[Wednesday,                           March 24, 2003                                     

“Aviation Company Takes off in Chesterfield”

When Michael and Julie Gaffney were reviewing a contract to lease land for a flight-school, maintenance and rental business at Spirit of St. Louis Airport, they noticed a clause that warned of the airport's right to shut down in case of war or other catastrophic event.

At the time, Michael Gaffney, 43, said jokingly, "I'm not worried about that."

But two days later, terrorists used commercial jetliners to attack New York and Washington.

"I didn't know what to think," Julie Gaffney said. "The world changed."

Small aviation businesses like the one the Gaffney's had proposed were left in limbo for weeks, when federal regulators restricted small-aircraft flying.

At the time, the couple were short on the down payment, and they hadn't secured financing to buy Skyline Aeronautics LLC, known then as Skyline Aviation. Michael, who was a consulting director for Oracle Corp., and Julie, a general accounting manager with Coca-Cola Co., decided to control their destiny by moving ahead with their dream, anyway.

Michael Gaffney, a licensed airplane mechanic and instructor, was betting that hard times for businesses catering to small-aircraft owners were nearing an end. He believed that tighter security at commercial airports and growth in small-aircraft ownership would provide the customers Skyline needed to grow.

"In the long run, we believed we'd be far better off to build a multimillion-dollar business and sell it for retirement," he said.

Now, after less than a year in business, Skyline Aeronautics has scheduled maintenance two months out and has more than 80 students on its roster for flight instruction as well as a fleet of 16 airplanes, each of which averages 80 hours of flight time a month.

Though the company's operating costs have risen, revenue in the first eight months exceeded projections for the first 12 months. Michael Gaffney estimated that sales will grow to about $2 million in its second year in business.

The couple acknowledge getting breaks during their short stint as business owners. One was Thunder Aviation's decision to discontinue flight training, referring its students to Skyline. The companies are across the road from each other at the airport in Chesterfield.

Besides gaining new customers for flight training, Skyline gained access to five airplanes it leases from some customers.

Thunder Aviation's president, Jerry Leath, said he felt comfortable referring clients to Skyline because of Michael Gaffney's two decades of flight-training experience.

The couple said a commitment to invest in the business is aiding their success, too. When they bought the business, it offered flight training, aircraft maintenance and some airplane rental. But the flight school wasn't certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Under their ownership, Skyline earned FAA certification within six months. The new owners added flight-instrument instruction, became a Cessna pilot center and added aircraft sales to their list of services.

Also, the Gaffneys pumped $200,000 into improving the building and instituted Web-based scheduling for customers. Customers can rent planes and schedule training online. Also, they can use the Web to get detailed inspection reports on the airplanes they fly and to check weather conditions.

Michael Gaffney said the service upgrades enabled Skyline to attract aspiring pilots as well as those licensed pilots who want to use their airplanes more often, even in bad weather.

"Safety is everything," Michael Gaffney said. "If you give people good, quality planes with good technology, they will take them out in weather that would otherwise keep pilots on the ground."

Reporter Cynthia Wilson

E-mail: ccwilson@post-dispatch.com

Phone: 314-340-8159