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Engines To Airframe, EAM Cares
For Twin Commanders

With some 70 years of combined experience working at Honeywell’s TPE331 engine division in Phoenix, you would expect that the principals who started Executive Aircraft Maintenance at Scottsdale Airport would focus on—you got it—TPE331 engines. And that’s just what they did. But a funny thing happened on the way to success: Executive Aircraft Maintenance (EAM) also became an active and aggressive Twin Commander Service Center. Today the company counts some 40 Twin Commander owners and operators around the Southwest and in Mexico as regular customers.

EAM was founded in 2002 when retired Honeywell executives Jim Nordstrom, John Phoenix, and Mike Croye bought the maintenance portion of Executive Aircraft Services, which was based in the original FBO building on the west side of Scottsdale Airport (SDL). Their plan was to grow the business by concentrating on turboprop engine service and repair. With Honeywell TPE331 Major Service Center authorization in hand, they did just that.

They also inherited authorization as a Twin Commander Service Center, and soon saw that part of the business begin to grow. EAM expanded in other areas as well, adding Honeywell TFE731 and general aviation APU Line service authorization and other engine capabilities, and expanding physically as well.

They quickly outgrew the original facility, and opened a machine shop in a separate building in nearby Scottsdale Airpark. The offices and airframe maintenance were moved across the field, then relocated again back on the west side, this time to new executive offices and a spacious new midfield hangar for airframe maintenance.

EAM opened a satellite facility in 2005 at the Ted Stevens Anchorage, Alaska, Airport (ANC) that specializes in engine maintenance, and more recently took over the maintenance shop at Lux Air, the FBO at fast-growing Glendale Airport (GEU) in suburban Phoenix. In fact, there are plans to build two new maintenance hangars for EAM on the Glendale airport sometime in the next year or so.

The Anchorage facility maintains engines on several Alaska-based Twin Commanders, as well as a broad array of TPE331-powered utility aircraft. However, the center of EAM’s Twin Commander activity is at the Scottsdale base.

“We have customers in Arizona (the state’s Department of Transportation operates a Grand Renaissance that EAM maintains), California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Mexico,” says Phoenix, who is vice president of sales. EAM also has earned EASA accreditation and has been approved by both the Mexican DGAC and Argentina to provide services to those countries.

With impressive new facilities; highly experienced and trained technicians; a fully-equipped airframe inspection, maintenance, and repair shop; and the capability to inspect, repair, and overhaul TPE331 engines, EAM has everything it takes to function as a full-service factory-authorized Twin Commander Service Center, and then some. EAM has developed something of a specialty in doing on-site repairs for AOG airplanes. EAM technicians don’t hesitate to grab tools and an airline ticket to travel to assist a stranded customer.

“We do a lot of road trips,” notes Jim Morrison, another Honeywell veteran who heads program development for EAM. “We recently went to Ely, Nevada, to repair an airplane that a truck had run into.” EAM also has dispatched technicians to the Bahamas and Central America, among other far-flung destinations, for emergency repairs.

“We’ve made a conscious decision to do what it takes to take care of the customer,” Morrison says. “A lot of opportunity comes our way because we answer the phone twenty-four-seven, and we have loyal customers as a result.”

EAM’s Twin Commander capabilities include airframe inspection, maintenance, and repair, Grand

Renaissance completions, and TPE331 Dash 10T engine conversions.

The aircraft maintenance shop, under the direction of Rob Louviaux, who has 19 years of Commander experience, specializes in periodic inspections, spar inspections, landing gear overhaul, pressurization troubleshooting and repair, Zyglo/Magaflux inspections, major sheet metal repairs, service bulletin and airworthiness directive compliance, paint and interior, lead acid and Nicad battery service, logbook research, pre-buy inspections on Commanders and other TPE331-and TFE731-powered aircraft, and avionics installations. The company has two full-service avionics shops, one at the Glendale Airport and the other at Scottsdale. EAM is a Honeywell and Garmin avionics dealer as well.

Engine shop capabilities include engine overhauls, CAM’s, gearbox and hot sections, FOD repair, prop-strike repairs, low power repairs, and any limited repairs. Rental engines are available as required. The company also has an aerospace machining center that provides detail repairs for engine and airframe components. Each area of the business has been staffed with factory trained and customer-oriented associates.

“We pride ourselves on being innovative, creative, and aggressive towards providing our customers with the best possible value, product integrity, and the lowest cost of maintenance by utilizing factory parts and in-house repairs,” says EAM President Jim Nordstrom.

For more information visit EAM’s website at www.eamaz.com, or call them at 480-991-0900 or 866-991-0905; fax: 480-991-3067. The company’s address is Executive Aircraft Maintenance, Inc., Scottsdale Municipal Airport, 8014 E. McClain Drive #135, Scottsdale, AZ 85260.

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