June 17, 2020
The addition of a new 23,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar and paint facility has proven to be a timely and beneficial expansion for Yingling Aviation, an independent FBO and MRO provider at Wichita Eisenhower National Airport. Part of a Yingling expansion and remodeling project, the new hangar and paint facility that’s housed within the 50,000-sq-ft former Hawker Beechcraft Services complex has helped to drive more maintenance work for the 74-year-old company, especially larger projects on Cessna Citations.
“Having those facilities really just changed the dynamic of our company,” Yingling president Andrew Nichols told AIN, adding that with the expansion the company has more than 200,000 sq ft of facilities.
“Our momentum has been excellent,” added Jerry Pickett, Yingling VP of Business Development. “Word is out that we are a new contender for all Citation work up through the Sovereign+.” To underscore that point, the company recently accepted what Pickett explained are its two largest Citation projects to date, requiring Yingling to separate the fuselages of a CJ3 and an Excel from their wings. The Excel, which came to Yingling for a lower fuselage corrosion repair, will also receive a new Garmin G5000 avionics installation and integration of a Garmin traffic system (GTS) along with an attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) and magnetometer.
Pickett and Nichols said the new hangar, which internally is referred to as Bay 9, is helping to boost the company’s Citation work because of the extra capacity. “This is providing us with the ability to do more of these major repairs,” Pickett explained. As a result, Yingling has added 15 more A&Ps and avionics technicians. On a recent tour of Yingling’s expanded facilities, Nichols said of Bay 9: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this hangar empty. It’s much-needed space and I’m not sure how we lived without it before.”
Read the full article by Jerry Siebenmark at AIN Online.