The all new Aircraft Interior Blog
Well welcome to the brand new Aircraft Interior blog. And I hope that you find this source to be very informative to you in the future.
I decided....finally.....to get back into the game as far as the aircraft interior is concerned. You see I have been in the corporate, private and VIP jet aviation business for 38 years. And for the last 10 or 11 years working as an interior consultant.
But back in May of 2011 I won the unlucky lottery and a trip to Hotel California. Okay it wasn't actually Hotel California but it sure felt like it. I ended up in the hospital for a month and a half and it just seemed at times that I wasn't going to check out. Well not alive anyway!
I had two surgeries and then just before they were getting ready to release me.....I went into septic shock and spent 8 days on life support and in a coma. Sweet huh?
And then......I spent about a year recuperating and learning how to walk again. Actually I knew how to walk....just didn't have the strength and I was plagued with sense of balance issues.....so I walked crooked and wobbled a lot.....LOL!
But thankfully.....I am back to normal now!
Anyway......that blew me out of my aircraft interior consultancy business.....and did a great job of it too.
A waste of Aircraft Interior knowledge
Well a friend of mine that owns a repair station kind of got upset when I told him that I think I am done with aviation. He got upset and said that it would be a crime. With all of the experience that I have in corporate aviation.....and especially the aircraft interior side of the business.....well it would be a crime if I couldn't pass that information on to the next generation.
And I agree with him and in fact I thought about that very thought when I was trapped in that hospital bed. I never was able to finish what I started in the business.....and never finished bringing my supervisors or leads up to the proper level of expertise.....before I left.
And it showed also. I had started an interior shop for K.C. Aviation in Westfield, MA....which is now Gulfstream. I started it from scratch and grew it. We had some interruptions because the facility kept changing facility managers. And of course each one had different views on the aircraft interior shop.
But when I left I was finally in a one hat position.....instead of having a bunch of hats on....LOL. I was in marketing as a Sr. Marketing Representative. I loved that job! Ha, ha, ha......just talking about aircraft interior related work.....oh and of course paint and maintenance too......but being able to teach my customers the in's and out's of the aircraft interior.
And of course the more they learned.....the more they became loyal to our shop.....because we were very much into quality and integrity!
Well I had taken the annual sales from around 1.5 million dollars per year up to a projected 14 million dollars per year. And I know that I could have done it too.....and beyond.....but you know how finicky the aircraft interior business can be.
So I ended up down the street at Bombardier....and started an aircraft interior shop for them.
But like I said....I never got to finish bringing the key personnel in the first shop up to an expert level. I wasn't able to transfer enough knowledge over to the one's that would take over. And today the shop is basically non existent.
And the same with the 2nd shop as well. When I left it faltered and slowed down. And eventually they turned it over to an outside vendor.
The birth of the Aircraft Interior blog
So it certainly upsets me that I built two shops and I wasn't able to finish. And I loved the consulting business....especially being involved in the VIP market. But what are you going to do?
Since I had won the unlucky lottery, I have not been able to get back into the aircraft interior business. Perhaps it's my age now.....perhaps it is just the perception of what sort of job I would accept. Maybe perspective employers just do not want someone that has been self employed.
In any case, I have not been able to get back into the aircraft interior business.....so I have been stepping away. In fact I am basically a blogger right now.
But recently thinking about what my friend told me.....that it would be a crime for me to leave the business....and the fact that I have quite a few....non aviation blogs.....I figured that it might be time to pay it forward.
Maybe it's time to pass on some of the "stuff" I learned.....and pass it on to those who visit this humble blog.
So here it is!
It is brand new.....so of course there is not a lot of information here yet, but please come back on occasion to see what we are up to. And click on the RSS buttons up above on the right side and subscribe to us....and keep up to date with all of our content additions.
And I truly hope that this new Aircraft Interior blog will be informative to you.....and that you glean from it some money saving idea's!
Thanks for stopping in.....and come back soon....to the all new Aircraft Interior blog!
