Jet Repair Anywhere: Offering Information When You Need it Most

Posted by Aviation Today
By Jim Clark
Saturday, November 1, 2008

This company’s founder, Cheryl Janke, saw and opportunity and seized it. Her goal was to make information instantly available to business jet owner/operators about shops that could service their aircraft.

As the director of maintenance for fleets of business jets that flew all over the world, Cheryl Janke had a recurring problem — how do you find qualified repair facilities, given an AOG situation, in obscure places on the weekend or at night. There was no database, no yellow pages, or even a list of repair stations. In the information age, why was it so hard to get this vital information? In the fast-pace lives of people who travel by business jet, delays could have big consequences.

She would start by calling a local FBO. Typically, after hours, a green, low-paid employee would answer. He might say, "I think there’s a guy down the street named Bill who can do the repair that you need but I don’t have his phone number."

Or when one of her planes had a hydraulic leak and could use any of four airports for service, where could she get the best, lowest-cost service? That kind of information just wasn’t available without a lot of research.

While Janke was repeatedly frustrated, she isn’t a complainer. Where other people cursed the darkness, she saw opportunity and lit a lamp. In 2006, she started her own company, Jet Repair Anywhere, or JRA, in Scottsdale, Arizona, to fill the void. Her goal was to make information instantly available to business jet owner/operators about shops that could service their aircraft.

JRA has created a web-based database listing thousands of pre-qualified maintenance facilities. As Janke says, "we don’t own the jets and we won’t do the repairs. What we do — and do very well — is bring [business] jet operators together with maintenance shops."

With JRA’s database, no matter where or when maintenance problems crop up, the answers to your service questions are as close as your computer. Pilots can immediately search the database from anywhere in the world that has access to the internet — including a flight deck, home office or coffee shop. JRA’s search engine provides aircraft operators with a directory of maintenance facilities that are ready to serve, complete with all needed compliance data.

According to Janke, "by harnessing the power of our comprehensive web-based directory service, which can be searched by more than seven different parameters, your maintenance supervisor can have a qualified service provider lined up before you land."

Janke, who received her A&P license in 1992, has managed maintenance for several Part 135 charter operators. In addition to owning and operating JRA, she is currently director of maintenance for PrimeJet, a Part 135 company that operates three Gulfstream IVs, and is part owner of an aircraft paint design company.

JRA’s growing database contains reliable, up-to-date information for more than 6,000 service providers. JRA has more than 500 subscribers, that operate more than 3,000 aircraft, who pay between $900 and $1,500 per year (depending on the size of the fleet) to use the database.

Additionally, JRA recently launched an ambitious new service, JRA Quoting that allows business jet owners to solicit competitive bids for services from several repair facilities by simply completing an online form. For now, as a promotion, JRA is making this service available to any owner operator for free, regardless of whether they are subscribers.

Eventually, Janke plans to allow an informal peer review section on the website, allowing colleagues to provide feedback on one another, on issues such as competence, price, timeliness of service and payment.

JRA currently sells two basic products: listings for vendors — service providers wanting to advertise their capabilities through the database, called the Wrench One and Wrench Two programs; and subscriptions to the list of service providers for their customers, business jet owner/operators, called the Toolkit and Toolbox programs, which include the ability to solicit automatic quotes for planned maintenance, called JRA Quoting.

Wrench One, Wrench Two
Through the Wrench One and Wrench Two programs, JRA sells companies that provide services to business jets the right to be listed on the database. The Wrench One program, which costs $900 a year, lists companies that provide specialty services, such as nondestructive testing, aircraft cleaning services, and interior work. The Wrench Two program, which charges $1,500 per year, lists full service maintenance facilities.

According to Janke, "a facility can easily make back its $900 or $1,500 if its listing attracts one customer."

The site describes each company’s capabilities, as well as including contact information, operation specifications and drug testing documents, which are scanned in from first-generation copies, and a link to the company’s website. The Wrench Two listings specify what engines and aircraft the facility works on. Additionally, company promotional materials such as flyers and brochures are scanned in for each company listing, providing a marketing tool for JRA members.

JRA annually verifies the compliance documents that are submitted by Wrench One and Wrench Two facilities, ensuring that all posted paperwork is the most current available. By joining JRA’s Wrench One program, repair station information is available to more than 500 business jet owner/operators who operate more than 3,000 business jets, and that list is growing. Potential customers can find companies listed on the JRA website multiple ways, including airport identifier, city, state, ratings/limitations, or specialty service — just to name a few.

Full-service Wrench Two companies can also be searched by aircraft make, model and engine make, model.

With the convenience of having FAA compliance documents at their fingertips, owners and operators no longer waste valuable time gathering this information. With the advent of JRA, it is all available with the click of a button.

Access to the website allows Wrench One and Wrench Two members with overflow business to find someone to recommend to its customers. At the same time, JRA provides these customers with a means to track their own outsourced maintenance through their online JRA binder.

Wrench One and Wrench Two members can also take advantage of other advertising opportunities through JRA, which distributes a quarterly newsletter, as well as brochures and postcard teasers to more than 22,000 companies, as well as promoting clients’ operations at trade shows.

Additionally, JRA sponsors a chat-room that gives service shops a forum to help each other out with mechanical issues.

Toolkit and Toolbox
Owner operators can gain access to JRA’s database by joining either the Toolkit or the Toolbox program, which give them access to information about more than 6,000 facilities, including 500 international maintenance facilities. Companies that operate four or more aircraft pay $1,500 per year to join the Toolbox program, while companies with three or fewer aircraft are eligible for the Toolkit program, which costs $900 per year.

In addition to helping owner/operators find qualified maintenance facilities faster and easier, JRA membership makes it easier for an owner/operator to comply with the FAA’s drug testing program by including up-to-date compliance documents as part of each company’s listing.

This eliminates the need to comb through multiple web locations for compliance documents or to fax and refax compliance documents. A customer can also use its JRA binder to store compliance data on outsourced vendors.

Chris Cullen, a business jet broker who used to be the director of maintenance services for the Swift Aviation Group out of Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, recommends that his customers subscribe JRA’s database to find the right repair shop.

In the Phoenix area, he notes, there are six airports, each of which has service shops that serve niche markets. Using JRA, he says, clients can find which shop has the most experience with a particular aircraft or engine — the shop that can do the job quicker and cheaper.

Obtaining Service Estimates
Need to find the lowest cost from a qualified, reliable repair shop in your region? In March 2008, the company launched its new JRA Quoting service, a quick, easy way to get quotes from several service providers. On a trial basis, JRA is providing the JRA Quoting service for free to any owner/operator, regardless of whether it is a JRA customer.

Here’s how it works. Suppose you have a 72-month inspection due for your G-IV and you need to have the work done outside of your regular base of operation?

Or maybe you just want to see whether you’re currently getting the best price.

From the JRA home page, all you have to do is click on "Free Quote," fill out the online RFQ form, and attach your due list or type in the inspection or service you are requesting. Your RFQ will automatically be sent to the facilities that work on your particular airframe or engine type, wherever you want the work done.

There’s no worry about getting sales calls from vendors. JRA distributes your RFQ without identifying your company and gathers up the quotes before giving them to you so that shops can’t contact you directly until you want them to.

So far, Janke estimates that JRA has completed about 100 RFQs for aircraft owner/operators.

Norman Hill, of Western Jet Aviation, a large Gulfstream MRO in Van Nuys, Calif., reports that his customers use JRA to find service on the road all the time. In response to RFQs generated through JRA, Western has submitted two bids and won one, a 72-month inspection that is scheduled for January, which will more than pay for his membership in the Wrench Two program.

In September JRA also announced a strategic alliance to supplement their services. JRA and Blue Star Jets formed an alliance to provide JRA customers supplemental travel solutions. The company says it has created a new flight department "powered by Blue Star Jets." This means that JRA subscribers can utilize the network of more than 4000 jets operated by Blue Star.

How’d a Nice Girl Like You...
Cheryl Janke grew up on dairy and cash crop farm near Winona, Minn., on the Mississippi River, the fourth youngest child of five. From the beginning, she was bold and active. She loved to work outside with her father, feeding and milking the cows, working the land, and repairing the machinery.

Janke’s interest in aviation was sparked by stories she heard from her cousin, who graduated from the Air Force Academy. After graduating from high school, Janke moved to Phoenix, where she got her A&P license from Rice Aviation in 1992.

Janke found that aviation maintenance was a business dominated by men. Of a class of 25 at Rice, Janke was the only woman. But that didn’t trouble her. While some men were initially skeptical of her competence with a wrench, Janke has found that most of them work well with her once she has proven herself.

Since then, Janke has never looked back. She has traveled the world, taking care of the maintenance of business jets for several different companies. Ultimately, a sister and brother followed Janke into the business jet business. Brian Dondlinger is a flight technician for Disney and Ilene Dondlinger is the lead flight attendant for PrimeJet.

From 1993 to 1997, Janke worked as an A&P mechanic for ARCO oil and Gas Company’s flight department, servicing a fleet of Gulfstream and Hawker jets. After ARCO made her a flight service officer, Janke travelled to remote corners of the world to help the company find oil and gas. In 1997, Janke joined the Universal Studios flight department as a flight engineer. Both at ARCO and Universal Studios, Janke was responsible for maintaining the aircraft while they were on the road, including places like Baku, Azerbaijan, where she spent a night troubleshooting and repairing an APU.

In 1999, Janke became the director of maintenance for Pacific Capital Group, where she oversaw the completion of a Boeing business jet in Santa Barbara. After the jet was completed, Pacific Capital Group sold it to a company that asked Janke to accompany the plane to its new home in Russia. Janke spent three months crisscrossing Siberia in the Boeing Business Jet to support mining operations there.

In 2001, Janke returned to California to oversee completion of two Global Express business jets in Santa Barbara and subsequently in Montreal. After the planes were complete, Janke became director of maintenance for PrimeJet, a Part 135 charter company, operating three Gulfstream IVs.

In 2003, Janke also became CFO and part owner of Mike Boal Designs, an aircraft paint design company, and founded JRA.

But Janke’s pride and joy is Jet Repair Anywhere, of which she is well on her way to building the largest web-based network of aircraft professionals in the world. And she won’t stop until she meets that goal.

For more information about Jet Repair Anywhere, go to the company’s website at www.jetrepairanywhere.com or call 480-596-2933, or 877-379-2358. JRA is located at 14555 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 230 Scottsdale, AZ 85254.