintain the mission statement tenets of Aircraft Spruce:
• Satisfying customers and giving the best experience possible.
• Quickly fulfilling orders (same day usually).
• Competitive pricing.
In Jim’s words, the goal is simple. “We just want to do everything we can to satisfy our customers through ease-of-purchase, whether online, on the phone, or in person, with com- petitive prices.”
Lance Phillips: Jim, I appreciate the time you can spend telling the Twin & Turbine readers a few things they might not know about Aircraft Spruce and your family. First, congratula- tions on the recent Freedom of Flight Award presented by Jack Pelton at the 2023 EAA AirVenture. You’re now in rarified air with Burt Rutan, Neil Armstrong and Steve Wittman. How does an award like this translate into your family business, and what does it mean for your customers?
Jim Irwin: It was quite an honor to receive the Freedom of Flight Award from Jack Pelton. It’s one of EAA’s
Jim received the Homebuilders Hall of Fame award from Jack Pelton posthumously for his parents in 2021.
awards. Next topic: your website men- tions that you recently implemented a newly expanded order history search function. Is that something you and your wife Nanci worked on, or was that left to the younger generation?
JI: Oh, that was definitely not Nanci or me. We’re pretty old school. Our three sons are the innovative ones. Rob, our youngest, the marketing vice president, and his team implemented the search expansion and other usabil- ity updates to our website. That’s just one example; they’re working on it, improving it all the time. They aim to make it as simple and intuitive as pos- sible for our customers to order online.
most prestigious awards, and for the family and the business to be recog- nized for integrity, entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the years, started by my mom and dad, is pretty special. It was unexpected.
Two years ago, I accepted the EAA’s Homebuilders Hall of Fame Award for my late parents. You’ll hopefully be recognized if you’ve been in this business long enough and do a pretty good job. And we want to continue to conduct our business on the principles they started, and my sons buy into that philosophy, too. If we can do that and keep our customers happy, we’ll continue to be successful.
LP: That is phenomenal. Congratu- lations to your whole family for those
LP: I noticed an update listing Leading Edge Avionics as an affili- ate avionics shop. How many affili- ates do you have?
JI: Leading Edge Avionics is the only one. They’re based at Chino airport, very close to us, and they handle warranty issues and things like that. We are a dealer for multiple avionics manufacturers, and since we don’t have an avionics shop, we partner with Leading Edge. We had partnered with Advanced Avionics in the same location for 25 years or so, and they sold last year to Leading Edge, who then took over the affili- ate relationship.
LP: You have a pretty robust show and event schedule. Does Rob count
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