A Minnesota Perspective

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time in the Twin Cities area and make visits to a few operations. One stop was at Signature Flight Support at St. Paul Downtown Airport. I toured the facility and spoke with team members to learn more about day-to-day operations.

I had the pleasure of meeting some of the line operations technicians, including Bob Schaeppi, a line operations supervisor at Signature. He has been with the company for about 30 years. “I was going to take flying lessons, and then I heard about this job,” he says, adding that he stayed with it ever since.

At Signature Flight Support, Schaeppi assists in turning an average of 25 to 30 flights per day, which requires a keen eye on scheduling. “Every day is a challenge,” he says. “You have to stay a couple steps ahead.”

Bob Schaeppi was recently voted as the “Best FBO Line Tech” in the United States by readers of Professional Pilot magazine. The votes were compiled by the magazine as part of its annual Preferences Regarding Aviation Services and Equipment (PRASE) survey.

When asked about the recognition, Schaeppi credited his colleagues at Signature, saying, “I just couldn’t do it without the team.” He adds, “It made my career to get that. I’ve strived for that from day one.”

Signature Flight Support at St. Paul Downtown Airport also received accolades for “Best FBO CSR,” which went to Sandy Tachovsky, and the operation was ranked No. 1 in the “Top 10 USA FBOs” category in the survey.

Congratulations to the crew at Signature Flight Support.