This past spring, Aircraft Propeller Service, LLC (APS, www.aircraftpropeller.com, Lake Zurich, IL),one of the world’s leading commercial propeller Maintenance Repair Organizations (MROs), launched a new state of the art component MRO training, technical support, and knowledge resource, Prop U. Recently, it completed an instruction program for a group of technicians from L-3 Communications (NYSE:LLL, New York, NY), a prime contractor in aerospace systems and a leading provider of a broad range of communication and electronic systems and products used on military and commercial platforms. Central to the Prop U curriculum presented to the L-3 technicians were courses on propeller assembly and disassembly, scrap prevention, and proper line maintenance techniques. Based on the technicians’ excellent feedback on the Prop U program, plans are underway for another session in the near future.
According to L-3 Communications’ Edward M. (Mike) Flaherty, the maintenance personnel who attended the Prop U training program noted that the Line Maintenance Course was superb, and they were thoroughly impressed with both the APS’ facility and its instructor, Chief Inspector Joe Mayer. Direct comments from the technicians echoed this review and cited such factors as hands-on trainingand new blade repair and protection techniques. The technicians also said they were now better able to identify and troubleshoot certain blade issues and extend blade lifespans. One technician noted that, “This course was the most useful course to date that I’ve had.”
APS Vice President of Sales and Marketing Dennis Santare commented that “We are very pleased by the feedback we have received regarding Prop U. We knew there was a need and went to great lengths to put together a program that would really benefit our customers and specifically, their technicians. APS’ team members are highly-skilled and knowledgeable with over 300 years of combined experience in propeller MRO. By sharing their experience and deep technical expertise with our customers, we are helping them extend the life of their components, contain costs, and increase overall productivity and profitability. That’s an ongoing mission for us at APS.”
While OEMs have historically provided training, most MROs have not, especially in a formal way such as Prop U. APS is a market leader in this area and is demonstrating a true “partnership” with its customers by helping them reduce costs that otherwise could have represented service revenues to APS.
When announcing Prop U, Santare stated, “We’re unique as an MRO in that we teach our customers to do a lot of the service work that we get paid for. We believe that customers are most satisfied when they are getting the most life out of their propellers. We also believe that well-maintained propellers will, in the long run, provide the most value to our own operations in two ways. First, we are a repair shop and do not like to see valuable components scrap out because of preventable damage. Second,rather than spending time and money fixing preventable damage, we like to focus on major inspections and the repair tasks that only we can perform as a licensed repair station. This reduces the overall dollar value of each overhaul, but improves our throughput and increases our repair volume. It’s a real win-win for us and our customers. In fact, two major Latin American operators are asking us for this kind of technical support in early 2017.”
While APS introduced its formal Prop U curriculum in the spring of 2016, the company has always provided customer technical support. In addition to what was shown to L-3, other topics included as focus areas within Prop U include: corrosion prevention, light repair, and shipping and handling procedures. For more information about Prop U, visit: www.aircraftpropeller.com and click on the “Technical Support” tab.
