COMMANDER DOCTOR: Mike Merek Spent a Career Maintaining a Fleet

Pilots came and went, but mechanic Mike Merek was always there.

Merek spent 26 years in federal service managing and fixing various military and government airplanes and helicopters. But it was his 22 years with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration managing a fleet of aircraft that included Twin Commanders that fully ingratiated him into the community. Merek recently retired from NOAA, but he retains fond memories of his time spent working for the agency and on Twin Commanders.

“My whole experience in aviation has been nothing but positive,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate.”

Merek said his interest in maintenance started at a young age. At 10 years old he started an informal bike shop in his garage to take care of his brothers’ and sister’s bikes and help the neighborhood kids. He was the kind of kid who took the lawnmower apart to see how it worked. “Maintenance was always in my blood.”

His federal service began in the Coast Guard in 1980, where he was assigned to helicopters. After four years he decided to get out and start his own shop at Merrill Field in Anchorage, Alaska. There he worked on everything from Lake Amphibians to a local Part 135’s Cessna 206s. He also worked on the airport manager’s airplane, which led to a lot of referrals. When someone needed help and turned to the airport manager, Merek got the call.

Some environmental improvements at the airport made his shop basically unusable, and he sold the business and took a job with the Alaska Air National Guard maintaining their fleet of six Twin Otters. One drill weekend a NOAA Twin Otter was on base, and he decided to sic his crew on it. They did such a good job that the next thing he knew he was working for NOAA and transferred to Miami. “I grew up in South Jersey,” he said. “I can live anywhere.”

NOAA had two Twin Commander 500s when he was hired. That was cut to one after an accident, and soon after he said the government gave it away. But they were replaced by two 695As that over a few decades have served the agency well. With Merek’s retirement NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center was worried there wouldn’t be anyone able to maintain N45RF, the agency’s last remaining Twin Commander. But it hasn’t been up for auction yet, so there’s a chance the plan has changed.

The mission for N45RF is highly specialized. Over 800 to 1,000 hours of flying a year the team flies in the northern United States surveying snow levels in an effort to measure everything from climate change to potential flooding in the spring. But the fleet is based at NOAA’s aviation headquarters in Lakeland. That led to some challenging logistics over the years, and although Merek didn’t always travel with the airplane, he spent many nights on the road from Fairbanks to Fargo doing various line maintenance.

For 150-hour inspections and above, NOAA turned to Eagle Creek Aviation. They are centrally located where most of the flying occurred, and the NOAA office in charge of the scientific program was in Minnesota, so for Merek it made a lot of sense. The Twin Commander Factory Authorized Service Center helped drop-ship parts, performed the inspections, and even did a major avionics upgrade in Naples, Florida, when Eagle Creek formerly owned the Naples Jet Center.

After 22 years at NOAA Merek has decided to move on. He’s giving back and teaching the next generation at the International Aerotech Academy in Lakeland. He’s now a proud participant of the classic retirement paradox: “Now that I’m retired, I have a job that’s eight minutes door to door.”

NOAA also is moving on, to specialized Beechcraft King Air 350ERs. The head of the office decided to try and consolidate all the scientific missions onto one platform. Merek said he thinks it’s a mistake, and that nothing can replace the work the Twin Commander was able to perform. “The industry and Twin Commander have been very good to me,” he said.