STL Flight Maintenance: Raising the Standard of Customer Care in General Aviation

By Carmelo Turdo

STL Flight Maintenance provides comprehensive aircraft maintenance services to corporate, fleet and individual customers at their St. Louis Downtown Airport location. On any given day, their highly experienced A&P technicians and IAs can be seen working on a wide range of general aviation single and twin-engine aircraft in the newly renovated West Terminal hangar and performing engine run-ups and taxi tests on the adjoining apron. With the new year came a new name, and a new brand, along with a new level of customer care for the general aviation and fleet operator markets.

The Aero Experience recently met with STL Flight Maintenance Managing Partner, Josiah Bridges, for an update on the transition from the Big River Aviation legacy to the STL Flight family, which includes STL Flight Training also located in the West Terminal. Bridges brings his background, experience and expertise managing and maintaining private and corporate jets to general aviation. This systems approach, along with the experienced staff already working at STL Flight Maintenance, has made a great aircraft maintenance operation even better.

"The level of quality and customer service is unparalleled in the world when it comes to private jet maintenance," Bridges told The Aero Experience. "We are bringing that incredibly high level of customer service, quality and eye for detail to our general aviation maintenance services. We add value through our policies, programs and systems to grow STL Flight Maintenance at this airport."

STL Flight Maintenance A&Ps and I/As are equipped to perform the range of required annual and periodic fleet inspections along with engine repairs and replacements, exhaust system upgrades, electronic ignition installations, airframe repairs and related services for most general aviation aircraft including the highly capable Cessna 400 series twins. AOG services can be applied at off-site locations and for turbine aircraft when needed.

STL Flight maintenance is focusing on two processes that are key to providing this next-level customer care: annual inspections and maintenance approval/billing. Since annual inspections are required on most general aviation aircraft, this is an important first step on the path to gaining efficiencies for the customer and the technicians in the hangar.

As a new IA doing general aviation annual inspections, Bridges was concerned about the wide range in estimates quoted to aircraft owners. These quotes included the recommended maintenance items identified during the annual inspection, and aircraft owner/operators were often overwhelmed with the situation presented to them. He thought that there must be a way to streamline the process and perform these inspections in a more consistent way as specified in the FAA regulations. 

The annual itself is a very straightforward process, consisting of the inspection activity only, and it is separate from any maintenance work that may be recommended to the owner by the IA. The annual is now completed and billed separately, and after a meeting among the maintenance staff, the list of discrepancies is presented to the owner as airworthiness issues or recommended work. The owner then has the option to address the remaining airworthiness issues as he or she sees fit, retaining the responsibility to operate the aircraft according to FAA regulations. This practice helps to standardize the shop time and cost associated with the annual inspection process.

Once the decision is made to proceed with a maintenance or repair action, either resulting from an annual inspection or through normal operations, clear communication with the aircraft owner is critical to the success of customer satisfaction. Josiah Bridges and his staff are introducing a new approval and billing solution to make these decisions seamless.                                                                                                                  
"We are raising the standard of customer care in general aviation, and one way we are doing this is through Quantum MX software. We get digital approval for everything before we touch your airplane. This maintenance software allows us to track all of our planes, all of our customers, all of our work orders. From the customer side, it allows us to detail out every single thing we are going to do on the airplane, estimate it out and send it to the customer. You get a customer portal, you are able to log in and review every single line item, approve or decline each one and sign the estimate right there knowing what the total is going to be before we even get started. We want to avoid any kind of surprises."

The long-term prospects for STL Flight Maintenance are bright, and Bridges continues to look for ways to continue exceeding customer expectations as he works with airport management for growth opportunities. 

"We have a really good relationship with the airport management, and we're super excited to see a long and fruitful partnership with St. Louis Downtown Airport. The airport has shown nothing but support for us, and it's been absolutely amazing. We are continuing to invest and grow here."

Visit STL Flight Maintenance at the newly-remodeled West Terminal at St. Louis Downtown Airport or contact them online to schedule your aircraft maintenance consultation.