 | Profiles and Audio Interviews: No Plane No Gain
 | ThedaStar
Not all business aircraft are flown to increase a company’s business. Some operators, in fact, would prefer not to bring in more customers. “We transport critically ill patients,” said Pam Hillen, a flight nurse for ThedaStar, the helicopter medical service of ThedaCare, Inc. in the Fox Valley of Wisconsin. “We all work very hard to discourage new business. But tragedy touches everyone’s life, and when it does, we’re ready.” Also included in this profile is an audio interview with ThedaStar staff |
| Special Services Corporation
When entrepreneurs in Greenville, SC, gathered at an expo to showcase the value of small and mid-sized companies to the area’s economy, one businessman looked to the event as an opportunity to highlight how a strategic asset – business aviation – helps many of those companies succeed.
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 | Air Ambulance Worldwide
Business aircraft are used in a variety of ways, some of which might not occur to most people. Consider Air Ambulance Worldwide, based in Palm Harbor, FL. Its president, Mark Jones, says: “Most people never see us, so they don’t know we exist. We don’t save business deals at 41,000 feet; we save lives at 41,000 feet.”
Also included in this profile is an audio interview with Mark Jones and Dana Payne of Air Ambulance Worldwide
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 | Water Valley Land Company
Northern Colorado has a thriving economy and a booming real estate market. However, people are drawn to the region not just by the possibility for economic expansion, but to experience the breathtaking natural scenery and abundant recreational resources.
With a vision for smart growth designed to integrate mixed-use communities into the fabric of the region, Water Valley Land Company has more than 4,500 acres of master-planned commercial and residential communities that offer dramatic mountain views within the bustling corridor that encompasses Windsor, Loveland and Greeley.
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 | Edit-On-Hudson
“Life in video is always a rush,” says Steve Kahn. “Media outlets are multiplying like rabbits and the Web is insatiable. Without my business airplane, I’d miss some of the juiciest jobs.”
Kahn owns Edit On Hudson, in Charlotte, North Carolina. His office is just 15 minutes southeast of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, convenient for airline flights. But when out-of-town assignments demand speed, he’ll often drive 40 minutes in the opposite direction to reach his own airplane, a 1981 Mooney 231. It’s well-equipped for flight in most weather conditions. Also included with this profile: audio interviews with Edit-On-Hudson's Steve Kahn
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 | Daryl M Williams, Atty
Daryl M. Williams is not your average attorney. As he joins his videographer, court reporter, client and witness on a typical business flight, you soon see why. On these flights, business class means flying a Cessna 421C and the pilot is Williams himself.
Also included with this profile: an audio interview with Atty. Daryl M. Williams
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 | LaBov and Beyond
Business aviation enables LaBov and Beyond (www.labov.com) , a small marketing and communications firm in Fort Wayne, IN, to compete for clients with large firms in New York, Chicago, and all around the country.
“Our business aircraft gives us a chance to be a local company to clients, even though we’re 400 miles away,” says CEO Barry LaBov.“We don’t have a private plane, we have a business jet.”
Also included with this profile: an audio interview with Labov and Beyond's Barry Labov
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 | Alan Josephsen Company
In 1978, Alan Josephsen started
a recycling business for waste paper and cardboard. Today, in his Mundelein, Illinois plant, every
ton of waste paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, two barrels
of oil, 4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity and about one-third of precious
landfill space. “Those are the official figures for recycling just one single ton of waste paper,” says the
businessman. “Every year, we recycle about 40,000 tons – you do the math.”
Also included with this profile: an audio interview with Alan Josephsen
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 | Neil Hise, CEO, CEMCO
“I do it,” says Neil Hise, “Lots of other companies do, too.”
Hise is talking about companies that donate flights in their business
aircraft so sick children and adults can reach specialized medical
help. Flights are always without cost to the passenger.
Hise is CEO and President of family-owned CEMCO, Inc., a Belen,
NM-based manufacturer of vertical shaft impact crushers and other
specialty equipment that relies on a King Air C90 for business. He also
uses the plane to help people in need.
Also included with this profile: an audio interview with CEMCO's Neil Hise
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 | Autism Escapes
Parents of children with severe autism describe business jet travel as a ‘near-miracle’ for allowing their children to get the medical help they need. “There are so few places in the country with the sub-specialized care these children need,” says Dr. Paul Abend, a New Jersey physician with an autistic child of his own. “So how do you get the child to such a clinic? You might survive 45 minutes in a car, but the clinic nearest us would be a six-hour drive.” Also
included with this profile: an audio interview with Autism Escape’s Dr.
Abend
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 | Waste Reduction Technologies
Waste Reduction Technologies (WRT) of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, makes high-tech incinerators that ease the overload on municipal landfills. Since most WRT customers are small cities or towns without airline service, the company needs its Mitsubishi MU-2 Marquise turboprop airplane.
Also included in this profile: an audio interview with WRT owner Riley Hagan |
 | 'Flying Adventures' Magazine
“I could not accomplish a quarter of what I do if it weren’t for my business airplane,” says Dr. Michael Higgins, CEO and publisher of Flying Adventures, a travel magazine. Earlier this year, his company’s airplane helped him fulfill an unexpected meeting request, received while he was in a conference with another client. It required only a 20-minute hop from one non-commercial airport to another, over a few mountain ridges. “It would have taken three hours by car,” Dr. Higgins said.
Also included in this profile: an audio interview with Flying Adventures magazine CEO and publisher Dr. Michael Higgins
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 | Modular Devices
Every year, a million or more men and women in the U.S. undergo “cardiac catheterization,” always in a high-tech hospital “cath lab.” Big-city hospitals usually have several cath labs, but hospitals in smaller communities typically have only one. Modular Devices of Indianapolis, IN, builds mobile cath labs, renting them to single-lab hospitals in smaller communities. The company relies on a Mitsubishi MU-2 turboprop to serve the hospitals, which are located in towns that are often without airline service.
Also included with this profile: an audio interview with Modular Devices’ Greg Mink
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 | Aircell
Aircell employs nearly 400 people in the production of airborne high-speed Internet and clear mobile voice communications equipment that can be found in more than 5,000 business airplanes in the U.S.
"Companies invest in business aviation to achieve greater productivity, and Aircell is the catalyst that helps make that productivity possible," says Aircell marketing director Tom Myers. "With our communications solutions, companies have the world in their hand and can continue working without compromise any time they travel."
Also included with this profile: an audio interview featuring aviation industry experts about how thousands of companies like Aircell contribute to the nation's employment and economic base.
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 | Desert Jet
A few years ago, Denise Wilson had a day job; to relieve stress, she took flying lessons.
“Flying was a hobby then,” she says. “But before I knew it I had my private pilot certificate, instrument rating and commercial pilot certificate.” A multiengine rating and an instructor certificate followed, but the practical Denise still clung to her day job.
Also included in this profile: an audio interview with Denise Wilson |
 | Sky Services
Since getting a twin-engine Beech Baron in 2008, this company has been able to add 80 employees and over a million and a half dollars in wages, "because it's much easier to enter new markets," says the company's 43-year-old founder Keith Leedom. The Burbank, California-based company recently expanded to Phoenix, Arizona; San Diego, San Francisco and Palm Springs, California; and Las Vegas, Nevada. City leaders in the towns are delighted to see that their airports have brought new business through Sky Security's expansion.
Also included in this profile: an audio interview with Sky Security Services founder Keith Leedom |
 | Restaurant Equipment World
Using a single-engine, turbocharged Cirrus Design SR-22, Restaurant Equipment World CEO Brad Pierce travels much of the country. “If somebody’s going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with us, they want to deal with somebody they know, somebody they trust,” he says. Although the restaurant supply industry has been down 41% last year alone, Pierce’s Orlando, Florida-based small business is showing double-digit growth.
Also included in this profile: an audio interview with Restaurant Equipment World CEO Brad Pierce
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 | Brown Church Development Group
Based in Kearney, NE, Brown Church Development Group uses business aircraft to maintain close relationships with their clientele. Ministry development coordinator Bernie Reed: “I just can’t tell you how important it is for us to get face to face with all the people at a church, sometimes on short notice.”
Also included in this profile: an audio interview with Brown's ministry development coordinator, Bernie Reed |
 | Union Pacific
To help support its business on the nation’s train rails, this company looks to the skies. Union Pacific crews often charter business aircraft when a time-sensitive situation arises.
Also included in this profile is an audio interview with Union Pacific's Zoe Richmond |
 | Luck Stone
Luck Stone is a family-owned company, quarrying and refining quality stone for customers nationwide. Based just northwest of Richmond, Virginia, the business has relied on a company airplane since 1971, and currently uses a Beech King Air 350. "It's so hard to take a whole stone quarry to a client," says company VP Jay Coffman, tongue-in-cheek. "So we're using our company airplane to bring customers here, to see the product for themselves, meet us and understand the Luck Stone culture."
Also included with this profile: an audio interview with Luck Stone's Jay Coffman and Chief Pilot Scott Moore. |
 | Manitoba Corporation
Some specialized tools help Manitoba, a family-owned metals recycling company in Lancaster, NY, stay competitive.
On a recent tour of the company's facilities, president
Richard Shine proudly displayed several implements – a unique crane, a
second machine that houses a "chopping line" and a metal scanner – all
of which help Manitoba process more scrap types into more end products
with a greater level of purity than many other recyclers can. Also included with this profile: an audio interview with Manitoba Corp.'s Richard Shine
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 | Corporate Charters LLC
Cleveland-based Corporate Charters, LLC, demonstrates how business aviation helps companies be efficient and nimble, enabling them to compete in an unforgiving business marketplace. Business travelers who absolutely, positively must be somewhere as quickly as possible make up about 85% of the company’s customers. “We are living proof of our industry’s slogan: ‘No Plane, No Gain,’” says Mike Marcellino, the company’s sales VP.
Also included in this profile: audio interview with Corporate Charters VP Mike Marcellino |
 | Advantage Techonologies
For Bryan Currier – the 28-year-old president of Advantage Technologies, Inc., a Troy, Michigan-based medical information technology (IT) consulting firm – mobility means everything.
That’s because Currier must be able to visit, often on short notice, the host of small and medium-size health care practitioners who are scattered across the Upper Midwest and rely on his computer support services to keep their IT systems running smoothly. |
 | MI Windows and Doors
MI (formerly Metal Industries) Windows and Doors, which started fabricating window screens in a Florida airplane hangar in 1947, has grown to become a supplier to some of the nation's largest homebuilders. The company has prospered, thanks in part to a business model that relies on a company airplane (a Cessna Citation III) to link its Pennsylvania plants and headquarters, where 750 people work, with a series of dispersed manufacturing operations located in rural communities where windows and doors can be produced with a quality workforce.
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 | Apogee Medical Group
Everyone wants to receive the best healthcare possible. But patients whose nearest medical facility is a regional hospital with 200 or fewer beds may not have access to the specialists they need. And the medical knowledge base has expanded so much in recent years that general practitioners cannot be expected to know everything necessary to completely care for a patient.
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