Professional Pilot, September 2016

at restoring and flying a vintage award winning Cessna 170 Eric Mitchelson has ATP and A P licenses has logged 4300 hours and was promoted to chief pilot at MPW in January 2016 He started his aviation career working at an FBO out on the line He then joined TABExpress where he worked as line manager while earning his commercial and instrument ratings After leaving TABExpress he worked for a variety of companies flying primarily Beech and Hawker aircraft Prior to joining MPW in 2012 he was flying a Hawker 800 for a company based in Cairo Egypt Ryan Courtemanche is ATP rated and serves as the lead captain in the CJ3 and FO aboard the Sovereign With over 5100 hours in his logbook Courtemanche began his career flying a skydiving operations jump plane in Newport RI He then flew charters along the eastern seaboard and Caribbean islands in a variety of turboprops and jets He joined MPW in 2014 Darrick Helmuth holds an ATP and has over 7200 hours He joined MPW in 2013 and currently acts as captain on both of the companys aircraft After graduating from college Helmuth began his aviation career as a CFI When not flying for MPW he serves as a member of the Board and director of operations at a flying club based at OSU Ohio State University Airport Columbus OH Joe DiGiannantoni has 4700 hours and an ATP He joined MPWs flight department in late 2015 He earned his Private license right out of high school and then went into the US 70 PROFESSIONAL PILOT September 2016 MPWs av dept ramp and hangar at VTA Citation Sovereign sits in the foreground as tug pulls the CJ3 Army where he served as a helicopter mechanic on the Bell UH 1H After leaving the Army DiGiannantoni went to work for Comair Airlines until it ceased operations Prior to joining MPW he flew air ambulance aircraft and Part 135 charters for Aitheras Aviation Group Future plans for the flight dept When asked about possible aircraft upgrades Dan George states that while both the CJ3 and Sovereign are ideal aircraft for the companys current mission profile the smaller Citation is coming up on 2000 total hours Right now were looking at our possible next aircraft acquisition While we havent made a final decision it would take a lot of work for anyone to move us out of the Cessna Citation line he says Weve had Citations for a long time and weve always received a high level of product support through their authorized service network Regarding maintenance George explains that he and Mitchelson manage the scheduling internally with the aid of the CESCOM CAMP system of maintenance tracking We often try to use a Citation Service Center that is near a destination that coincides with a multi day trip he adds This helps minimize off schedule time for the 2 aircraft In addition to refreshing their aircraft Black said that the company is embarking on moving and upgrading MPW Aviations home base as the company is going ahead with the building of a new hangar operations facility located at CMH Port Co Lisa Taylor is executive administrator at MPW She is responsible for coordinating all flight requests and handling aircraft scheduling lumbus Intl We own our current 12000 square foot hangar facility out at Licking County says Black I like owning our own facility for both security and convenience reasons We can control who handles fuels and services our aircraft Our pilots do all that so we know theyre well taken care of Black adds We are building 2 large hangars up at CMH One will be ours and we will lease the other one out We will have about 20000 square feet of hangar space and another 7000 feet for offices and maintenance space Its going to be a state of the art aviation center MPWs ongoing fleet upgrade plans along with their current move to bigger hangars are just examples of the value that CEO Monte Black and his family put on their company aircraft The efficiencies gained by private aviation have helped MPW maximize its time while developing and retaining a truly professional business image Our aviation department allows us to keep better balance in the family lives of our personnel which is critical to the continued growth of MPW concludes Black Dale Smith has been an editorial contributor to Pro Pilot since 1986 A Pvt Multi Inst Dale has flown 37 different types of aircraft and has been an aviation marketing and communications specialist for over 37 years