Avionics News June 2013 - 60

STARTUP STORIES

Continued from page 59

sure things were in place before I
jumped into the fire.”
Dale Aviation –
Rapid City, S.D.
Upon graduation from Minnesota’s
Alexandria Technical & Community
College, Tony Fremo began his career
in 1991, at a business aviation company in Sioux Falls, S.D. In 1994, he
moved to Spearfish, S.D., to start a
repair station for another company,
and then transferred it after the original company changed its name. At
the Rapid City Regional Airport, he
started his business in 2005, “TriStates Avionics, the only avionics shop
in western South Dakota.” In 2011,
he closed it for one simple reason: “I
was working 80 hours a week, and the
stress was really getting to me.”
Then, one of his customers, Dale
Aviation/Medical Air Rescue, offered
him a job as a mechanic. That discussion led to Fremo establishing an
avionics repair station exclusively for
the company’s fleet of King Air ambulances. As part of the deal, he started a
second repair station, Rapid Avionics,
to “do avionics part time” with Jerry
Dale, the company’s owner.
Fremo started work on the repair
station process in February 2013, and
expected to have the certificates by
April 2013. The two shops will share
the equipment from his previous shop.
“I have a very good relationship with
the FSDO inspectors, and we’ve already worked out the logistics with the
FAA, where I’ll be on two repair station certificates.”
Given his past experience with the
necessary documents, “I finally have it
down to where it is a real user-friendly
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2013

manual.” With Dale Aviation funding
the shops, there’s no need for loans or
formal business plans. Fremo is looking into some dealerships for Rapid
City Avionics, but “I’m not going to be
putting in 80 hours a week again.”
Avtronics –
Pagosa Springs, Colo.
In 1975, Tim Alfred opened his
first shop at California’s San Carlos
airport. In 2008, seeing retirement
on the horizon, and desiring a better
business environment, he decided to
move someplace “where I can live
that’s affordable and has the things I
want to do.” After looking at Oregon
(too wet) and Arizona (too brown),
he settled on Colorado, which he
described as “lush, green and affordable.” Offering a long, itemized
list of taxes and fees imposed on
California business, Alfred concluded
with graphic examples: 35 acres in
Colorado cost less than a buildable
lot in San Mateo County, and his annual real estate taxes are less than the
monthly bill in California.
Built around a geothermal source
of hot mineral water and a haven for
second-home owners, Pagosa Springs
is a town of 1,591 people on the
Continental Divides’ southwestern
slope 35 miles north of New Mexico.
Archuleta County Airport, elevation
7,664 feet, has an 8,100-foot runway
and 49 based aircraft, with three twins
and a helicopter.
Alfred found it through an advertisement for a fly-in community. After
visiting and looking at the location
of other shops (and the mountainous
terrain between them), the Alfreds
bought land and built a hangar. “I’m
also A&P-IA, so we knew we can do
some of that work, too. If I could get
my costs down, I could putter around

Despite aviation’s
changing landscape, a
number of individuals,
most of them avionics
veterans, have opened
new shops during the
past several years to
seize an opportunity …
and not have to worry about making
payroll every week.” In addition, his
wife ended up as the airport manager,
“so I have to follow the rules now,”
he said, laughing.
All things considered, however, “If I was to do it over again – I
wouldn’t.”
In moving, Alfred had to surrender his repair station certificate and
dealerships. Given the shop’s good
history, the San Jose FSDO said recertifying it with the Denver FSDO
would “be a slam dunk.” It wasn’t.
The reasons for the FAA’s inactivity
were many, said Alfred, until “we
got our congressman involved and he
made it happen, but it cost us nearly
two years.”
Re-establishing relationships with
the different OEMs has been hit or
miss. “We’re much smaller now,”
he explained. In California, he had
six full-time employees and, in good
years, did $1 million in business.
Avtronics is a 1.5 person shop, and
“last year wasn’t very profitable.”
Continued on page 62
Avionics News June 2013

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