Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

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Mark Huber

Western Aircraft (Booth C7015) has reached $1 billion in aircraft sales. The company began as an FAA repair station in 1957 and expanded into aircraft sales in 1996, becoming a Pilatus dealer for the Pacific Northwest and in 2011 adding Piper Aircraft to its sales portfolio. Today, Western is the world's largest Pilatus PC-12 dealer and the only one in the U.S. to complete a life extension program.

 


"The sale of the aircraft is just the beginning of the relationship," said Western vice president Phil Winters. "One key reason for our success is that through our service center, we are able to provide full life-cycle support." Western is also an authorized center for both Pilatus and Piper airplanes.

 


Meanwhile, Western also announced this week at NBAA 2017 that it is offering one-day 100-hour inspections for the PC-12, as opposed to the average time of three days. Western performs more than 250 PC-12 inspections annually.

 


Western said it achieved the time savings by putting the 100-hour inspection under its 5S process review to eliminate non-value activities and mechanic tasks. It also better coordinated the process with customers, requiring that the checks be booked four weeks in advance and that the customer point of contact be available during the inspection should squawks arise. Western director of aircraft service Jody Harris likened the revised process to a race car pit stop.

 


The company also services other aircraft. Also at NBAA 2017, it announced Transport Canada STC approval for installation of the new Gogo Avance L5 4G system in Dassault Falcon 2000s. Avance L5 incorporates dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi from a single box and supports live streaming video and audio, on-demand movies, smartphone use, real-time data for cockpit apps and remote diagnostics and support in flight.

 


Western also recently completed its first installation of a Garmin G5000 integrated flight deck on a Beechjet 400A. The retrofit provides a weight savings of 200 pounds compared with legacy avionics and features touchscreen controllers, three 12-inch displays, synthetic vision, electronic charts, XM weather, WAAS/LPV capability and ADS-B Out.

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