Professional Pilot, September 2016

the 70s things are a little different You still have to manage your business by seeing your customers in person thats more important now than ever I believe You can also be in front of your employees in the field who are the ones that really keep the customers happy Thats critical today he explains Black adds Another aspect of the aircraft is maintaining a work life balance When I started I only knew one thing Survival I worked 8 days a week just to survive Today when you talk about executives and employees work ethic is paramount We have a lot of really talented engaged people here at MPW all working to make it better tomorrow than it is today But not everybody wants to work like we did back in the beginning Car driving time for our executives is very expensive and inefficient Our customers and their operations are mostly located in smaller towns so being able to fly directly into a small airport is a huge advantage for us The airplanes give us the opportunity to get out there and service our clients and still be back home in the evening George says Our Citation CJ3 does a great job of balancing performance with economics Its a high flier that operates above the weather at FL450 while the Citation Sovereign just makes a lot of sense for us as it expands our range to the west coast and we can do it on a hot day from our home fields 4649 ft runway VTA Newark Heath Airport Newark OH 68 PROFESSIONAL PILOT September 2016 A typical day As George describes it a typical MPW mission is made up of 4 to 6 passengers which is on average a mix of management sales engineering and IT team members Departing at around 7 30 am the flight may go direct to Chattanooga for morning meetings and then leave again at 12 30 The traveling team will have lunch enroute to the next destination Typically trips are scheduled to be back at VTA by the early evening Of course like most corporate flight departments while the majority of flights are scheduled well in advance MPWs crews are always on standby should the need arise for a pop up trip We had a situation just last week where we got a call late in the afternoon that a piece of our equipment had failed at a customers site on the west coast so we had MPWs president head of engineering director of safety and 2 other engineers at that customers site first thing the next morning Black says Our company and our flight department are very responsive I can get a call any morning and later that same day I can be at a customers office in Texas or wherever We do have our scheduled trips but we never know when that phone is going to ring and were off to solve a problem All aircraft dispatch requests are submitted to Blacks Executive Administrative Assistant Lisa Taylor who passes them along to Black for approval Flights that are approved are then passed along to Chief Pilot Eric Mitchelson who handles scheduling and crew assignments Meet MPWs flight department Dean Ramsey was MPWs 1st pilot Dean was instrumental in starting MPWs flight dept He was a very capable fixed wing and rotary wing pilot who had an A P license as well says George And Mark Hente MPWs chief pilot during the construction of our 1st hangar was the one who helped Monte into the jet age An experienced turbine powered aircraft pilot Hente left to pursue international flight ops with Nationwide Insurance where he is still the chief pilot MPW Industrial Services currently has 5 full time pilots and a part time aircraft maintenance technician Director of Aviation Dan George joined the company in 2000 as the companys chief pilot and DOM Early in his career George flew with a missionary organization and had earned his A P license In fact he was an aviation maintenance technician for an air cargo company when he got his first corporate job both flying and maintaining a King Air F90 for a commercial real estate developer After 12 years with that organization and having flown a Citation II and a Citation V George was recruited by MPW to oversee their Citation Vs operations Today he has over 9000 hours and holds both an ATP and an A P as well as an IA When hes not on the clock for MPW George and his son work MPW aviation personnel stand next to Citation Sovereign at the company hangar at VTA L R FO Joe DiGiannantoni Captain Ryan Courtemanche Chief Pilot Eric Mitchelson Director of Av Dan George and Captain Darrick Helmuth Captains Darrick Helmuth left seat and Ryan Courtemanche sitting in the cockpit of the companys Citation Sovereign