National Aircraft Supply - “It used to take a couple of days to a week to get a battery checked,” he said. “That's increased to a couple of weeks because there's just five or six people working as hard as they can in a shop that used to have 10 [employees].
“I'm absolutely guilty of thinking, 'FedEx guarantees overnight shipping. Don't they have another airplane they could scramble?'” Young said. "Well, they probably don't. They're at their max capacity. It's good to be understanding of what's on everybody's plates right now, not just our own.”
National Aircraft Supply
The 2023 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) will return to Las Vegas, NV from October 17-19. Save the date and make plans to attend the biggest and most productive event of the year for business aviation.
To be sure a manufacturer is able and qualified to manufacture a part, the purchaser should review and understand the requirements of the standard and review the part manufacturer's qualification report. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to provide a Qualification Report to the purchaser.
It is the purchaser's responsibility to review the report to be sure the manufacturer meets the requirements of the specification. “It seems we went right from the toilet paper shortage in our everyday lives to the chip issue affecting LRUs [line-replaceable units],” said Melissa Raddatz, regional sales manager for the upper Midwest at maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider
Flying Colors Corp. “When COVID kicked in, we almost immediately started to see challenges with acquiring parts, particularly from European and other international suppliers,” Winkle said. "For one particular aircraft model, we needed a component manufactured in Europe.
Because of COVID restrictions and import challenges, we missed a total of 12 legs on that airplane over eight days – and we're not alone in facing situations like that.” Subject matter experts from AIA member companies participate in committees and working groups to develop and maintain the NAS library.
All development standards are conducted in accordance with TOC-1, Development Procedures for National Aerospace Standards. AIA is an accredited standards developer (ASD) through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful.
"Once you remove a part, get that core back to wherever it belongs as quickly as possible," Winkle said. "It's really becoming critical to return those core units so we can keep parts in the system."
“There's a certain price point that, above which, a shipment gets flagged,” she said. "For items like landing gear assemblies, we've asked vendors to ship items individually so they don't get caught up in customs, because each package is under that [price] threshold."
While pandemic-driven furloughs and layoffs across the industry have played a role in these scarcities, Winkle believes COVID-19 exacerbated issues have already felt across the industry in its move to “just in time” inventory practices. "We have an on-demand industry, and it just didn't entirely mesh up," he said.
“You need to plan your maintenance events much farther out. It also pays to order needed parts well in advance – months, not weeks – to comply with inspections, service bulletins and management programs,” he said.
“Everything is controlled by computers on newer aircraft like ours,” added Ian Young, chief of maintenance on a large-cabin intercontinental business jet for Executive Jet Management. “All the parts we've seen trouble with most often have printed circuit cards;
as of now, larger parts are generally more readily available.” “Luckily, we have a lot of operators within a five-mile radius, so we're all able to network and work with one another to get out of a jam,” Stodolski continued, “and we then replenish their stock once the OEM
is able to provide us with the component. That helps keep AOG situations to a minimum, though there are times when we're working the phones with parts suppliers trying to get items to us as quickly as possible."
While Raddatz noted most of his customers who have worked in business aviation for some time are understanding of such difficulties, “they also want to see that you're being proactive and making sure everything's on track,” she said.
"We're in this weird transition right now, and we're hoping we'll get back to normal sooner than later. But in the meantime, we're just trying to do the best we can every day." AIA, in coordination with the Department of Defense, has converted over 500 MIL-specs to NAS.
These converted documents carry an NASM (for inch-based) or NAM (for metric-based) prefix. The standard continues to be procured to the MS part number. “We've already seen a couple tire manufacturers for large-cabin business jets tell us they ran out of tires, with really no timeline of when it's going to get replenished,” agreed Nathan Winkle, president and founder of Thoroughbred Aviation and past chair
of the NBAA Maintenance Committee. "That's sort of an odd place to be for owners used to having their aircraft available as on-demand business tools." Raddatz also emphasized the benefits of networking. "Call a buddy up at another flight department and tell them you're in a pinch, and if they can send their part over now, you'll ship the repaired part to them when you get it back," she said.
"People who aren't networking or keeping up with relationships may struggle more and potentially find themselves in an unfavorable situation." If you're interested in elevating your career to the next level, look no further than SDC2025.
You'll learn current best practices and trends from industry experts and fellow attendees through top-level education sessions and critical peer-to-peer networking to help you work smarter, not harder in the year ahead. The 2024 NBAA Maintenance Conference provides vital education and networking opportunities for anyone involved in business aircraft maintenance – from technicians to directors of maintenance.
Stay up-to-date on the latest operational information critical to your job and connect with over 900 fellow peers. "Shippers have told me they're seeing the same [numbers] of packages through the major hubs as around Christmas time," Stodolski said.
“Except [at Christmas] they usually add more people, aircraft and logistics to keep up with that demand; the shippers weren't ready for the [current] influx we're seeing." If a Part Standard calls out a Procurement Specification that has Qualification Test Requirements, those requirements must be met before the purchaser should buy parts from the manufacturer.
After a manufacturer has met the requirements, it is up to the part manufacturer to perform the required test(s) for certification of conformance. It is up to the purchaser to review those certifications to make sure they meet the requirements.
“We're just in a unique situation in the world as a whole,” Stodolski continued. "There's times you have to take a different avenue that you're not accustomed to [in order] to get a part or component that you need."
The 2024 NBAA Maintenance Conference provides vital education and networking opportunities for anyone involved in business aircraft maintenance – from technicians to directors of maintenance. Stay up-to-date on the latest operational information critical to your job and connect with over 900 fellow peers.
Planning for the team's future is one of a leader's most important responsibilities. A solid plan makes it easier to navigate today's uncertain world and when priorities change or a crisis happens, a well-crafted plan will help keep the team on track.
"We try to stay on top of that," he said. “If we know we're going to be doing some type of maintenance or inspection, instead of maybe ordering all the consumable items we need for an inspection, say a week ahead of time, we're now pushing out our order a couple months
ahead of time, just so we can let the supply chain work. Parts shortages and supply chain constraints have affected many segments of the transportation industry as a result of COVID-19, including business aviation. Flight operations need to prepare for contingencies in the event the situation does not improve for some time to come.
Young also experienced shipping difficulties during the last year while waiting for delivery of a new air data computer. "Fortunately, we didn't have any pending flights, but we still wanted to get it fixed as quickly as possible," he said.
“It took three days to get the computer; the part was available, but we couldn't get anyone to ship it to us." "We've heard lately that tires will become a problem in the months ahead," Young said.
“One of our local suppliers suggested we might want to buy some tires in advance…. It's kind of hard to go anywhere without tires." If you're interested in elevating your career to the next level, look no further than SDC2025.
You'll learn current best practices and trends from industry experts and fellow attendees through top-level education sessions and critical peer-to-peer networking to help you work smarter, not harder in the year ahead.
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