Avionics News September 2015 - 64

"We understand our customers
and want them to be successful
and profitable."

AVIATION ACES

TRAVIS LAMANCE

Continued from page 63

re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003. Today,
the airport is Rick Husband
Amarillo International Airport.
Lamance's focus on King Airs
has been successful. "We have
24 employees and have grown
a lot in the last five years," he
said. Lamance recently started a
program to purchase King Airs,
perform a complete upgrade and
resell them. "We're still doing all
our installs and repairs, up to midsized corporate airplanes, but King
Airs are the focus," he said.
As for his corporate philosophy,
Lamance said, "We don't try
to compete with big companies

LASER WIRE MARKING

303.280.3322
www.airharness.com
64

avionics news

*

september

2015

on dollar-for-dollar spending;
instead, we carve our place in
the market with a dedication to
honesty and integrity. We never
give low-ball bids. We are trying
to run a completely honest and
straightforward company."
When it comes to customer
service, Lamance explained,
"We want to make it as painless
as possible for our customers
to maintain their aircraft." That
includes providing value-added
services such as a free front-toback detailing of aircraft (not just
a wipe down), which he estimates
as a $3,000 package on a bigger
airplane. For regular customers,
Lamance puts their airplanes on
a tracking system and keeps the
maintenance logbooks for them as
an added value.
He hasn't stopped there. As
part of giving back to the aviation
community, Lamance is launching a
program by which EFA will match
every hour of King Air charity flying
for one hour of maintenance. "We
don't have the whole plan ironed out,
but we are dedicated to giving back,"
he said. Lamance is thinking of
capping the deal at 25 hours per year,
per King Air, and hopes the program
will encourage his pilot-customers to

take part in more charitable activities
with their aircraft.
Lamance said this charity program
mirrors his attitude to keep things
simple. "Our customers already
have so much to deal with in terms
of regulations - from the FAA to
OSHA to the EPA," he said. "We do
everything we can to simplify the
regulations for them. We don't want
our customers to feel embroiled in
red tape when they come to us."
That attitude extends to what he
calls "games and crazy bidding."
He wants to keep his business
"easy and honest" and build its
name and reputation.
His employees are a tightly knit
group. Lamance said, "Before
I hire anybody, I do a rigorous
evaluation to make sure they fit our
culture and mindset." He uses an
outside company to do personality
testing. "I have established
parameters for certain positions,"
he said. "That includes hiring
people who are able to speak up
when something is not right."
His own attitude about hiring has
changed. He used to try to hire the
most technically skilled people, a
strategy that didn't always work.
Now, he hires people with the right
attitude and trains them. "They are
more passionate about their jobs,"
he said, "and that gets passed along
to the customer."
The marketing tagline for EFA
is "We get it." Lamance added,
"We understand our customers
and want them to be successful
and profitable. We don't want to
be a stumbling block, but rather a
stepping stone." q

To learn more about English Field
Aviation, visit efa.aero.
http://www.airharness.com http://www.efa.aero
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News September 2015
