In his nearly four decades in the aviation business, Lane Clapsaddle has worked on hundreds of airplanes.
Today as the StandardAero’s sales manager contact for aircraft brokers and dealers he’s simultaneously balancing the pre-purchase evaluation needs of five individual airplane sales transactions, involving brokers for the buyers, brokers for the sellers, bank and financing representatives and maintenance consultants for the various parties. And he’s working on lining up other deals.
“In the last couple of years we’ve been seeing a lot of activity in the heavier aircraft – Falcon 900s, Falcon 2000s, Challengers and Globals – and we have been seeing more discretionary spending when it comes to upgrades, WiFi and avionics,” Clapsaddle says. “Of course another trend that we’re seeing is more avionics upgrades dealing with the future mandates like the Falcon EASy II and the Batch 3 upgrade for the Global Express.”
Clapsaddle notes that in the past year or so StandardAero’s pre-buy evaluation activity has picked up tremendously and is very steadily increasing. This is good news following the financial disintegration of aviation markets in 2008. StandardAero’s pre-buy volume has averaged about 60 pre-purchase evaluations a year over the past few years.
StandardAero has specialized crews for the various airplane models such as Learjets, Challengers, Falcons, etc., by product line. These days the large-body aircraft crews are busier than ever.
Communications is Paramount
“The most challenging aspect is the fact that in a pre-buy you have multiple parties involved. You’ll have the buyer’s broker, the seller’s broker, you may have a maintenance consultant on each side, and you may have the end users involved.
StandardAero begins by laying out how the pre-buy will take place and how the communication flows from the project manager to the end users, brokers and whoever else needs to be in the communications loop. “That’s the biggest challenge and opportunity. Our goal is to make sure that everyone is satisfied and communicated with on a daily basis,” Clapsaddle says.
About Lane Clapsaddle
Clapsaddle began his aviation career in 1976 in the U.S. Air Force as an aircraft maintenance technician. After serving four years in the Air Force, he earned an A&P designation and a degree in aviation maintenance from Trident Technical College in Charleston SC. He went to work for Garrett Aviation, now StandardAero, in 1986 as an aircraft technician. He has held positions of aircraft technician, crew chief, customer support project manager and for the past eight years as the worldwide pre-buy sales manager contact for brokers and dealers. He can be contacted by e-mail at lane.clapsaddle@standardaero.com and by phone at 281.233.4102.
About StandardAero – standardaero.com
StandardAero is one of the world's largest independent providers of services including engine and airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul, engine component repair, engineering services, interior completions and paint applications. StandardAero serves a diverse array of customers in business and general aviation, airline, military, helicopter, components, energy and VIP completions markets. A Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) company, StandardAero provides a global service network of 13 primary facilities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Singapore and Australia, along with an additional 50 sales and field service locations. StandardAero is a member of the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA).
About NARA – NARAaircraft.com
NARA is a professional trade association comprised of selected aircraft sales and brokerage businesses that are NARA Certified, and aircraft product/services companies that adhere to the highest professional standards. Promoting the growth and public understanding of the aircraft resale industry, NARA’s members abide by an elite 14-point Code of Ethics that provides standards of business conduct regarding aircraft transactions.