The first Interior Refurbishment shop that I started for a major OEM repair station, located in Massachusetts, was started because as a fledgling repair station we had a great difficulty in landing maintenance and inspection packages. The cause of these early obstacles was not due to the employee's abilities or experience level.....nor was it caused by the facility's appearance or location. But the obstacles main cause was the fact that we did not have the ability to meet the customers needs as it concerned interior repair, maintenance or refurbishment.
Well as stated above, the high end architectural wood working background seemed to be the answer, so a phone call to the traveling facility manager and a statement that we could have interior capabilities started the ball rolling.
That week I worked on fabricating a typical cabinetry cross section sample of honeycomb, wood veneer, great looking stain and a high gloss, high build polyurethane finish.....and the sample was left on the facility managers desk.
The following Monday our new facility had a new Interior Refurb Shop.......well sort of! It actually had to evolve over a few months but it did grow very quickly after that.
The lesson learned here though is that the interior is a huge part of corporate and VIP aircraft. And if we think about it, the passengers and or the principle owner usually pull up in a limo......see the outside of the left side of the airplane......and then they go inside the airplane.
And then they spend hours upon hours of flight time, during flight after flight, looking around the cabin, turning knobs, pushing buttons and basically inspecting everything in the cabin.
So the interior is incredibly important to maintain properly in order to have a happy owner and happy passengers.
Going back and reviewing the opening statement about a new repair station.....we can see how incredibly important it is that we can get our interior properly maintained, repaired or refurbished.....during our maintenance events.
And to be quite blunt.....not all facility's are created equally when considering wood work and cabinetry repair, refurbishment or fabrication. To a novice or more accurately, a professional mechanic or pilot who is not a professional cabinet maker.......it may appear that a facility is adequately equipped to handle these needs. But to a professional cabinet maker, it may be a whole different opinion.
Well we hope to equip you, over time through our blog site, with new insight, tips and information about cabinet construction, wood veneer, and the all important finishing options.
And probably even more important is how to do extend the life of your wood work with proper care and products......and how to do quick fixes and repairs to either hold you over until you can get to a qualified repair facility......or just to become a hangar hero.
We all know how that mysterious damage pops up during a flight......but how important it is that the damage goes away before the next flight.
Anyway.....there is so much that we want to share with you and we will be posting all these tips and information about cabinetry, repairs, fabrication and how to extend your woodwork finish.....on our Blog page.
So keep coming back often to learn more from our Blog and how to get the most out of your aircraft cabinets and woodwork.
