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TWIN COMMANDER AIRCRAFT MAKES THE MOVE EAST

A major milestone has been recorded in Twin Commander Aircraft�s history as the company has moved its physical location and operations across the country from Washington State to North Carolina.

Twin Commander now operates from a large facility in Creedmoor, North Carolina, north of Raleigh. The company is co-located with Aircraft Belts, Inc. and Firstmark Aerospace Corp. All three companies are subsidiaries of Richmond, Virginia-based Firstmark Corporation.

The well-orchestrated move took place over the summer and fall, and involved the transport of parts, tooling, equipment and records by rail and truck. Staff began fulfilling parts orders from Creedmoor in early November prior to completion of the move in mid-December.

�I want to thank everyone in the Twin Commander family�owners and operators and our product and service partners�for their patience and support during the arduous process of moving the company,� Twin Commander Aircraft President Matt Isley commented. �The success of the transition is due in large part to the hard work put in by our factory-authorized Service Center network. During the relocation process our Twin Commander staff members were on the phone constantly with Service Center representatives to make sure that aircraft in the fleet were well-supplied with necessary parts and technical support.�

A great deal had to be accomplished before the first truckload left Arlington, Washington, for Creedmoor. One of the most important tasks was securing FAA approval of the transfer of Twin Commander's Production Certificate from Arlington to Creedmoor�a process that involved a switch from oversight by the FAA's Manufacturing Inspection District Office (MIDO) in Seattle to the agency's Atlanta-based MIDO. The transfer was predicated on a detailed audit of production and quality control processes at Twin Commander's new North Carolina home.

The audit process was ��quite rigorous,� Isley noted, �but at the end of the day the folks at the FAA Atlanta MIDO office were extremely knowledgeable and provided valuable insight into the specific challenges faced by Production Certificate holders in maintaining a robust quality system in today�s environment. The Atlanta MIDO staff was great to work with, and we look forward to working closely with them for years to come,� Isley said.

�As a Type Certificate holder, it is very important that we continue to manufacture parts that meet or exceed the original FAA-approved design requirements of the aircraft. The Production Certificate application process challenged us to rethink and improve some of our long-established processes, which ultimately will result in an even higher quality product for Commander owners. This was such a big accomplishment for our team. Everyone has worked for months to prepare for this and I feel like we really put our best foot forward with the FAA. I am really proud of everyone.�

All parts inventory and shipping and administration activities now originate in Creedmoor. Geoffrey Pence, who handles FAA and technical issues for the company, remains in Arlington, Washington. The change in venues should be seamless to Twin Commander owners and operators, whose primary point of contact should be their factory authorized Service Center.

Meet the Staff: Brian Harbaugh

It's one thing to move a household; it's quite another to move an entire company. When Twin Commander Aircraft LLC relocated to Creedmoor, North Carolina, this past summer and fall, the task of coordinating the move fell to Brian Harbaugh, Inside Sales Manager.

Harbaugh came to Twin Commander from Aircraft Belts, Inc., like Twin Commander a Firstmark Corporation subsidiary based at Creedmoor. Prior to the move to Creedmoor he spent months working with Twin Commander veteran Kara Rel to transition into his new role, which focuses on parts sales to service centers. �I was learning the business while moving the business,� he says. �We have inventory here in Creedmoor for somewhere between 4,000 to 6,000 part numbers,� Harbaugh says. Orders for any of those parts can be fulfilled immediately, he adds. If a needed part is not in inventory, Twin Commander has the capability to source it from a vendor.

Moving all of those parts from Arlington to North Carolina was just one of the challenges Harbaugh faced. Twin Commander Aircraft owns the Type Certificate to all piston and turboprop Twin Commander models�every drawing produced, every piece of tooling used to manufacturer the airplanes over the years. Packing all of that up, along with the extensive parts inventory, and moving it across the country was no small task indeed.

The move was done in stages. The first to ship was tooling, followed by drawings and intellectual property. Parts were next up, and the final shipments involved office furniture and miscellaneous items.

It took 17 containers, each 53-feet long, to ship everything from Arlington, according to Harbaugh. Nearly half of the containers were filled with some 275,000 pounds of tooling. All tooling and parts were shipped by rail except for longer extrusions, which were trucked across the country.

A certificated private pilot, Harbaugh was Marketing and Customer Service Manager with Aircraft Belts before joining Twin Commander. Previously he was a plant manager at Static Control Components, a strategic commodities buyer with Blount Forestry Division, and a production manager for Buehler Motors. His earlier experience includes a tenure with Pratt & Whitney as a Hot Section Technician on the F100, F220, and F229 engine programs.

Harbaugh was born in Canton, Ohio. His family moved to Florida when he was 11, and he lived there for the next 16 years before moving to North Carolina. He is married and has a 14-year-old son.

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